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The reconstruction of high-resolution chronologies for prehistoric cultures is a prerequisite for understanding the history of human evolution and its relationship with environmental change, and is valuable for exploring the trajectory of transcontinental cultural exchanges in prehistoric time. The Hexi Corridor of northwest China was one of the earliest centers for long-distance culture exchange in the prehistoric world. The timing and sequence of cultural changes in this area remains poorly understood resulting from the lack of radiometric age control. This paper presents a refined radiocarbon (14C) chronology to resolve the timing of human occupation and cultural evolution in the Hexi Corridor. Radiocarbon dating of crop remains, which have an annual life cycle, has the advantage of eliminating problems such as the carbon stored in ‘old wood’. As a result, 14C dates from crop remains are used to test the validity of the 14C dates derived from charcoal, bone and plant remains. The resultant database of ages is modelled using the Bayesian approach. The updated chronology presented in this paper shows generally good agreement with the original dates used to constrain cultural evolution in the Hexi Corridor. However, the occupation of the corridor by the Shajing and Shanma Late Bronze Age-Early Iron Age cultures appears to have taken place ~300 years later than previously thought. On the basis of comparing this updated chronology of cultural evolution with palaeoclimatic and historical records, it is proposed that the collapse of the Shajing and Shanma cultures occurred as a result of geopolitical impact rather than climate change.

In recent years, archaeologists have studied how ancient humans have shaped, and been shaped by, their surrounding environments in an effort to provide valuable insight into the patterns of human-environment interaction during prehistoric and historical periods. Along the Heihe River in Hexi Corridor of northwest China, archaeologists have found many ancient cities that are good places to explore changes in human settlement patterns in relation to environment change in historical periods. In this paper, we present our investigation of seven ancient cities to clarify the chronology of these cities and their strategy for wood use in the area through the application of radiocarbon dating and charcoal identification. Our results suggest that the ages of many cities are younger than previous estimates, and humans mainly used Tamarix and mixed Tamarix and broad leaf trees in the lower and middle reaches of the Heihe River basin between ∼ AD 240–1380 respectively, and roughly matches the modern spatial distribution of natural woody vegetation in the area. In comparison to the results of archaeological, paleoclimatic and historical studies in Hexi Corridor, we propose that ancient human strategies for wood use and their impact on environment of the Heihe Basin are primarily relevant to human lifestyles rather than climate change.

We report dozens of direct radiocarbon dates on charred grains from 22 archaeological sites of the Neolithic and Bronze Ages in the Hexi Corridor, northwest China, a key region for trans-Eurasian exchange in prehistoric and historical times. These charred grains include remains of wheat and barley domesticated in southwest Asia and broomcorn and foxtail millet which originated from north China. Together with previously published radiocarbon dates, we consider these newly obtained radiocarbon results in the context of material cultures associated with them, to explore an episode of trans-continental cultural exchange foci at the Hexi Corridor. Our results show that millet cultivators who used painted potteries from the western Loess Plateau first settled the Hexi Corridor around 4800 BP. Communities who cultivated wheat and barley moved into this region from the west around 4000 BP, bringing with them technologies and materials not seen in central China before, including bronze metallurgy, mud bricks, and mace heads. This was part of the east-west contact which became evident in the Hexi Corridor since the late fifth millennium BP, and continued over the subsequent two millennia, and predated the formation of the overland Silk Road in the Han Dynasty (202 BC-AD 220).

All around the world, ancient legends exist about the Great Flood, and the influence of the Great Flood in human evolutionary history is a hotly debated topic. In China, the legend of the prehistoric Great Flood and Yu the Great’s flood control has a long history and is considered to be closely linked to the establishment of the Xia Dynasty. However, there is a lack of solid scientific evidence. Against this issue, some scholars have proposed that an earthquake around 1920 BCE in the Guanting Basin along the upper reaches of the Yellow River led to the creation of a lake by damming in the Jishi Gorge and that the outburst of water from that lake led to the massive flood in the Yellow River region. These studies provided new scientific evidence for the Chinese legend. In this paper, we date skeletal samples embedded in earthquake sand blasting from the Lajia site, analyze remains from natural disasters (such as earthquakes and floods) and also archaeological remains. In addition, we compared the skeletal samples dating with that of sediments from the dammed-up lake. Our results are inconsistent with those of previous scholars. The earthquake at the Lajia site occurred no earlier than 1800 BCE, and the dammed-up lake in Jishi Gorge had disappeared by 3600 BCE. Thus, the formation and outburst of the dammed lake, the sudden death of ancient humans at the Lajia site and the ancient earthquake were independent events occurring at different times. In addition, the massive flood in the upper reaches of the Yellow River did not actually happen. Thus, we argue against and invalidate the hypothesis that the massive flood was related to Yu the Great’s flood control and the establishment of the Xia Dynasty.

The history of cultural exchange in prehistoric Eurasia (CEPE) has been widely investigated. Based on archaeological evidence, this process is thought to date back to at least the early Bronze Age, although details about timings and routes remain unclear. It is likely that CEPE promoted the spread and exchange of crops that originated in different parts of Eurasia; since these remains can be definitely identified and directly dated, they provide ideal research materials to explore the history of CEPE. In this paper, we review the available archaeobotanical evidence and direct radiocarbon dates for crop remains, alongside carbon isotopic data from human bones unearthed from prehistoric sites in Eurasia, in order to investigate the history of the spread of millet crops, and wheat and barley, that were first domesticated in the eastern and western parts of Eurasia during prehistoric times. In combination with other archaeological evidences, we discuss the history of CEPE. Our results suggest that wheat and barley were domesticated in western Asia around 10500 a BP, spread into Europe and western Central Asia before 8000 a BP, and reaching eastern Central Asia and northwestern China between 4500 and 4000 a BP. Data show that both broomcorn and foxtail millet were domesticated in eastern Asia before 7700 a BP, spread into eastern Central Asia between 4500 and 4000 a BP, and into western Asia and Europe prior to 3500 a BP. Wheat, barley, and millet crops were first utilized together in eastern Kazakhstan within Central Asia around 4400 a BP, the region where earliest CEPE is likely to have taken place. These crops were mixedly used mainly in eastern central Asia and northwest China between 4500 and 3500 a BP, and then across the Eurasia before 2200 a BP. The results of this study suggest that transcontinental CEPE might have been initiated during the fifth millennium, before intensifying during the Bronze Age to lay the foundations for the creation of the ancient Silk Road during the Han Dynasty (between 202BC and 220AD).

Gansu and Qinghai provinces of northwest China form an important region for the domestication and early utilization of millet crops. Studies on the subsistence strategy variation and environmental background of prehistoric cultural transition in this area have made substantial progress, but the geomorphic environment and hydrologic conditions of the different culture stages remains poorly known. Based on high resolution DEM and GPS coordination of typical sites, a GIS aided hydrogeomorphic analysis was conducted to indicate the abundance of cultivable flat lands and proximity to local surface runoff within walking access of nine typical sites. The results were compared with the records of plant-animal remains and tool assemblages from published literature. There is a good correlation between sites' hydrogeomorphic settings and the subsistence strategy adopted. Our case study provides valuable information for understanding how humans selected their habitat locations in corresponding to subsistence strategy shift during the transitional period between late Paleolithic and Neolithic periods.

The nature of an Anthropocene has been increasingly discussed and debated in the last two decades, with a focus on the arguments for or against the “Anthropocene” as a geological epoch. Some argue for an onset of Anthropocene between 1945‒1964 AD, when intensive atmospheric nuclear testing resulted in peak values of 14C that is widely recorded in tree rings and sediments, while other scholars argued its beginning may be traced back to the early Holocene. This latter argument is related to the beginnings of significant landscape modification through the development and spread of agricultural practices in old world since 10000 a BP. The Yellow River valley of northern China is the center for the domestication of millet crops (broomcorn millet and foxtail millet), however, the intensification and expansion of millet-based agriculture during the Neolithic period and its impact on the environment has not been well understood. Recent development of archaeometry methods and their application to archaeological research, such as archaeobotanical studies, and carbon and nitrogen isotope analysis of human and animal bones unearthed from Neolithic and Bronze sites in north China, has greatly deepened our understanding of the timing of millet-based agriculture and its development. In parallel, the analysis of paleoenvironment proxies including black carbon and pollen assemblages from natural sediments, has shed light on the impact of human slash-and-burn cultivation on their surrounding environments during both prehistoric and historical times. This paper reviews carbon isotope analysis of human, pig and dog bones, and radiocarbon dates from Neolithic sites, and compares them with black carbon content from palaeoenvironment records in northern China, in order to explore the temporal-spatial intensification and expansion of millet-based agriculture in the area and its possible impact on environment. It can be concluded that millet cultivation was an auxiliary subsistence strategy in northern China from 10000 to 7000 a BP with hunting-gathering the primary subsistence strategy, the earliest millet-cultivation might have emerged in eastern Inner Mongolia post 7700 a BP. Millet cultivation transited from a secondary strategy to become dominant in the Guanzhong area of north-central China during 7000‒6000 a BP, and probably facilitated the development of early Yangshao culture in the middle reaches of the Yellow River valley. Intensive millet-based agriculture emerged and widely expanded across the Yellow River valley in northern China during 6000‒4000 a BP. This promoted rapid population growth and cultural evolution in the late Neolithic period, and was key in the subsequent emergence of the ancient Chinese civilization. The temporal-spatial variation of black carbon (EC-soot) corresponds well with the intensification and expansion of millet-based agriculture during Neolithic period. The content of EC-soot increased in sediments of Daihai lake and the Horqin sandy lands in Inner Mongolia from about 7500 a BP soon after farming of millet appeared in Xinglongwa and Xinglonggou sites nearby, which evidently increased in Shaanxi Province of north central China post 6000 a BP, when intensive millet-based agriculture firstly emerged in the area. This suggests millet agriculture production activities exerted significant impact on fire frequency in northern China during the Neolithic, and thus the scale and intensity of the impact of farming increased from that period. This work provides a valuable case study for understanding the temporal and spatial development of millet agriculture, and human-environment interactions in northern China during Neolithic period from an Anthropocene perspective.

Charcoal analysis is a useful tool to gather information about the diversity of vegetation as well as human behaviour towards the environment and the diversified management of natural plant resources. Here we present the taxonomic identification of charcoal and calculate the percentage of each diameter class of the pieces excavated from the Shannashuzha archaeological site, Gansu Province. We discuss the implications of the data for the composition of the past woodland vegetation and prehistoric human fuel collection strategy. Twenty-two taxa were identified from 2,241 charcoal fragments with a further 50 fragments unidentified. Picea, Pinus, Bambusoideae, Salix, Populus, Quercus and Betula were abundant in many samples, although Bambusoideae is probably over-represented due to its high chance of being preserved. The vegetation around the Shannashuzha site had a typical mountain character and the main vegetation types reflected by the charcoal records included conifer woods, mixed broadleaved/conifer woods and riverbank broadleaved woods. This vegetation is similar to the modern vegetation and therefore the climate at that time is deemed to have been similar to or slightly warmer than today. Abundance was probably an important factor in the fuel collection strategy of the people. Collection of wood with a small diameter was a purposeful choice by prehistoric people, probably because it was less time-consuming in the study area, which was rich in wood resources. We conclude that in this region, prehistoric people selected firewood depending not on its type, but rather on its size (diameter). Charcoal from fruit trees found at this site and at many others nearby indicates that there was a common and long history of fruit utilization by prehistoric people in the western Loess Plateau. These results provide valuable information and a new insight into the interaction between human activities and plant resources in the Neolithic period.

The Hexi Corridor of northwestern China was a principal axis of cultural interchange between eastern and western Eurasia during the prehistoric and historic epochs. Neolithic groups began dense settlements in Hexi Corridor after 4300 BP with millet crops and polychrome pottery from north China and bronze from Central Asia around 4000 BP accompanied by wheat, barley, and sheep. The impact of these activities on the environment during the late Neolithic and Bronze Age is not clearly understood. Therefore, we analyzed the Cu concentrations of samples collected within cultural layers of anthropogenic sediments from 17 Late Neolithic and Bronze Age sites located within the Hexi Corridor. The Cu content is reported in view of the archaeological and paleoclimatic research undertaken in the area. Our results enabled us to explore the variety of human impact on the environment before and after the introduction of bronze technology into Hexi Corridor. During 4300–4000 BP, Cu concentrations of the anthropogenic sediments were constrained within natural background values. However, from 4000 to 3400 BP, they increased substantially and far exceeded the natural background. The Cu concentrations then declined and remained above the natural background from 3000 to 2400 BP. Our work suggests that the introduction of copper melting technology led to human alteration of sediments’ chemical properties in their surrounding environments in Hexi Corridor since 4000 BP; its intensity was closely related to human settlement density, which was further affected by climate change and livelihood transition in the area during Bronze period.