Agriculture and palaeoeconomy in prehistoric Xinjiang, China (3000–200 bc)

Abstract

Many recent studies recognize the crucial role that ancient agropastoralists (pastoralists who also engaged in farming) in Xinjiang played in facilitating dispersal of prehistoric crops across Eurasia. However, most of these studies predominantly relied on only fragments of the much larger amount of data found in local Chinese journals. This article reviews archaeobotanical and stable isotope data published in English and Chinese to construct a new narrative regarding the origin, expansion, diversification and intensification of prehistoric agriculture in the Xinjiang region of China. Compared with many previous multi-regional narratives of crop dispersals that only briefly mention Xinjiang, the regional focus allows this study to discuss the cultivation history of different crops, and the ecological and economic contexts of prehistoric agriculture in Xinjiang in depth. Based on current evidence, this study concludes that agriculture appeared in Xinjiang around 3000 bc under the influence of western Central Asia. Its development started to quicken after 2000 bc and particularly after 1300 bc, which is shown by the expansion of farming areas, the diversification of crops, and the appearance of irrigation technology and various types of farming tools. Nevertheless, throughout this whole period, intensive agriculture was very rare, while low-investment agriculture was widely practised as a component of the local mixed economy based on farming and grazing. This analysis highlights the roles played by ecological, social and cultural factors in the development of prehistoric agriculture in Xinjiang.