Early Agriculture Research Articles

Vegetation and climate changes within and around the Polistovo-Lovatskaya mire system (Pskov Oblast, north-western Russia) during the past 10,500 years

Palaeoenvironmental conditions during the last 10,500 years cal bp are reconstructed for the vicinity of the Polistovo-Lovatskaya mire system in Pskov Oblast (administrative division), Russia, using the latest data from pollen and plant macrofossil records, ash content, radiocarbon dating and the moisture index of samples obtained from the Kokorevskoe peat core in the central part of that mire system. Comparing the results of this study with earlier data obtained from neighbouring sites in southern Estonia, northern Belarus and central Russia indicates a great similarity of the main patterns of vegetation changes throughout the Holocene. Certain distinctions were also observed along this longitude associated with changing climate and local post-glacial processes. The vegetation dynamics of the Polistovo-Lovatskaya mire system during the Holocene have specific features, such as a late increase in the pollen records of broadleaved trees (Quercus, Tilia, Fraxinus and Ulmus) at ca. 7,500 cal bp, with a maximum at ca. 3,500–2,500 cal bp. Four crucial time periods for the appearance and development of early agriculture were identified: the first cultivation signs (ca. 4,200 cal bp), an increase during the Iron Age (2,500–2,300 cal bp), an increase during the Slav colonization (ca. 1,000 cal bp) and further expansion after 400 cal bp. Corresponding changes in forest composition in the region were also observed. The climatic reconstruction revealed several features which are known all over northern Europe in the Holocene, for example the “event of 9,400 years bp”, “event of 8,200 years bp” and a sharp increase of temperature at 7,700 cal bp.

Early agriculture at the crossroads of China and Southeast Asia: Archaeobotanical evidence and radiocarbon dates from Baiyangcun, Yunnan

We report archaeobotanical results from systematic flotation at what is presently the earliest Neolithic site with hard evidence for crop cultivation in the Southwestern Chinese province of Yunnan, at the site of Baiyangcun. Direct AMS dates on rice and millet seeds, included together in a Bayesian model, suggests that sedentary agricultural occupation began ca. 2650 BCE, with cultivation of already domesticated rice (Oryza sativa), broomcorn millet (Panicum miliaceum), and foxtail millet (Setaria italica). Soybean (Glycine cf. max) was also present and presumably cultivated, although it still resembles its wild progenitor in terms of seed size. Additional possible cultivars include melon (Cucumis melo) and an unknown Vigna pulse, while wild gathered resources include fruits and nuts, including hawthorn (Crateagus) and aquatic foxnut (Euryale ferox). Weed flora suggests at least some rice was cultivated in wet (flooded or irrigated fields), while dryland weeds may derive from millet fields. This subsistence system persisted throughout the site's occupation, up to ca. 2050 BCE. These data provide secure evidence for the spread of Chinese Neolithic crops to Yunnan, and provide new evidence for reconstructing possible sources of cereal agriculture in mainland Southeast Asia.

From early agriculture to future farming

From early agriculture to future farming

Encouraging the Next Generation of Farmers

First paragraphs:Last summer, I was viewing one of the early morning agriculture news TV programs. One of the commentators stated that he is routinely asked for advice he has for young farmers. His advice: find a specialized market, such as organic, and sell direct-to-consumer. Interesting advice on a program intended for large commodity farms.The book Letters to a Young Farmer: On Food, Farming, and Our Future presumes that its intended audience has already made the decision to sell direct-to-consumer. Many beginning farmers have. We’ve all seen the increase in small farms in the U.S. over the past several years. Now it’s official. As reported in The Washington Post, the most recent Census of Agriculture found an increase in the number of farmers under 35 years old (Dewey, 2017). Many of these young farmers are new to farming, did not grow up on a farm, and are work­ing small, diversified farms using organic methods....

Landscapes of Prehistoric Northwestern Sichuan: From Early Agriculture to Pastoralist Lifestyles

ABSTRACTWe describe a preliminary survey of a relatively unknown part of the eastern Himalayas: northwestern Sichuan. This survey revealed that three phases of occupation are represented across the landscape. Large settlements with dense remains characterize the landscape during the Neolithic (3400–2000 cal b.c.). Following a hiatus in occupation, stone-cist graves characterize the region during the Bronze Age (1450–800 cal b.c.). The lack of settlement remains from this period indicates that mobile pastoralism increased in importance. Finally, between a.d. 500 and 1500, dense scatters of ceramics over a wide altitudinal range correspond to a fragmentation in Tibetan history, when local warlords established themselves in the region. While some changes in occupation and subsistence practices are linked to climate change, others relate to changes in political power. We argue that further survey work is needed to expand our understanding of past land use and the development of pastoralist practices.

Contrasting patterns of prehistoric human diet and subsistence in northernmost Europe

Current archaeological evidence indicates the transition from hunting-fishing-gathering to agriculture in Northern Europe was a gradual process. This transition was especially complex in the prehistoric North Fennoscandian landscape where the high latitude posed a challenge to both domestic animal breeding and cereal cultivation. The conditions varied, the coastal dwellers had access to rich marine resources and enjoyed a milder climate due to the Gulf Stream, while those living in the inland Boreal forest zone faced longer and colder winters and less diversity in animal and plant resources. Thus, the coastal area provided more favourable conditions for early agriculture compared to those found inland. Interestingly, a cultural differentiation between these areas is archaeologically visible from the late 2nd millennium BC onwards. This is most clearly seen in regionally distinct pottery styles, offering unique opportunities to probe diet and subsistence through the organic residues preserved in ceramic vessels. Herein, we integrate the lipid biomarker, compound-specific stable carbon isotopes (δ13C), and zooarchaeological evidence to reveal culturally distinct human diets and subsistence patterns. In northern Norway, some of the coastal people adopted dairying as part of their subsistence strategy, while the inhabitants of the interior, in common with northern Finland, continued their hunter-gatherer-fisher lifestyles.

Early-middle Holocene climatic and environmental changes in the Nile delta and implications for early agriculture

对尼罗河三角洲平原东北部一个古埃及文化遗址（Kom El-Khilgan）1.5 m长的沉积物剖面KH1开展14C测年、沉积物粒度和孢粉分析.根据岩性、粒度和测年等结果综合判定：剖面150~100 cm地层为早全新世河流相沉积；100~27 cm地层为早、中全新世（8000-4000 cal a BP）三角洲冲积平原沉积，其中涵盖了古埃及前王朝至古王国时期（6500-4131 cal a BP）的人类活动信息；27~0 cm为现代表土层.孢粉分析结果反映了在距今8000~4000 a期间：1）研究区气候由湿润过渡为温和，最后趋于干旱；2）随着气候变干，尼罗河上游水文变化对三角洲环境影响减小，研究区由沼泽湿地逐渐过渡为干草甸环境，更多的土地可以被人类利用；3）常被用来指示农业活动的>35 μm禾本科、陶器碎片和炭屑的出现并逐渐增加，表明该遗址附近的人类农业活动始于距今6500 a左右，并持续至距今4000 a前后.上述证据表明尼罗河三角洲全新世早-中期湿润向干旱过渡的气候驱动了人类农业活动的开展.本研究为进一步探讨尼罗河三角洲古文明对环境适应性研究提供了科学依据.

New methods and progress in research on the origins and evolution of prehistoric agriculture in China

China is one of the main global centers of origin of agriculture. Foxtail millet (Setaria italica), common millet (Panicum miliaceum), and rice (Oryza sativa) were the first crops to be domesticated in China. There remain many uncertainties and controversies in our current understanding of the chronology, locations, and plant types at the origins and the process of evolution of prehistoric millet and rice farming, and their relationships with climate change and human adaptation. This review summarizes the research progress made by Chinese scientists over the last decade on the origins and evolution of prehistoric agriculture. It highlights novel techniques and methods for identifying early crop remains, including plant macrofossils (carbonized seeds, spikelets), microfossils (phytoliths, calciphytoliths, starch, pollen), and biomarkers; new evidence on the origins, development, and spread of early agriculture; and research related to climate and environmental changes. Further, we pinpoint and discuss existing challenges and potential opportunities for further in-depth investigation of the origins and evolution of agriculture and the adaption of human activities to climate change.

Palaeoenvironmental reconstruction of the alluvial landscape of Neolithic Çatalhöyük, central southern Turkey: The implications for early agriculture and responses to environmental change

Archaeological discussions of early agriculture have often used the Neolithic village of Çatalhöyük in central southern Turkey as a key example of the restricting effect of environment on agricultural production and organization. Central to these discussions is the palaeoenvironmental reconstruction of the landscape surrounding the site. This paper presents an important new dataset from an intensive coring programme undertaken between 2007 and 2013 in the immediate environs of the site, designed to improve significantly the spatial resolution of palaeoenvironmental data. Using sediment analyses including organic content, magnetic susceptibility, particle size, total carbon and nitrogen contents and carbon isotope analysis, coupled with 3D modelling, we are able to present a new reconstruction of the palaeotopography and sedimentary environments of the site. Our findings have major implications for our understanding of Neolithic agricultural production and social practice.We present four phases of environmental development. Phase 1 consists of the final phases of regression of Palaeolake Konya in the later parts of the Pleistocene, dominated by erosion due to wind and water that created an undulating surface of the marl deposited in the palaeolake. Phase 2 occurs in the latest Pleistocene and early Holocene, and indicates increased wetness, probably characteristic of a humid anabranching channel system, in which there are localized pockets of wetter conditions. In Phase 3a, this infilling continues, producing a flatter surface, and there are fewer pockets being occupied by wetter conditions. The fluvial régime shifts from humid to dryland anabranching conditions. The earliest period of occupation of the Neolithic East Mound coincides with this phase. Phase 3b coincides with the shift of occupation to the West Mound in the Chalcolithic, when there is evidence for a very localized wetter area to the southeast of the West Mound, but otherwise a continuation of the dryland anabranching system. Finally, Phase 4 shows a shift to the pre-modern style of fluvial environment, modified by channelization. This reanalysis demonstrates the importance of extensive spatial sampling as part of geoarchaeological investigations.With this new evidence we demonstrate that the landscape was highly variable in time and space with increasingly dry conditions developing from the early Holocene onwards. In contrast to earlier landscape reconstructions that have presented marshy conditions during the early Holocene that impacted agriculture, we argue that localized areas of the floodplain would have afforded significant opportunities for agriculture closer to the site. In this way, the results have important implications for how we understand agricultural practices in the early Neolithic.

Intensified Foraging and the Roots of Farming in China

In an accompanying paper (Journal of Anthropological Research 73(2):149–80, 2017), the authors assess current archaeological and paleobiological evidence for the early Neolithic of China. Emerging trends in archaeological data indicate that early agriculture developed variably: hunting remained important on the Loess Plateau, and aquatic-based foraging and protodomestication augmented cereal agriculture in South China. In North China and the Yangtze Basin, semisedentism and seasonal foraging persisted alongside early Neolithic culture traits such as organized villages, large storage structures, ceramic vessels, and polished stone tool assemblages. In this paper, we seek to explain incipient agriculture as a predictable, system-level cultural response of prehistoric foragers through an evolutionary assessment of archaeological evidence for the preceding Paleolithic to Neolithic transition (PNT). We synthesize a broad range of diagnostic artifacts, settlement, site structure, and biological remains to devel...

Quantifying the effects of land use and climate on Holocene vegetation in Europe

Early agriculture can be detected in palaeovegetation records, but quantification of the relative importance of climate and land use in influencing regional vegetation composition since the onset of agriculture is a topic that is rarely addressed. We present a novel approach that combines pollen-based REVEALS estimates of plant cover with climate, anthropogenic land-cover and dynamic vegetation modelling results. This is used to quantify the relative impacts of land use and climate on Holocene vegetation at a sub-continental scale, i.e. northern and western Europe north of the Alps. We use redundancy analysis and variation partitioning to quantify the percentage of variation in vegetation composition explained by the climate and land-use variables, and Monte Carlo permutation tests to assess the statistical significance of each variable. We further use a similarity index to combine pollen-based REVEALS estimates with climate-driven dynamic vegetation modelling results. The overall results indicate that climate is the major driver of vegetation when the Holocene is considered as a whole and at the sub-continental scale, although land use is important regionally. Four critical phases of land-use effects on vegetation are identified. The first phase (from 7000 to 6500 BP) corresponds to the early impacts on vegetation of farming and Neolithic forest clearance and to the dominance of climate as a driver of vegetation change. During the second phase (from 4500 to 4000 BP), land use becomes a major control of vegetation. Climate is still the principal driver, although its influence decreases gradually. The third phase (from 2000 to 1500 BP) is characterised by the continued role of climate on vegetation as a consequence of late-Holocene climate shifts and specific climate events that influence vegetation as well as land use. The last phase (from 500 to 350 BP) shows an acceleration of vegetation changes, in particular during the last century, caused by new farming practices and forestry in response to population growth and industrialization. This is a unique signature of anthropogenic impact within the Holocene but European vegetation remains climatically sensitive and thus may continue to respond to ongoing climate change.

Anthropogenic Soil Change in Ancient and Traditional Agricultural Fields in Arid to Semiarid Regions of the Americas

Soils form the foundation for agriculture and are changed by farming through active management and unintentionally. Soil change from agriculture ranges from wholesale transformation to ephemeral and subtle modification. The archaeological record of early agricultural systems holds information about soil change on centurial to millennial scales, with important implications for long-term soil condition and land use sustainability. Knowledge of early agricultural management can also be inferred from soils, including farming strategies in dynamic, challenging environments. This paper discusses soil change processes and outcomes mainly using studies of ancient and traditional agriculture in arid regions of the Americas. The potential and limitations of soil change research methods in ancient agriculture are also considered. Soil anthropogenic change involves complex and interactive physical, chemical, and biological processes across a wide range of spatial and time scales. Soil change outcomes in early agriculture relating to soil health and productivity vary from improvement to degradation. Soil productivity improvement commonly resulting from management includes soil-landscape physical stabilization for crops, increased topsoil thickness and plant-available water capacity, and improved soil tilth and fertility. Degradation commonly results from unintentional soil-geomorphic-ecosystem changes that cause accelerated erosion, destabilization of soil structure and compaction, and decreases in plant nutrients and soil fertility. Soil change outcomes vary across space and time in response to complex environmental, agricultural, and social factors.

Early “Neolithics” of China: Variation and Evolutionary Implications

The growth and significance of scientific research into the origins of agriculture in China calls for fresh examination at scales large enough to facilitate explanation of cultural evolutionary processes. The Paleolithic to Neolithic transition (PNT) is not yet well-understood because most archaeological research on early agriculture cites data from the more conspicuous and common early Neolithic sites. In this, the first of two papers, we synthesize a broad range of early Neolithic archaeological data, including diagnostic artifacts, settlement patterns, site structure, and biological remains, to consider agriculture as a system-level adaptive phenomenon. Although farming by this period was already well-established in much of North China and the middle Yangtze River basin, echoes of the foraging past can be found in the persistence of hunting-related artifacts in North China’s Loess Plateau and aquatic-based intensification and vegeculture in South China. Our analysis of the growing body of Chinese data ...

Basket use, raw materials and arguments on early and Middle Holocene mobility in the Fayum, Egypt

The Fayum Neolithic is well-known because the earliest evidence to date for domesticated wheat and barley in Egypt is found in the Fayum depression, north of present day Lake Qarun. Here, in 1924 and 1925, Gertrud Caton-Thompson and Elinor Gardner identified two Neolithic settlements, which they named Kom K and Kom W. The evidence for early agriculture did not derive from these two settlements, however, but from a series of storage pits which Gardner found quite by accident on a high ridge, north of Kom K. What is less well-known is that apart from domesticated wheat and barley this area also yielded evidence for a well-developed basketry technology. Recent fieldwork by the URU Fayum Project (University of California, Los Angeles; Rijksuniversiteit Groningen; University of Auckland) has provided a wealth of new information on the material remains of the Fayum Neolithic including the plant fibre objects. While animal bones and ostrich egg shell have been preserved both on the surface and in stratified deposits, no animal fibre was found. The well-preserved basketry lined storage pits and their content have been used to argue that the Middle Holocene occupation in the Fayum was characterized by a sedentary society. Recent field work has shown that the basket-lined pits were sealed off in a manner that could have enabled long-term caching. This, as well as more recent insights that long term storage does not equal sedentism, leaves the question open the nature of mobility in which Fayum Neolithic society was involved. The question whether the type of materials, basketry techniques and employment can be used as indicators of a way of life, is addressed in conjunction with the results of the interdisciplinary research team as a whole.

Palaeoecology: Agriculture emerges from the calm.

New palaeoecological data from New Guinea reveal that climatic change at the Holocene boundary is unlikely to have driven early agriculture in the region. More nuanced understanding of how humans responded to past climate change could better inform our responses in the future.

Violence and Perimortem Signaling among Early Irrigation Communities in the Sonoran Desert

Violence is common among small-scale societies and often stems from a combination of exogenous and endogenous factors. We suggest that socialization for violence and revenge as a motivation can encourage costly signaling by warriors and contribute to the creation of atypical burials in archaeological contexts. We characterize mortuary patterns among early irrigation communities in the Sonoran Desert of the southwest United States/northwest Mexico (Early Agricultural period: 2100 BC–AD 50) to define normative mortuary practices and identify atypical burials. One of the principle roles the performance of mortuary rituals fulfills is to publicly integrate a shared identity or reinforce social differences within a community. This postmortem negotiation of social identities was likely an important component to ease social tensions in early farming communities. However, atypical burials from these sites appear to represent acts of violence upon the corpse at, or after, the death of the individual that fall outs...

Cereal cultivation from the Iron Age to historical times: evidence from inland and coastal settlements in northernmost Fennoscandia

For several decades researchers have debated when cereal cultivation was introduced to northernmost Europe. Most previous studies have concentrated on sites along the coast or close to major rivers; these are areas well-suited to agriculture and represent routes for people and knowledge transfer, but omit other vast areas suitable for cultivation and sedentary settlement. Here, we present strong evidence of permanent cultivation from ad 480 onwards at a settlement located at the 64th parallel North in northern Sweden, currently situated 30 km inland from the Gulf of Bothnia. This predates the beginning of permanent cultivation at sites along the present coastline mentioned here and in results from previous studies of places at approximately the same latitude. Our results are based on continuous finds of cereal pollen grains at certain sites, selected on the basis of archaeological records, old maps, plus past and present elevations above sea level. We highlight the importance of taking factors into account such as access to waterways, communication routes and coast displacement following land uplift when choosing study sites in order to pinpoint early cultivation and sedentary settlements. We suggest that these results have implications for attempts to resolve the question of the history of early agriculture in other parts of northern Fennoscandia.

Sediments or soils? Multi-scale geoarchaeological investigations of stratigraphy and early cultivation practices at Kuk Swamp, highlands of Papua New Guinea

Kuk Swamp is a globally significant archaeological site of early agriculture in the highlands of Papua New Guinea. Mixed-method and multi-scalar investigations of the stratigraphy and selected feature fills at Kuk were instrumental in determining the character of plant exploitation and agricultural practices there during the early and mid Holocene. In this paper, macro-scale (field recording), meso-scale (X-radiography) and micro-scale (thin section micromorphology) analyses are presented in summary form for a stratigraphic column, as well as for a palaeochannel and palaeosurfaces associated with plant exploitation at c.10,000 cal BP and cultivation at 7000–6400 cal BP. Major and minor stratigraphic units have been characterised, primary and secondary formation processes differentiated, and the anthropic associations of specific stratigraphic units determined, especially in regards to cultivation. The Kuk research highlights several methodological problems with the investigation of early cultivation on allophane-rich soils in tropical environments.

The Metabolic Plant Feedback Hypothesis: How Plant Secondary Metabolites Nonspecifically Impact Human Health

Humans can ingest gram amounts of plant secondary metabolites daily through diet. Many of these phytochemicals are bioactive beyond our current understanding because they act through weak negative biological feedback mechanisms, undetectable in vitro. Homeostatic-type assessments shed light on the evolutionary implications of the human diet from plants, giving rise to the metabolic plant feedback hypothesis. The hypothesis states that ancient diets rich in carbohydrates coincide with bulk dietary phytochemicals that act as nonspecific inhibitors of metabolic and inflammatory processes. Consequently, food-derived phytochemicals are likely to be equally effective as herbal medicines for these indications. In addition to the ubiquitous flavonoids, terpenoids, and fatty acids in the diet, the likely impact of chronic chlorophyll ingestion on human health is discussed, and data on its modulation of blood glucose levels are presented. A major deduction of this hypothesis is that starchy diets lacking plant secondary metabolites are associated with multimorbidity (lifestyle diseases) including obesity, type 2 diabetes, and cardiovascular disease. It is proposed that the intake of leafy vegetables, spices, and herbal remedies rich in phytochemicals matches the transition and genetic adaptation to early agriculture, playing a compensatory role in the mismatch of old genes and new diets.

Emergence of agriculture on the Taman Peninsula, Russia

The temporal and spatial diffusion of early agriculture across Europe from the Fertile Crescent has been widely studied, but data from the Caucasian corridor are still rare. This study shows the first evidence for the cultivation of cereals and anthropogenic fires in southern Russia, between the Black Sea and the Azov Sea, 7000 years ago. It suggests that the Caucasian corridor contributed to the spread of agricultural practices throughout the steppes of Eurasia. This study also shows the strong impact of these practices on the dynamics of local coastal and forested ecosystems.