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The Dzungar Basin of northern Xinjiang has previously been considered a marginal environment with little evidence for the development of prehistoric agriculture. Recent archaeobotanical studies have indicated the region as being a route for the transmission of domesticated plants, technologies and ideas between East and West Eurasia during prehistory, as early as 5000 BP. These interactions are still poorly understood and most evidence for early plant food production and consumption in the region comes from limited mortuary contexts. In this study we present plant macrofossil analysis from the settlement site of Luanzagangzi on the southern side of the Dzungar Basin. From ca. 3130 BP an agricultural package of east and west Asian cereals and chaff is present, comprising wheat, barley, foxtail millet, broomcorn millet, and significantly a single grain of japonica type rice. AMS dating indicates this is the oldest directly dated rice in Xinjiang and the broader region, ranging 3069–2881 cal. BP. Cereal morphometrics and material culture from the site further indicate a connection with the Gansu region to the east. The spread of agriculture into the site environment may be linked to the onset of wetter conditions relating to strengthened westerly systems across arid Central Asia in the Late-Holocene. A declining abundance of West Asian cultivars over the period of the site's occupation possibly reflect a shift away from intensive agriculture to low-level management of millets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Exploring ancient socio-economic adaptation is a basic issue of human-environment interaction. Xinjiang in northwest China is a region of high geographic diversity. Past human adaptations to this arid marginal area is a current focus of research interest but still lacks in-depth study. This article presents data from the Wupu Cemetery, located in the extremely arid Hami Basin in the eastern Tianshan Mountains. Archaeobotanical analysis is used to reconstruct the local environment niche and the subsistence economy of inhabitants. Radiocarbon dating results indicate the cemetery was occupied between 3000 and 2400 cal BP, during the late Bronze Age and early Iron Age. In total 16 species of the plant remains are identified, including four cereal crops, foxtail millet (Setaria italica), broomcorn millet (Panicum miliaceum), naked barley (Hordeum vulgare var. coeleste), wheat (Triticum aestivum) and 12 wild types. The riparian plant Populus euphratica and aquatic plant Typha sp. indicate inhabitants lived in an oasis near the cemetery. Environmental interpretation of this data compares well with other seven sites in arid southern Xinjiang. In addition to faunal remains from the site, it is assumed that a flexible system of multi-crop farming and herding was the subsistence pattern around Wupu. This system was widespread across Inner Asia and appears to have played a central role in adapting to different marginal environments during the Bronze Age and Iron Age. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]