| The most important economic character of Neolithic society is that agriculture displace hunting-gathering as the main subsistence stragety and prehistoric human began pay more attention to plant resource utilization. Apart from the cereal crops, forest resource is also very important in providing energy and food in neolithic farmer’s daily life. After the establishment of agriculture production and sedentary lifestyle, neolithic population increased significantly and vegetation landscape was serious disturbed by human activity. With a long neolithic history, the Chinese Loess Plateau(CLP) is one of the origin center of agriculture and its environment especially vegetation landscape was influenced strongly by agricultural activities. The land on the CLP was totally reclamation and its indigent vegetation type during prehistoric period interested researchers most. However, there is still little strong evidence conforming vegetations types and the plant species composition on the CLP and how neolithic farming groups exploit forest resource is also unclear. Besides, we lack high resolution reconstruction of population history on the CLP until now when discussing the interaction between human and environment. It has been argued that Neolithic communities exerted significant impacts on the vegetation landscape through clearence for cultivation, fuel collection for domestic and fruit trees cultivation. In this paper, we use a new method-charcoal analysis-to renconstruct woodland composition and explore the utilization ways of woodland resources from three aspects mentioned above on the CLP. Firstly,based on the large quantaties of charcoal excavated from Shannashuzha site, we get information about prehistoric human fuel-collection strategy. Then we reconstruct the woodland vegetation composition and evolution process based on an assemblage of macro-charcoal remains collected from 24 sites in Zhuanglang County as part of an archaeological survey spans the period from6000 to 3000 calibrated calendrical years(cal) BP. At last we reconstruct the population history and climatic patterns on the CLP during the period 8.5 – 3.5 cal. ka BP using the SummedProbability Method and discuss the relationship between population, resource and environment.The primary conclusions are as follows:1.Twenty-two taxa were identified from 2241 charcoal fragments with a further 50 fragments unidentified at Shannashuzha site. Picea, Pinus, Bambusoideae, Salix, Populus, Quercus and Betula were abundant in many samples although Bambusoideae is probably over-represented due to its high preservation rate. The vegetation around Shannashuzha site had a typical mountain character and the main vegetation types reflected by the charcoal records included conifer forest,mixed broadleaved/conifer forest and river-bank broadleaved forest. This vegetation is similar to modern vegetation and therefore the climate at that time is deemed to be similar to or slightly warmer than today. Collection of wood of small diameter was a purposeful choice by prehistoric humans, which was a accommodation to the hearth and a a reflection of the social organization of a settlement, probably because it was less time-consuming in the study area, which was rich in wood resources. We conclude that in this region, prehistoric people selected firewood depending on not its type but rather on its size(diameter).Charcoal from fruiting taxa found at this site and many other nearby sites indicate that there was a common and long history of fruit utilization by prehistoric people in the Western Loess Plateau.2. In Zhuanglang county, charcoal analysis indicate a great variety of plants between 6000 and 3000 cal BP in the valley area of the western Loess Plateau. The deciduous broad-leaf wood from Quercus, Acer, Ulmus and Betulaceae is very frequent and makes up almost half the total abundance ratio of the represented taxa. The assemblages of charcoal indicate that the deciduous broadleaved trees developed in the valley of the Loess Plateau. Climate is the main controlling factor for forest development. Agricultural activities didn’t have significant influence on woodland vegetation due to the character of the Loess and special way of land use on rain-fed agricultural production. The drought tolerant cereal crop was cultivation on the “Yuan” area, clearence vegetation for cultivation didn’t exert significant impacts on the woodland vegetation which developed in the valley. Compared with grassland vegetation, woodland vegetation is more rare but essential energy and construction material. The woodland resources utilization can be organized and sustainable.3. Fruit was one of food source and the types were diverse. Prunus and Maloideae charcoals increased significantly after 4000 cal yr BP which was not consistent with climate change. It is nearly certain that nuts and berries were an important food resource and that fruit trees were managed by prehistoric humans in the late Neolithic. The anatomical character and stable isotope of charcoal provide a promising method in detecting cultivation and domestication of fruit trees.4. Based on compilation of a large number of archaeological and palaeosol 14C-ages, the Summed Probability Method is used to reconstruct population history and climatic patterns on the Chinese Loess Plateau during the period 8.5-3.5 cal. ka BP. During this period, the population experienced two major expansion periods and several climatic fluctuations. The first population expansion began at around 7.8 cal. ka BP, and the second at around 5.8 cal. ka BP. In addition, we observe three distinct population fluctuations at around 5.4, 4.5 and 3.7 cal. ka BP. Suitable climate between 8.5 and 3.5 cal. ka BP facilitated demographic growth especially for the first period, during which hunting and gathering were the major economic factors. Climate variability had significant impact on population size, and caused a number of population fluctuations. The development of agriculture finally became the major factor, promoting a second population boom when the increasingly intense and diverse agricultural system provided the necessary nutrition to support further population growth. Once the population scale had reached a certain threshold of land capacity, population became more sensitive and fragile to climate fluctuations.On the whole, prehistoric agricultural population guaranteed the supply of food by cultivating cereal crops and some fruit crops, and met the daily demand for energy through the rational utilization of wood resources. It is the rational use of natural resources that coordinated the relationship among population, resources and the environment. So prehistoric society achieved sustainable development and various Neolithic culture flourished on the CLP during Neolithic period.Through the use of new research method, this paper studied the woodland vegetation composition, evolution and exploitation by agricultural population on the western Loess Plateau and reconstructed the development process of the population on the Loess Plateau during the past10000 years, and provided valuable information about the interaction between human and environment. |
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