Abstract
The study of human dietary structures is an effective means of elucidating the subsistence patterns of our prehistoric ancestors and can highlight the processes through which humans interacted with the environment. We conducted stable isotope and archeobotanical analyses of human, animal, and plant remains at the Jiangxifen site, dated to ~900–400 BC, to explore human paleodiets and determine the environmental adaptation strategies adopted by humans in the middle valley of the Jinshajiang River in Yunnan Province. Humans predominantly consumed C4 foods (e.g., millet) and C4 food-fed animal protein sources, with smaller contributions from C3 food plants (e.g., rice) and C3 food-fed animal protein sources. We argued that the local dry-hot environment was the reason for the accessibility of C4 plants in the studied area. A comparison of our results with previously published archeobotanical data and isotopic evidence from human bones in other Bronze Age sites in Yunnan Province revealed high spatial variability in diets of human and subsistence strategies during this period. These differences were caused by the highly varying living environment of each region, which was related to fragmentation resulting from the geomorphological features of Yunnan Province.
Highlights
In Eurasia, major changes in subsistence took place during the transition from the Neolithic to the Bronze Age (Dong et al, 2017; Hanks et al, 2018), changes that were profoundly impacted by the emergence and intensification of early trans-Eurasian exchanges (Svyatko et al, 2013; Dong et al, 2020)
The acidic soils in Yunnan Province are unsuitable for macro-fossil preservation, and the animals buried in tombs might not be representative of the prevalent fauna (Yuan, 2015; Hou et al, 2019); this prevents the study of prehistoric subsistence strategies in this area
We urge caution in the interpretation of the C4 signal in humans and animals in this region, even though in North China, C3 food resources in human diets are typically associated with wheat and rice, whereas C4 resources are typically associated with millet (Zhang et al, 2015; Zhou and Garvie-Lok, 2015; Ma et al, 2016; Cheung et al, 2019)
Summary
In Eurasia, major changes in subsistence took place during the transition from the Neolithic to the Bronze Age (Dong et al, 2017; Hanks et al, 2018), changes that were profoundly impacted by the emergence and intensification of early trans-Eurasian exchanges (Svyatko et al, 2013; Dong et al, 2020). The spatial pattern of means of human livelihood in Yunnan Province in Southwest China, another important region for transcontinental exchange during the Bronze Age (Gao et al, 2020), remains unclear. Archeobotanical, zooarcheological, and stable isotope analyses are effective methods for studying human subsistence strategies during prehistoric periods (d’Alpoim Guedes et al, 2014; Ma et al, 2016; Ren et al, 2020). Archeobotanical and stable isotope analyses for Bronze Age sites in Yunnan are scarce, with only limited evidence from a small number of sites, such as Dayingzhuang (Dal Martello et al, 2021), Haimenkou (Xue, 2010), Shilinggang (Li et al, 2016; Ren et al, 2017), Jinlianshan–Xueshan (Zhang, 2011; Wang, 2014), and Mayutian (Zhang et al, 2014). Deep river valleys which include the valleys of the Lancangjiang, Nujiang, and Jinshajiang Rivers, and large lakes characterize this landscape
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