Skip to main content
Log in

Archaeological records of Dadiwan in the past 60 ka and the origin of millet agriculture

  • Articles
  • Geology
  • Published:
Chinese Science Bulletin

Abstract

This paper reports the recent excavation of Unit Dadiwan06 at the Dadiwan site in Qin’an County, Gansu. A 65 ka chronological framework is established for Dadiwan06 on the basis of absolute dating (AMS 14C and OSL), stratigraphy, climate change events and archaeology. Artifact distributions reveal patterns of human behavioral variation and adaptation over the past 60 ka, from primitive hunting and gathering to advanced hunting and gathering, to primitive Neolithic agriculture, and finally to advanced Neolithic agriculture.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Subscribe and save

Springer+ Basic
$34.99 /Month
  • Get 10 units per month
  • Download Article/Chapter or eBook
  • 1 Unit = 1 Article or 1 Chapter
  • Cancel anytime
Subscribe now

Buy Now

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Chang K C. The Archaeology of Ancient China. 4th ed. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1986. 450

    Google Scholar 

  2. Crawford G W. Prehistoric plant domestication in East Asia. In: Cowan C W, Watson P J, eds. The Origins of Agriculture: An International Perspective. Washington: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1992. 7–38

    Google Scholar 

  3. Lu T L D. The Transition from Foraging to Farming and the Origin of Agriculture in China. BAR International Series, 774. Oxford: Archaeopress, 1999. 233

    Google Scholar 

  4. Yan W M. Origins of agriculture and animal husbandry in China. In: Aikens C M, Song N R, eds. Pacific Northeast Asia in Prehistory: Hunter-Fisher-Gatherers, Farmers, and Sociopolitical Elites. Washington: Washington State University Press, 1992. 113–123

    Google Scholar 

  5. Lu H Y, Zhang J P, Liu K B, et al. Earliest domestication of common millet (Panicum miliaceum) in East Asia extended to 10000 years ago. Prol Natl Acad Sci USA, 2009, 106: 7367–7372

    Article  Google Scholar 

  6. Ren S N. The occurrence and development of the pre-historical agriculture in China (in Chinese). Acad Explora, 2005, 6: 110–123

    Google Scholar 

  7. Ji D X. The possible dynamics of the transition from prehistory hunting and gathering to agriculture in Northwest China (in Chinese). Archaeol Relics, 2009, 4: 36–47

    Google Scholar 

  8. Diamond J. Evolution, consequences and future of plant and animal domestication. Nature, 2002, 418: 700–707

    Article  Google Scholar 

  9. Zhao Z J. Recent progress in Chinese archaeobotany (in Chinese). Archaeology, 2005, 7: 42–49

    Google Scholar 

  10. Lu T L D. The microblade tradition in China: Regional chronologies and significance in the transition to Neolithic. Asian Perspec, 1998, 37: 84–112

    Google Scholar 

  11. Xia Z K, Chen F Y, Chen G, et al. Environmental background of evolution from the Paleolithic to Neolithic culture in Nihewan Basin, North China. Sci China Ser D-Earth Sci, 2001, 44: 779–788

    Article  Google Scholar 

  12. Xia Z K, Chen G, Zheng G W, et al. Climate background of the evolution from Paleolithic to Neolithic cultural transition during the last deglaciation in the middle reaches of the Yellow River. Chinese Sci Bull, 2002, 47: 71–75

    Article  Google Scholar 

  13. Bettinger R L, Barton L, Richerson P J, et al. The transition to agriculture in northwestern China. In: Madsen D B, Chen F H, Gao X, eds. Late Quaternary Climate Change and Human Adaptation in Arid China. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 2007. 83–101

    Google Scholar 

  14. Cohen D J. The origins of domesticated cereals and the Pleistocene-Holocene transition in East Asia. Revi Archaeol, 1998, 19: 22–29

    Google Scholar 

  15. Richerson P J, Boyd R, Bettinger R L. Was agriculture impossible during the Pleistocene but mandatory during the Holocene? A climate change hypothesis. Am Antiqu, 2001, 66: 387–411

    Article  Google Scholar 

  16. Tong W H. Original agricultural relics of Cishan site and related problems (in Chinese). Agric Archaeol, 1984, 1:194–207

    Google Scholar 

  17. Henan working team one of IA, CASS. Excavation of the Neolithic site at Peiligang (in Chinese). Acta Archaeol Sin, 1984, 1: 23–52

    Google Scholar 

  18. Zhao Z J. Discussion of arid agriculture origin in North China based on the flotation results from Xinglonggou site (in Chinese). In: Wang R X, ed. Antiquities of East Asia. Beijing: Cultural Relics Press, 2004. 188–199

    Google Scholar 

  19. Crawford G W, Chen X X, Wang J H. Houli Culture rice from the Yuezhuang site, Jinan (in Chinese). In: Sun L, Liu N, eds. Orient Archaeology. Vol.3. Beijing: Science Press, 2006. 247–251

    Google Scholar 

  20. Liu C J, Kong Z C, Lang S D. The crop remains at Dadiwan site and the human subsistence environment investigation (in Chinese). Cul Relics Central China, 2004, 4: 26–30

    Google Scholar 

  21. Lang S D. Settlement pattern of the Dadiwan site in Qin’an County, Gansu, and its evolution (in Chinese). Archaeology, 2003, 6: 83–89

    Google Scholar 

  22. Gansu Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology. Excavation reports of Dadiwan site in Qin’an (in Chinese). Beijing: Cultural Relics Publishing House, 2006

    Google Scholar 

  23. Gansu Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology. Excavation of the settlement of early Yangshao culture at the Dadiwan site in Qin’an County, Gansu (in Chinese). Archaeology, 2003, 6: 19–31

    Google Scholar 

  24. CPAM, Provincial Museum of Gansu. Main achievements made in 1978–1982 during the excavation of Dadiwan site in Qi’an, Gansu (in Chinese). Cult Relics, 1983, 11: 21–30

    Google Scholar 

  25. CPAM, Provincial Museum of Gansu, Dadiwan Excavation Group. Early Neolithic remains at Dadiwan, Qin’an county, Gansu (in Chinese). Cul Relics, 1981, 4: 1–8

    Google Scholar 

  26. CPAM, Dadiwan Excavation Group. A brief report on the excavation of Dadiwan in 1980 (in Chinese). Archaeol Relics, 1982, 2: 1–8

    Google Scholar 

  27. Smith B D. Low-level food production. J Archaeol Res, 2001, 9: 1–43

    Article  Google Scholar 

  28. Barton L, Brantingham P J, Ji D X. Late Pleistocene climate change and Paleolithic cultural evolution in northern China: Implications from the Last Glacial Maximum. In: Madsen D B, Chen F H, Gao X, eds. Late Quaternary Climate Change and Human Adaptation in Arid China. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 2007. 105–128

    Google Scholar 

  29. Ji D X, Chen F H, Bettinger R L, et al. Human response to the Last Glacial Maximum: evidence from northern China (in Chinese). Acta Anthropol Sin, 2005, 24: 270–282

    Google Scholar 

  30. Xie J Y. New discoveries and prospects in Paleolithic archaeology in western and central Gansu Province (in Chinese). Acta Anthropol Sin, 1991, 10: 27–33

    Google Scholar 

  31. Xie J Y, Liu Y L, Ding G X. Paleolithic locality of Shuangbyzi in Zhuanglang, Gansu (in Chinese). In: Deng T, Wang Y, eds. Proceedings of the Eighth Annual Meeting of the Chinese Society of Vertebrate Paleontology. Beijing: Ocean Press, 2001. 219–228

    Google Scholar 

  32. Chen F H, Bloemendal J, Wang J M, et al. High-resolution multi-proxy climate records from Chinese loess: Evidence for rapid climatic changes over the last 75 kyr. Palaeogeogr Palaeocl, 1997, 130: 323–335

    Article  Google Scholar 

  33. Reimer P J, Baillie M G L, Bard E, et al. INTCAL04 terrestrial radiocarbon age calibration, 0–26 CAL tyr BP. Radiocarbon, 2004, 46: 1029–1058

    Google Scholar 

  34. Weninger B, Jöris O. A 14C age calibration curve for the last 60 ka: The Greenland-Hulu U/Th timescale and its impact on understanding the Middle to Upper Paleolithic transition in western Eurasia. J Hum Evol, 2008, 55: 772–781

    Article  Google Scholar 

  35. Zhao H, Chen F H, Li S H, et al. A record of Holocene climate change in the Guanzhong Basin, China, based on optical dating of a loess-palaeosol sequence. Holocene, 2007, 17: 1015–1022

    Article  Google Scholar 

  36. Dearing J. Magnetic susceptibility. In: Walden J, Oldfield F, Smith J, eds. Environmental Magnetism: A Practical Guide No. 6. London: Quaternary Research Association, 1999. 35–62

    Google Scholar 

  37. Wang Y J, Cheng H, Edwards R L, et al. A high-resolution absolute-dated Late Pleistocene monsoon record from Hulu Cave, China. Science, 2001, 294: 2345–2348

    Article  Google Scholar 

  38. Wang Y J, Cheng H, Edwards R L, et al. Millennial- and orbital-scale changes in the East Asian monsoon over the past 224000 years. Nature, 2008, 451: 1090–1093

    Article  Google Scholar 

  39. Chen C. The Microlithic in China. J Anthropol Archaeol, 1984, 3: 79–115

    Article  Google Scholar 

  40. Elston R G, Brantingham P J. Microlithic technology in Northern Asia: A risk-minimizing strategy of the Late Paleolithic and Early Holocene. In: Elston R G, Kuhn S L, eds. Thinking Small: Global Perspectives on Microlithization. Washington D C: American Anthropological Association, 2002. 103–116

    Google Scholar 

  41. Barton L. Early food production in China’s western Loess Plateau. Dissertation for the Doctoral Degree. Davis: University of California, Davis, 2009

    Google Scholar 

  42. Ji D X. Environmental archaeological perspective: Dispersal of anatomically modern humans and the origin of agriculture in northern China-case study in Gansu and Ningxia (in Chinese). Dissertation for the Doctoral Degree. Lanzhou: Lanzhou University, 2007

    Google Scholar 

  43. Barton L, Newsome S D, Chen F H, et al. Agricultural origins and the isotopic identity of domestication in northern China. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA, 2009, 106: 5523–5528

    Article  Google Scholar 

  44. Chen F H, Fan Y X, Chun X, et al. Preliminary research on paleolake Jilantai-Hetao in late Quaternary. Chinese Sci Bull, 2008, 53: 1725–1739

    Article  Google Scholar 

  45. Pachur H J, Wünnemann B, Zhang H C. Lake evolution in the Tengger Desert, northwestern China during the last 40000 years. Quat Res, 1995, 44: 171–180

    Article  Google Scholar 

  46. An Z M. One hundred years of Chinese Microlithic studies (in Chinese). Archaeology, 2000, 5: 45–56

    Google Scholar 

  47. Derev’anko P. The Paleolithic of Siberia: New Discoveries and Interpretations. Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1988. 183–190

    Google Scholar 

  48. Bettinger R L, Barton L, Morgan C. The origins of food production in North China: A different kind of agricultural revolution. Evol Anthropol, 2010, 19: 9–21

    Article  Google Scholar 

  49. Elston R G, Xu C, Madsen D B, et al. New dates for the north China Mesolithic. Antiquity, 1997, 71: 985–994

    Google Scholar 

  50. Madsen D B, Elston R G, Bettinger R L, et al. Settlement patterns reflected in assemblages from the Pleistocene/Holocene transition of North Central China. J Archaeol Sci, 1996, 23: 217–231

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to FaHu Chen or R. L. Bettinger.

About this article

Cite this article

Zhang, D., Chen, F., Bettinger, R.L. et al. Archaeological records of Dadiwan in the past 60 ka and the origin of millet agriculture. Chin. Sci. Bull. 55, 1636–1642 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11434-010-3097-4

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11434-010-3097-4

Keywords

Navigation