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The emergence and intensification of transcontinental exchange during both the Late Neolithic and Bronze Age profoundly influenced the social history of Eurasia. While scholars have intensively discussed east-west long-distance communication along the proto-Silk Road, the north-south transport networks that connected China to South and Southeast Asia during the Late Neolithic and Bronze Age have attracted much less attention in the scholarly literature based on archeological science data. In this paper, we find new radiocarbon dates from 11 Neolithic and Bronze Age sites in northwestern and central Yunnan in Southwest China, a key entrance into South and Southeast Asia from China. Combined with previously published archeological records and radiocarbon dates, we attempt to disentangle and understand the timing and routes of the networks linking China to South and Southeast Asia during the Late Neolithic and Bronze Age. We propose three north-south land routes that played essential roles in the cultural exchanges in addition to the proto-Silk Road and maritime routes. This includes the trans-Himalayan routes, trans-Hengduan Mountain routes, and the trans-Yunnan–Guizhou Plateau routes. The north-south exchange between China and South and Southeast Asia probably emerged in the fifth millennium BP (before the present) mainly through a low-frequency trans-Yunnan–Guizhou Plateau and trans-Himalayan routes. The exchange frequency significantly increased after the fourth millennium BP, with the synchronous development of the three primary north-south passageways. Trans-Hengduan routes might have been the most crucial artery connecting China and South and Southeast Asia during 3000–2200 BP, but more archeological records are needed to understand the detailed evolution of these transport networks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is evident that the origin, development, and expansion of agriculture and animal husbandry during the Neolithic and Bronze Age periods across Eurasia facilitated the increase of the world population and emergence of ancient civilizations, as well as altering human livelihoods, especially in East Asia. However, different areas of China have different histories in terms of the development of agriculture and of extensive human settlement during that period, and the spatial differences in human–environment interaction are not yet well understood. Here, we review up-to-date results of radiocarbon dating, archaeobotanical, and zooarchaeological analysis from Neolithic and Bronze Age sites in China, along with high-resolution paleoclimatic records, to explore the spatiotemporal variation of human settlement and its relationship to the development of agriculture and to climate change in different areas during the period 10,000–2200 BP. The results suggest that human settlement intensities in the northern East Asia Monsoon Region and south China were relatively low during 10,000–6500 BP, with a small peak during ∼8000–7500 BP, and evidently increased since ∼6500 BP, whereas farming groups began to settle intensively on the Tibetan Plateau and the inland arid region since ∼5200 BP and ∼4000 BP, respectively. The spatiotemporal variation in the intensification of human settlement in China during the Neolithic and Bronze Age periods was primarily induced by agricultural intensification and expansion across prehistoric Eurasia; climate change may have influenced the hydrothermal and vegetation conditions for crop cultivation and livestock production. The asynchronous intensive human settlements in different areas of China resulted in spatial differences in the impact of activities by human on the environments surrounding them during 10,000–2200 BP, shedding light on the evolution of the human–land relationship in China during the Neolithic and Bronze periods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The introduction of wheat into China between ~4500 and 4000 cal. a BP is thought to have restructured the ancient Chinese agricultural system and contributed to the formation and development of Chinese civilization. However, the spatial variation in agricultural development before and after the introduction of exotic crops across the Yellow River valley has not yet been discussed in detail. Here, we report new archaeobotanical data and radiocarbon dates from 25 sites in Sanmenxia, Henan Province, which was a hub for human migration in the middle reach of the Yellow River. Integrating our data with those of other archaeobotanical studies in northern China confirms that spatial cropping patterns in the Yellow River valley changed significantly around 4000 cal. a BP in the context of trans-Eurasia exchanges. From 7000 to 4000 cal. a BP, millet crops in the upper and middle Yellow River valley dominated the agricultural system, while mixed millet and rice agriculture developed in the lower Yellow River valley. In the subsequent period (4000–2200 cal. a BP), the cropping system in the upper Yellow River valley changed predominantly to barley and wheat agriculture, supplemented with millets. The contemporaneous cropping system in the middle and lower Yellow River valley, however, was dominated by millets, supplemented with wheat and rice. We argue that technological innovation and its dissemination in the context of trans-Eurasian cultural exchanges provided the basis for changes in the agricultural systems in northern China during the Bronze Age. Additionally, the trajectory of agricultural development was influenced by the natural environment and social change in different regions of the Yellow River valley. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Identifying and explaining changes in the prehistoric material and social world is one of the greatest research interests in archaeology, palaeoclimate and environmental science. In the last two decades or so, a considerable number of studies have made significant contributions to the associated disciplines in eastern Asian archaeology. However, due to the more specialised scientific approaches and the rapid accumulation of new excavation materials, it becomes increasingly difficult for scholars to examine and correlate research outputs from different areas and achieve a holistic picture of the past. Using eastern Asian archaeology as an example, this Special Issue aims to break down the disciplinary boundaries and present the current research debate on how to correlate different climate, environmental and social changes and explain human past. One of the fundamental issues is the lack of adequate chronological resolution to order various archaeological events. To tackle this, a large number of radiocarbon dates, primarily derived from short- lived materials, are provided in the Special Issue. A great variety of changes in local environment, agricultural practice, animal husbandry, technologies, migration, demography and social organisations are revealed in the following papers but there are two profound drivers to all of these changes. One is the broad climate change since the start of the Holocene and the other is the communication between the West and the East. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on radiocarbon dating and our analysis of plant and animal remains from Buziping, a Majiayao (5300–4300 BP) and Qijia (4200–3800 BP) period site located in Dingxi, Gansu Province, China, and our review of archaeobotanical studies in the Western Loess Plateau and adjacent areas, we discuss subsistence strategies during the Majiayao and Qijia periods. We also discuss the development of agriculture in the Western Loess Plateau and its influence on cultural expansion during the late Neolithic period. Humans settled at Buziping for the first time during the Majiayao period (4890–4710 cal. yr BP by 14C dating). Charred seeds from the site indicate that people engaged in millet-based agricultural production. People continued this type of agriculture during a second phase of occupation (4130–3880 cal. yr BP by 14C dating) during the Qijia period, but the proportion of foxtail millet to broomcorn millet increased from the Majiayao to Qijia period. Raising domestic animals was another aspect of subsistence during the Qijia period. The main domestic animals were likely pigs and dogs, although hunting of wild animals also took place. Subsistence at Buziping site was affected by the rapid development of intensive agriculture that diffused across eastern Gansu Province during the late Neolithic. Our work suggests that millet-based agriculture spread from east to west across the Western Loess Plateau and likely promoted the expansions of those two cultures in the area during the Majiayao period and early–mid Qijia period. Climate change might have also promoted Majiayao and Qijia expansions and probably facilitated the adoption of rain-fed agriculture in this region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]