Dietary shift and the development of millet agriculture in Haidai region of China during the early and middle Neolithic periods (c. 8,300 BP–c. 6,000 BP): Evidence from stable isotopes

Abstract

In this article, we attempt to trace the transformation from a broad-spectrum hunter-gatherer economy to a millet-based production economy during the early and middle Neolithic periods in northern China, especially the changes in the contribution of millet to the human diet structure over time. Here we conducted an AMS-14C dating and carbon and nitrogen stable isotope analysis on human and animal bones spanning the Houli culture period to the Beixin culture period unearthed from the Houli site in the Haidai region, Shandong, China. The results show that the diet of humans living in the Houli culture period contained a small amount of C4 plant food, likely millets. Here, the earliest data of human stable isotopes with direct AMS-14C dating (8,323 cal. BP–8,178 cal. BP) in the Haidai region indicated that primitive millet agriculture originated under the broad-spectrum economic model of hunter-gatherer during c. 8,300 BP at the latest. The diet of humans living in the Beixin culture period (5,987 cal. BP–5,726 cal. BP) contained a large amount of C4 food, likely millet-based food, showing that millet-based agriculture became a dominant part of the production economy in the Haidai region. A dietary shift with gradient millet consumption appeared in the Haidai region of China during the early and middle Neolithic periods (c. 8,300 BP–c. 6,000 BP), indicating that millet agriculture transitioned from a secondary economy strategy to a dominant economy strategy.