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The southward expansion of East Asian farmers profoundly influenced the social evolution of Southeast Asia by introducing cereal agriculture. However, the timing and routes of cereal expansion in key regions are unclear due to limited empirical evidence. Here we report macrofossil, microfossil, multiple isotopic (C/N/Sr/O) and paleoproteomic data directly from radiocarbon-dated human samples, which were unearthed from a site in Xingyi in central Yunnan and which date between 7000 and 3300 a BP. Dietary isotopes reveal the earliest arrival of millet ca. 4900 a BP, and greater reliance on plant and animal agriculture was indicated between 3800 and 3300 a BP. The dietary differences between hunter-gatherer and agricultural groups are also evident in the metabolic and immune system proteins analysed from their skeletal remains. The results of paleoproteomic analysis indicate that humans had divergent biological adaptations, with and without farming. The combined application of isotopes, archaeobotanical data and proteomics provides a new approach to documenting dietary and health changes across major subsistence transitions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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]

Southern China and Southeast Asia were favourable habitats for foragers during the Last Glacial Maximum (∼25–18 ka BP) and the Last Deglaciation (∼18–11.7 ka BP), despite various climate fluctuation. However, the underlying subsistence strategies in these areas remains unclear, due to the lack of systematic chronological and archaeological data. The current study reports new results of radiocarbon dating, U-series dating, and zooarchaeological analysis from the Naminan cave site, located at the boundary between Southern China and Southeast Asia. It reveals that deer was consumed as the primary source of meat (91.7 %), supplemented by turtles, wild oxen, monkeys, wild boars, and mustelids during ∼17.35–16.49 ka BP. The subsequent period of ∼15.55–15.35 ka BP saw a radical declining proportion of deer, with various new species being consumed, such as shrews, porcupines, fish, crab, canidae, and wild cat. Human occupation of the Naminan cave site might have lasted until the Early Holocene. Comparing archaeological and paleoclimate evidence from Southern China and Southeast Asia, it is reasonable to argue that a progressively drier and colder climate during ∼17.35–15.35 ka BP appeared to trigger a remarkable decline in human activity but greater range of diets in locations such as the Naminan cave and Yuchanyan sites, facilitating further expansion of hunting-gathering groups during the late phase of the Last Deglaciation with warm and humid climate. This study contributes fresh data and perspective to a greater understanding of the evolution of human-climate interactions in low-latitude regions during Late Paleolithic period. • The first robust evidence of the broad-spectrum diet in Southern China in the LDG. • An obvious shift in faunal utilization strategies from ∼16.5 ka BP to ∼15.5 ka BP. • The diversified strategies and generally better climate are key factors for human expansion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]