Understanding the nature of early agriculture in the Central Plains of China (ca. 2600BC–221BC): Non-urban settlement perspective through archaeobotanical and stable isotope analysis

Abstract

Agriculture constitutes the economic foundation for social complexity and civilization process in ancient China. Agricultural practices of ordinary settlements as the basic unit of society could reflect the overall agricultural production and technology and also a basic guarantee for the sustained development and stable operation of the society. The Central Plains of China witnessed the social transition, the onset and development of state-level societies, urbanization process, and the boom of bronze civilization during the Longshan period to Eastern Zhou (ca. 2600BC–221BC). This study primarily aimed to assess the coping strategies of non-urban settlements and the nature of agriculture in Central Plains during this social transformation and development period. It examined the era’s agricultural strategies by reporting the archeaobotanical remains and stable isotopic data of charred grains and legume seeds from the Huqiugang site, a long-lived settlement lasting from Longshan to Eastern Zhou in this area.Findings show that Huqiugang inhabitants adopted active agricultural strategies to confront the social changes and climate fluctuations during Longshan to Eastern Zhou, including effective adjustment of the crop structure, improved crop management and expansion of the agrarian field to cultivate multiple crops. Combined with archaeobotanical remains and stable isotope values of charred plant remains from ordinary contemporaneous sites in the Central Plains, the characteristics of agriculture in non-urban settlements during Longshan to Eastern Zhou in the Central Plains are revealed, including stability of diversified crop patterns, innovation of agricultural technology, and flexibility of agricultural practices, which all contributed to the sustainability of agriculture in this area. Sustainable agriculture provided the economic guarantee of social resilience in the period of social transformation and development in the Central Plains, and was the important driving force for the emergence and development of state-level society, urbanization, and the prosperity of bronze civilization in the Central Plains during Longshan to Eastern Zhou.