Paleoethnobotany And Agriculture Across The Transition From The Late Neolithic To The Bronze Age In Northern China

The research explores the transformation of agriculture from the Neolithic Period to the Bronze Age in Shandong, northern China from a paleoethnobotanical perspective. As a case study, I examine the differences between the plant remains, mainly agricultural products and byproducts from two sites, Liangchengzhen (LCZ) of the Longshan period (ca. 3000 - 2000 B.C.) and Daxinzhuang (DXZ) of the Bronze Age Shang Dynasty (1600-1046 B.C.). The transformation to the Shang in China represents intensification of existing socioeconomic processes as well as the development of new institutions. In order to search an analogy, comparisons of this transformation and the paleoethnobotanical results from the American bottom and the middle Andes areas are conducted.This thesis consists of five chapters. Chapter 1 is the introduction to the research, presenting the research objectives, reviewing the history of paleoethnobotany in China and North America, summarizing the site information which includes the present ecology, field work and research history, and chronology, cultural contexts of the periods understudy. The terminology is presented in this chapter, too. Chapter 2 provides the research methodology conducted to get the research data. Chapter 3 illustrates the archaeobotanical data from DXZ site, summarizing ecological characters, document records and archaeological finds of each taxon from other sites in East Asia and sometimes involves areas beyond. The identification criteria are concerned in this chapter, with data on seeds size. Chapter 4 is the statistics data of the seeds from DXZ sites, including ubiquity indices, standard density and relative percents. Finally, Chapter 5 discusses the result and offers the comparison between DXZ and LCZ, and the conclusion focuses on patterns of the agriculture transformation underlying the rise of the state in Shandong area, and a search for analogy with the paleoethnobotanical remains from the American bottom and the middle Andes areas.Little is known about the paleoethnobotany of the Bronze Age (ca. 2070-221B.C.) all around China. Although macro floral remains from individual sites of the period have been analyzed on a site-per-site basis, for example, Taosi, Zaojiaoshu, Zhouyuan, there has been no systematic documentation of archaeologically recovered plant remains for either the central plain or the adjacent and far-reaching areas. Most researches about the agriculture of the Shang dynasty rely on the oracle bone inscriptions and the archaeological finds including plant remains randomly collected with naked eyes. One of the objectives of this study is to at least partially rectify this absence of data.In my research, about 200 floatation samples from the Daxinzhuang site mainly of the Shang period, which is one of the first historical sites that has had systematic floatation conducted on, are examined, representing a food complex deriving from plants. The research provides the first systematic archaeobotanical analysis of crops and weeds as well as other plant remains from the Shang dynasty in China. It is demonstrated that people had multiple cropping of foxtail and broomcorn millets, rice, wheat, soybean and hemp in Shandong area of the Shang dynasty. Wild soybean and beefsteak plant were probably also served as food resource, as well as the young plants of chenopods, knotweeds, etc. Fruits and nuts were minor parts of food from plants, as well as tubers. Low density of charcoal from each sample and the seeds taxa indicate an open area for agricultural fields, with rivers around the site. People might have access to woods from the mountains not far away the site.Statistics Analysis of different phases and different contexts shows certain patterns of the plant remains distribution. Millets were most common through the Shang period in DXZ site, with addition of rice and wheat. In the middle Shang period, the richness and ubiquity of cultigens were certainly higher than previous period. In the Early Late Shang phase, there were an increase of density and percentage of cultigens, and a decline of weeds, as well as a higher frequency of rice remains. In the Late phase of Late Shang, the richness of cultigens declined and the richness/ubiquity of weeds increased to the similar ratio of the Middle Shang period. Besides, the number of crop species reduced. It seems the agriculture in the Early Late Shang phase reached a climax at the DXZ site. I try to analyze the background of these changes of time, and find out that they were mostly related to the cultural and political factors rather than the climate changes.Context variation analysis indicates most plant remains were secondary deposits. It is tried to relate the rare species, e.g. rice and wheat, to the special section of social population, by examining the valuable artifacts from the same context. It is shown that millets were involved in the diet of all the people of different social status, while rice and wheat were mainly related to the value deposits like oracle bones, bronze, etc. which indicates that the elite people had more consumption access to these rare species. On the other hand, in the deposit area, the richer the valuable artifacts were, the more species of plant food were found. People of higher status enjoyed a richer menu of plant food than people of lower status.The study tries to document any changes in the plant record during the transition from late Neolithic to the Bronze Age. Several sites of the Longshan culture, of the late Neolithic Period in Shandong, northern China, have been excavated with the systematic floatation work. Some preliminary results have been reported, presenting a sketch of the early agriculture in Northern China. Liangchengzhen is the first site of which have been dealt with paleoethnobotany and the results have come out in the paleoethnobotany lab in the University of Toronto and the lab in the institute of archaeology of Chinese Academy of Social Sciences at Beijing. The materials from LCZ are studied with the view to comparing the remains to that of the DXZ site in my research, to determine the degree to which plant use changes in Shandong area over time.According to the ubiquity indices, standard density and relative percents, weeds declined dramatically in the DXZ Shang period site, which means that people paid more attention on their farming work than in the Longshan period. As far as the cultigens concerned, DXZ site has more crop species and the production of each species increased. Even though the climate and geography did not favor the rice farming in the DXZ site, we see an increase of rice remains in the site. Few wheat grains are found in the LCZ site, and the richness/frequency of wheat are higher in the DXZ site. The crop choices might have been influenced by the arriving of Shang culture and the need of political control.At the end, there is a search for analogy with the paleoethnobotanical remains from American bottom and middle Andes areas.