Corn. Wen Wanwujun.
Recently, Jin Dan, Department of Archaeology, School of Humanities, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, and Guo Xiaoning, associate researcher Zhang Pengcheng of Shaanxi Provincial Institute of Archaeology, published a joint report. According to the article, archaeological research has found new evidence of the fertilization behavior of the ancestors in the middle and late Yangshao period in the Guanzhong area and the change in the proportion of millet.
In this study, 61 samples of the Miaodigou culture period and 97 samples of the fourth phase of Banpo were determined at the Chakou site in Guanzhong area, and the data of large plant relics in northern China (Guanzhong, Central Plains and Haidai) were synthesized to investigate the time of the change of the proportion of millet millet in the same period.
The results of plant stable isotopes showed that the δ15n value of millet at the Chakou site was higher than that of the local natural vegetation, which means that at least from the Miaodigou culture period, the ancestors of Guanzhong had fertilization behavior.
In addition, the results of the analysis of the proportion of millet showed that the weight proportion of millet in the middle Yangshao period was higher in Guanzhong, and the weight proportion of millet in the late Yangshao period exceeded that of millet in the late Yangshao period.
The pointed bottom amphora, a characteristic utensil of the Yangshao culture period, is considered to be a wine vessel, and the existence of a large number of such utensils means that the wine-making behavior is very extensive. The main raw material for brewing wine is millet, and in the middle of Yangshao culture, the proportion of millet was high, indicating that the population pressure at that time was not large, and the ancestors would use millet to make wine to meet the needs of recreation.
Although the climate has shown a trend of cooling 5,500 years ago, the problem is not serious, so the living habits of the ancestors in the Guanzhong area have not changed significantly.
By 5,000 years ago, the climate had rapidly fallen to a low point. This cooling event has been observed in many places, for example, when the Daihai-Huangqihai lake level dropped to an unprecedented trough.
Under these circumstances, the Guanzhong area experienced a decline, the number of sites and population density declined, and the cultural center began to move west and north.
Under the pressure of a colder climate, the ancestors changed their agricultural cultivation methods and adjusted the proportion of millet in crops so that the weight of millet exceeded that of millet to meet basic survival needs.
In agricultural archaeology, this is an important shift.
This is true not only in the Guanzhong area, but also in the Haidai area. 6,000-5,000 years ago, compared with the Guanzhong region, the weight proportion of millet in the Haidai area was even higher, as high as 90%. However, by 5,000-4,500 years ago, millet in Guanzhong and Haidai surpassed millet by weight.
Millet. It is worth noting that whether it was 6,000-5,000 years ago or 5,000-4,500 years ago, the weight of millet in the Central Plains exceeded that of millet.
This cannot be explained by climate or geological conditions, because the climate will warm up after cooling, and the local geological conditions will not change greatly in the millennium, it can only be said that the population pressure in the Guanzhong and Haidai areas has increased after 5,000 years ago.
In contrast, the population pressure in the Central Plains has always been high, so the proportion of millet there has always exceeded that of millet. Considering that the Central Plains region has a larger land, there are also more people there than the surrounding areas.
Why? It is likely that the Central Plains is not only fertile land, but also a land of convergence in all directions.
Archaeological, physical, and genetic studies have found that about 5,000 years ago, the Dawenkou culture in the east and the Liangzhu population in the southeast migrated to the Central Plains.
In the earlier Miaodigou cultural period, it was also a place where people gathered, such as the cultural crowd of Hougang Phase I went south, and the cultural crowd of Miaodigou went eastward, and so on.