Foothills and intermountain basins: Does China's Fertile Arc have ‘Hilly Flanks’?

Abstract

In 2009, Liu and colleagues considered the parallels in topographic context between early farming sites in Southwest Asia and those in North China associated with millet cultivation. This paper extends the geography of this conceptual framework by moving south of the Qinling Mountains-Huai River divide, incorporating sites in South China that are associated with the beginnings of rice exploitation. We highlight the continuous mountain chains running from the Greater Khingan range in the northeast to the Nanling Mountains in the south that give form to China's Fertile Arc. Key sites in the northern part of the Arc are situated along China's ‘Hilly Flanks’ while southern sites are located in a diverse array of landforms including piedmont plains and intermountain basins. A parallel can be drawn in the context of early land choice ecological opportunism between the Fertile Crescent and China's Fertile Arc.