Abstract
Chinese history is composed of the contest, war, and admixture between the nomads in the north plateau and the farmers in central China. During the Eastern Zhou Period (770–221 BCE), nomadic groups, such as Rong (戎) and Di (狄), occupied the Eurasian Steppes and had frequent contact with the farmer group in Central China according historic records. This created a geographic boundary between the two groups named the agro-pastoral interweaving belt. To explore the impact of ethnic integration and human–animal interaction during the Eastern Zhou Dynasty, carbon and nitrogen stable isotope analysis of humans and animals at the Chongpingyuan site, Shaanxi, was undertaken. The δ13C (mean: -7.9 ± 0.5‰, n = 17) and δ15N values (mean: 8.8 ± 0.6‰, n = 17) for human and pigs (mean δ13C: −8.1 ± 0.5‰; mean δ15N:7.5 ± 0.5‰, n = 2) revealed that they consumed C4-based foods mainly while the δ13C and δ15N values of cattle (−17.6‰, 4.3‰, n = 1), horse (−17.1‰, 4.1‰, n = 1), and sheep (mean: −17.4 ± 1.5‰, 6.0 ± 0.8‰, n = 7) suggest that they relied on C3 plants supplemented with minor C4 plants. Based on the archaeological and historic contexts, we infer that humans at Chongpingyuan survived on an agro-pastoral economy with millet agriculture as the economic foundation. Given the isotopic spacing between humans and animals, we found that pigs contributed to the main sources of animal protein, whereas other animals might have been provisioned for other purposes, such as rituals or properties. In general, no significantly dietary differences between genders and funeral customs are found, but people with abundant burial objects seem to have consumed more animal protein, possibly related to social heterogeneity.
Highlights
The atomic C/N ratios of bone collagen were between 3.1 and 3.4 within the acceptable range of 2.9–3.6 (Ambrose, 1990). It reflected that samples of collagen were not degraded, and they were useable for stable isotope analysis
Considering the fact that there is a long history of millet agriculture in northern Shaanxi (Sheng et al, 2018) and both millets (Panicum miliaceum, Setaria italica) are attributed to C4 plants crops while the local vegetation was dominated by C3 plants (Zhou et al, 2009), we suggest that pigs might have been fed by millet by-products
To better understand the subsistence strategies of local ancestors during the Eastern Zhou Dynasty, stable isotopes from the Chongpingyuan site were compared with data from surrounding archaeological sites, ranging from the West Zhou Period to the Qin and Han Dynasties
Summary
Influenced by the fluctuation of East Asia monsoon and human activities, there was an agro-pastoral ecotone in Northern China (Chen et al, 2010; Shi and Shi, 2018; Damette et al, 2020). There is a lack of direct evidence of human subsistence strategies and human–animal interactions in this region to show the cultural and population interplay between different ethnic groups. The Chongpingyuan site (N36°01, E110°07) is located in Yichuan County of Yan’an City, Shaanxi Province of China (Ding et al, 2018). The characteristics of the funeral objects and chariotand-horse pit (Figure 3) in the Chongpingyuan site were similar to the Central Plains (Li, 2018), but the tomb orientations and the customs of animal sacrifices in some tombs suggested that local ethnic culture might have had an impact on the Chongpingyuan site (Chen, 2020; Sun, 2020).
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