Prehistoric agriculture and social structure in the southwestern Tarim Basin: multiproxy analyses at Wupaer

Qingjiang Yang,Yige Bao,Robert Nicholas Spengler,Peter Weiming Jia,Keliang Zhao,Junchi Liu,Xinying Zhou,Xiaoqiang Li

doi:10.1038/s41598-020-70515-y

Abstract

The oasis villages of the Tarim Basin served as hubs along the ancient Silk Road, and they played an important role in facilitating communication between the imperial centers of Asia. These villages were supported by an irrigated form of cereal farming that was specifically adapted to these early oasis settlements. In this manuscript, we present the results from new archaeobotanical analyses, radiocarbon dating, and organic carbon isotopic studies directly from carbonized seeds at the Wupaer site (1500–400 BC) in the Kashgar Oasis of the western Tarim Basin. Our results showed that early farming in the oasis relied on a mixed wheat and barley system, but after 1200 BC was intensified through more elaborate irrigation, the introduction of more water-demanding legumes, and possibly a greater reliance on free-threshing wheat. These crops and the knowledge of irrigated farming likely dispersed into the Tarim Basin through the mountains from southern Central Asia. Improved agricultural productivity in the Tarim Basin may also have led to demographic and socio-political shifts and fed into the increased exchange that is colloquially referred to as the Silk Road.

Highlights

The Tarim Basin is located at the central point of the historic Eurasia trade routes; resting in the rain shadows of the Kunlun and Tianshan mountains, it is one of the driest and least arable areas in Asia
Most scholars believe that exchange along more organized trade routes of the Silk Road began around this time[5,31], and commercial expansion could have fueled greater political organization and population growth in these oases
We present new archaeobotanical data, combined with carbon isotope evidence directly from ancient grains and novel radiocarbon dates from the ruins of the oasis town of Wupaer in the Kashgar Oasis of the western Tarim Basin

Summary

Introduction

The Tarim Basin is located at the central point of the historic Eurasia trade routes; resting in the rain shadows of the Kunlun and Tianshan mountains, it is one of the driest and least arable areas in Asia. Archaeologists have suggested that many of these urbanized oases housed populations of thousands to tens of thousands, with some notable examples including Qiuci, Yumi, Yanqi, and Loulan (Fig. 1)[2,3] Historians refer to these pockets of dense human occupation as the “Western Regions”[2,3]. We present new archaeobotanical data, combined with carbon isotope evidence directly from ancient grains and novel radiocarbon dates from the ruins of the oasis town of Wupaer in the Kashgar Oasis of the western Tarim Basin. These datasets inform important new perspectives on long-standing debates relating to political transitions and demographic shifts at the Bronze/Iron Age Transition in Central Asia. Two major arteries of the ancient Silk Road of the Western Han Dynasty (202 BC–8 AD) joined at Kashgar, tracing the northern and southern margins of the Taklimakan Desert and traversed the Pamir Plateau into Central Asia[38]

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Results

Conclusion