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Feeding Shimao: Archaeobotanical and Isotopic Investigation into Early Urbanism (4200-3000 BP) on the Northern Loess Plateau, China

Lookup NU author(s): Dr Mike Storozum

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Abstract

© Association for Environmental Archaeology 2021. Renewed excavations at Shimao, the largest stone walled urban site in northern China dating to around 4200–3700 BP, have focused on Shimao’s unusual architecture and material culture, but there remains much to be known about the subsistence system and agricultural strategies the inhabitants employed around this site. In this paper we provide new archaeobotanical and isotopic evidence for the agricultural systems and strategies that supported Shimao and nearby sites, from 5000 to 3000 BP. Our data show that the system gradually shifted from one based on common millet as the main staple—requiring a high level of labour-input—to a system dependent on extensive cultivation of foxtail millet, which is better suited to dryland cultivation in colder environments. We argue that this shift in cultivation coincided with regional climate change, and helped sustain early Bronze Age state societies, which fuelled the rapid emergence of social complexity in the semi-arid and arid area of the northern Loess Plateau from 4200 to 3000 BP.

Publication metadata

Author(s): Sheng P, Shang X, Zhou X, Storozum M, Yang L, Guo X, Zhang P, Sun Z, Hu S, Sun Z, Hu Y

Publication type: Article

Publication status: Published

Journal: Environmental Archaeology

Year: 2021

Pages: Epub ahead of print

Online publication date: 30/11/2021

Acceptance date: 04/11/2021

ISSN (print): 1461-4103

ISSN (electronic): 1749-6314

Publisher: Taylor and Francis Ltd

URL: https://doi.org/10.1080/14614103.2021.2009995

DOI: 10.1080/14614103.2021.2009995

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