Assessing the occurrence and status of wheat in late Neolithic central China: the importance of direct AMS radiocarbon dates from Xiazhai

Zhenhua Deng,Dorian Q Fuller,Lizhi Wang,Xiaolong Chu,Yanpeng Cao,Yuchao Jiang,Houyuan Lu

doi:10.1007/s00334-019-00732-7

Abstract

The introduction of wheat into central China is thought to have been one of the significant contributions of interactions between China and Central Asia which began in the 3rd millennium bc. However, only a limited number of Neolithic wheat grains have been found in central China and even fewer have been directly radiocarbon dated, making the date when wheat was adopted in the region and its role in subsistence farming uncertain. Based on systematic archaeobotanical data and direct dating of wheat remains from the Xiazhai site in central China, as well as a critical review of all reported discoveries of Neolithic and Bronze Age wheat from this region, we conclude that many wheat finds are intrusive in Neolithic contexts. We argue that the role of wheat in the subsistence of the late Neolithic and early Bronze Age of central China was minimal, and that wheat only began to increase in its subsistence role in the later Bronze Age during the Zhou dynasty after ca. 1000 bc.

Highlights

Triticum spp., as an exotic crop, has been the most important dietary staple in northern China for thousands of years
The present paper reports the results of systematic archaeobotanical work at the Xiazhai site in central China and direct dates on wheat grains from there and from another three sites in central China (Fig. 1)
Together with direct dates on late Neolithic wheat grains from some other sites elsewhere in China and a review of early wheat reports without direct dates, we offer an updated assessment of the timing of wheat adoption in central China and its role in the latest Neolithic to early Bronze Age there

Summary

Introduction

Triticum spp. (wheat), as an exotic crop, has been the most important dietary staple in northern China for thousands of years. An additional area of debate is whether the early wheat in China was of little importance for subsistence and just a minor experimental crop (Boivin et al 2012), or if wheat was already important in subsistence and diet (Liu and Jones 2014). Some of this debate, especially in terms of the importance of wheat, may derive from different agricultural patterns in various parts of China, calling for more regionally specific assessments of the evidence

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Conclusion