ALBERT

Beschreibung: A total of 51,074 archaeological sites from the early Neolithic to the early Iron Age ( c . 8000–500 BC), with a spatial extent covering most regions of China ( c . 73–131°E and c . 20–53°N), were analysed over space and time in this study. Site maps of 25 Chinese provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities, published in the series ‘Atlas of Chinese Cultural Relics’, were used to extract, digitalise and correlate its archaeological data. The data were, in turn, entered into a database using a self-developed mapping software that makes the data, in a dynamic way, analysable as a contribution to various scientific questions, such as population growth and migrations, spread of agriculture and changes in subsistence strategies. The results clearly show asynchronous patterns of changes between the northern and southern parts of China (i.e. north and south of the Yangtze River, respectively) but also within these macro-regions. In the northern part of China (i.e. along the Yellow River and its tributaries and in the Xiliao River basin), the first noticeable increase in the concentration of Neolithic sites occurred between c . 5000 and 4000 BC; however, highest site concentrations were reached between c . 2000 and 500 BC. Our analysis shows a radical north-eastern shift of high site-density clusters (over 50 sites per 100 x 100 km grid cell) from the Wei and middle/lower Yellow Rivers to the Liao River system sometime between 2350 BC and 1750 BC. This shift is hypothetically discussed in the context of the incorporation of West Asian domesticated animals and plants into the existing northern Chinese agricultural system. In the southern part of China, archaeological sites do not show a noticeable increase in the absolute number of sites until after c . 1500 BC, reaching a maximum around 1000 BC.

Beschreibung: As heated debates about the origin of rice domestication and cultivation in southern and eastern China continuously attract attention of the broad scientific community, new evidence for early rice exploitation from the regions located outside the core area of domestication, the lower Yangtze, are very important. Here, we present new archaeobotanical results of plant macrofossil and phytolith analyses, including directly dated rice grains from the sites of Dongpan (4030–3820 cal. BC) and Beiqian (3700–2900 cal. BC). These results fill (at least partly) an existing gap between the c . 8000-year-old rice remains from the Early Neolithic Houli Culture ( c . 6500–5500 BC) sites north of the Shandong Highlands and the Longshan Culture ( c . 2600–1900 BC) sites, where intensive rice agriculture was practiced. Neither rice nor millet made substantial contribution to the plant macrofossil assemblage at Dongpan, while broomcorn (and to a lesser extent foxtail) millet contributed up to 75% to the macrofossil assemblage at Beiqian. This increase can be interpreted as a major change in regional subsistence from strongly relying on wild resources and small scale cultivation during the Beixin Cultural period to a millet-based economy during the Dawenkou Culture.

Beschreibung: Pollen and charcoal records derived from the sediment core of Lantianyan (LTY) peat bog, Northern Wuyi Mountain chains, eastern subtropical China, provide valuable information of landscape evolution caused by both climatic variation and anthropogenic activities over the past 8200 years. Our results reveal fluvial and lacustrine deposition between c . 8200 and 5600 cal. yr BP. The high proportion of pollen from evergreen broadleaved forests (e.g. Quercus and Castanopsis ) and Alnus trees, a taxon frequently occurring in mountain wetlands, implies a humid interval, which is consistent with the Holocene moisture maximum in eastern China. After 5600 cal. yr BP, the spread of the wooded swamp taxon, Glyptostrobus , suggests shallow water conditions and peat formation caused by gradual drying. The drying trend generally corresponds with the speleothem isotope record from this region, revealing a weakening East Asian summer monsoon (EASM) due to a decrease in Northern Hemisphere summer insolation (and in air temperature). Peaks in the abundance and concentration of Glyptostrobus pollen at c . 4600–4400 cal. yr BP and c . 3300–3000 cal. yr BP suggest two periods of swamp expansions, which coincide with the drought intervals revealed by the speleothem records. The LTY pollen and charcoal record demonstrates that human-induced land cover change was negligible before 3600 cal. yr BP. We consider the first signal of intensive human activity and landscape clearing to be the noticeable increase in charcoal particles at around 3600 cal. yr BP. This anthropogenic impact is followed by a dramatic decrease in arboreal pollen and increase in Poaceae pollen percentages, likely reflecting a transition to rice-paddy agriculture in the study area.

Beschreibung: The spatio-temporal distribution of archaeological sites in the Hokkaido region reveals hunter–gatherer population dynamics from the Upper Palaeolithic (〉14,000 cal. yr BP) through the Neolithic/Jomon and Epi Jomom period ( c . 14,000–1300 cal. yr BP) to the historic Ainu period ( c . 700–100 cal. yr BP). It appears that most cultural transitions coincide with periods of climate and environmental change. However, this observation does not automatically mean causality and, therefore, other potential driving factors must be checked. The data support the hypothesis that Palaeolithic subsistence was (at least partly) based on terrestrial hunting. Paralleled by lateglacial climate amelioration, rising sea levels and a change in marine currents, this strategy shifted towards marine resources and plant exploitation at the beginning of the Jomon period. Along with continuous Holocene climate warming, Hokkaido’s Neolithic Jomon population increased culminating in the Middle Jomon period (5000–4000 cal. yr BP). Simultaneously, Jomon subsistence underwent a process of diversification and intensification in exploitation of food resources. This practice probably allowed the persistence of the Middle Jomon culture beyond the Holocene temperature optimum (around 5000 cal. yr BP). Thereafter, the population decreased until the end of the Jomon culture accompanied by a trend towards cooler climate conditions and a shift in subsistence towards a more narrow range of food resources with increased hunting and less plant food. Population re-increased during the Satsumon/Okhotsk culture periods (1500–700 cal. yr BP), which may be the result of Okhotsk immigration because of climate cooling in the regions north of Hokkaido and enhanced inner-Hokkaido trade (between Satsumon and Okhotsk) and trade with communities outside Hokkaido. During the Ainu period ( c . 700–100 cal. yr BP), site, and possibly population numbers, re-decreased significantly and concentrated in eastern Hokkaido. Whether social and/or climatic factors brought about the Satsumon–Ainu cultural transition and the observed change in population pattern remains unresolved.

Beschreibung: Rebun Island with Hamanaka and Funadomari among the 43 documented archaeological sites and the environmental archive stored in the Lake Kushu sediment proves to be one of the key areas to study the interplay between ecology, climate and human activities. This paper focuses on the potential of palaeobotanical records from Rebun Island for improving the chronological control and understanding of late Quaternary climate changes and habitation environments of northern hunter-gatherers in the Hokkaido Region of Japan. A set of 57 radiocarbon dates of the RK12 core (Lake Kushu) demonstrates that it represents a continuous environmental archive covering the last c . 17,000 years. The RK12 pollen record reflects distinct vegetation changes associated with the onset of the lateglacial warming about 15,000 cal. yr BP and the cold climate reversal after c . 13,000 cal. yr BP. The onset of the current Holocene interglacial after c . 11,700 cal. yr BP is marked by a major spread of trees. The middle Holocene ( c . 8000–4000 cal. yr BP) is characterized by a major spread of deciduous oak in the vegetation cover reflecting a temperature increase. A decline of oak and spread of fir and pine is recorded at c . 2000 cal. yr BP. After c . 1100 cal. yr BP, arboreal pollen percentages decrease, possibly linked to intensified usage of wood during the Okhotsk and Ainu culture periods. The results of diatom analysis suggest marshy or deltaic environments at the RK12 coring site prior to c . 10,500 cal. yr BP and a brackish lagoon between c . 10,500 and 7000 cal. yr BP. A freshwater lake developed after 6500 cal. yr BP, likely reflecting sea level stabilization and formation of the sand bar separating the Kushu depression from the sea. Plant macrofossil analysis shows use of various wild plants and also domesticated barley during the Okhotsk and Ainu periods.

Beschreibung: Reproducing the tree cover changes throughout the Holocene is a challenge for land surface–atmosphere models. Here, results of a transient Holocene simulation of the coupled climate–carbon cycle model, CLIMBER2-LPJ, driven by changes in orbital forcing, are compared with pollen data and pollen-based reconstructions for several regions of Eurasia in terms of changes in tree fraction. The decline in tree fraction in the high latitudes suggested by data and model simulations is driven by a decrease in summer temperature over the Holocene. The cooler and drier trend at the eastern side of the Eurasian continent, in Mongolia and China, also led to a decrease in tree cover in both model and data. In contrast, the Holocene trend towards a cooler climate in the continental interior (Kazakhstan) is accompanied by an increase in woody cover. There a relatively small reduction in precipitation was likely compensated by lower evapotranspiration in comparison to the monsoon-affected regions. In general the model-data comparison demonstrates that climate-driven changes during the Holocene result in a non-homogeneous pattern of tree cover change across the Eurasian continent. For the Eifel region in Germany, the model suggests a relatively moist and cool climate and dense tree cover. The Holzmaar pollen record agrees with the model for the intervals 8–3 ka and 1.7–1.3 ka BP, but suggests great reduction of the tree cover 3–2 ka and after 1.3 ka BP, when highly developed settlements and agriculture spread in the region.

Beschreibung: Over the past decade, researchers have directed greater focus toward understanding Bronze (3200–800 BC) and Iron Age (800 BC–AD 400) economies of Central Asia. In this article, we synthesize paleobotanical data from across this broad region and discuss the piecemeal archaeological evidence for agriculture in relation to environmental records of vegetation and climate change. The synthesis shows that agricultural products were present in northern Central Asia by the mid-3rd millennium BC; however, solid evidence for their spread even further north into the Altai Mountains and southern Siberia only comes from the late 2nd and early 1st millennia BC. The earliest crops introduced into Central Asia likely came as a mixed package of free-threshing wheat, naked barley, and broomcorn millet, an assemblage pioneered further south along the northern foothills of the Central Asian mountains. Further east, in Mongolia, and debatably to the west of Central Asia, in the steppe of northern Kazakhstan and the southern Ural region of Russia, the earliest evidence of agriculture (with a similar mixed assemblage) is considerably later, roughly late 1st millennium BC. The lack of clear-cut early evidence for agricultural goods either east or west of the Central Asian mountain belt suggests that agriculture spread northward along these mountains, based on an agropastoral system pioneered millennia earlier at higher elevations of lower latitudes. Additionally, moister regional environmental conditions in the northern mountains after 3000 cal. BC may have increased the favorability of adopting an agricultural component in the economy.

Beschreibung: The arid climate of many regions within Central Asia often leads to excellent archaeological preservation, especially in sealed funerary contexts, allowing for ancient DNA analyses. While geneticists have looked at human remains, clothes, tools, and other burial objects are often neglected. In this paper, we present the results of an ancient DNA study on Bronze Age leather objects excavated from tombs of the Wupu cemetery in the Hami Oasis and Yanghai cemetery in the Turpan Oasis, both in Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of northwestern China. In addition to species identification of goat ( Capra aegagrus/hircus ), sheep ( Ovis orientalis/aries ), and cattle ( Bos primigenius/taurus ), mitochondrial haplogroups were determined for several samples. Our results show that Bronze Age domesticated goats and sheep from the Hami and Turpan oases possessed identical or closely related haplotypes to modern domestic animals of this area. The absence of leather produced from wild animals emphasizes the importance of animal husbandry in the cultures of Wupu and Yanghai.

Beschreibung: This study is focused on a 3.55-m-long sediment core retrieved from Badanital (i.e. the BT core) in 2008. Badanital (30°29'50''N, 78°55'26''E, 2083 m a.s.l.) is a small lake located in the upper catchment area of the Ganges in Garhwal Himalaya, northern India. The lake and the regional broad-leaved semi-evergreen forests are under the influence of the Indian Summer Monsoon (ISM) and westerly associated cyclones. Palynological investigation of the BT core revealed past vegetation changes reflecting both climate and human impact during the last 4600 years. Maximum spread of oaks occurred during c . AD 550–1100 and c . AD 1400–1630, that is, the intervals which partly overlap with the ‘Medieval Warm Period’ and the ‘Little Ice Age’, respectively. Three intervals of decreased oak pollen percentages are attributed to (1) continuously drier and cooler climatic conditions and fire activity ( c . 2600–500 BC), (2) severe reduction in oak forests followed by secondary succession of alder woods ( c . AD 1150–1270) and (3) pre-modern settlement activities since the British imperial occupation (after c . AD 1700). We argue that the high percentages (i.e. up to 28%) of Humulus / Cannabis type and Cannabis type pollen point to intense local retting of hemp c . 500 BC–AD 1050. Based on our age model, Cannabis fibre production at Badanital is contemporaneous with archaeological records of ancient hemp products from different parts of Eurasia suggesting possible linkages to early trade and knowledge exchange routes connecting India and the Himalaya with Central and East Asia and possibly Europe.

Beschreibung: For well over a century, scholars from across the social and biological sciences have been trying to understand the origins and spread of agriculture. This debate is often intertwined with discussions of climate change and human environmental impact. Over the past decade, this debate has spread into Central Eurasia, from western China to Ukraine and southern Russia to Turkmenistan, a part of the world often thought to have been largely dominated by pastoralists. A growing interest in the prehistory of Central Eurasia has spurred a new chapter in the origins of agriculture debate; archaeobotanical research is showing how important farming practices in this region were in regard to the spread of crops across the Old World. While early people living in Central Eurasia played an influential role in shaping human history, there is still limited understanding of the trajectories of social evolution among these populations. In March 2015, 30 leading scholars from around the globe came together in Berlin, Germany, to discuss the introduction and intensification of agriculture in Central Eurasia and adjacent regions. At the German Archaeological Institute in Berlin (Deutsches Archäologisches Institut, DAI), these scholars presented novel data on topics covering East, South, and Central Asia, spanning a wide realm of methodological approaches. The present special edition volume deals with a selection of the papers given at this conference, and it marks a significant step toward recognizing the contribution of Central Eurasian populations in the spread and development of agricultural systems over the course of the Holocene.