Early mixed farming of millet and rice 7800 years ago in the Middle Yellow River region, China

The Peiligang Culture (9000-7000 cal. yr BP) in the Middle Yellow River region, North China, has long been considered representative of millet farming. It is still unclear, however, if broomcorn millet or foxtail millet was the first species domesticated during the Peiligang Culture. Furthermore, it...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:PloS one 2012-12, Vol.7 (12), p.e52146-e52146
Main Authors: Zhang, Jianping, Lu, Houyuan, Gu, Wanfa, Wu, Naiqin, Zhou, Kunshu, Hu, Yayi, Xin, Yingjun, Wang, Can
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Agricultural industry
Agriculture
Analysis
Archaeological sites
Archaeology
Biology
China
Crops
Crops, Agricultural
Cultivation
Culture
Domestication
Dry farming
Dryland farming
Earth Sciences
Farming
Geology
Geophysics
Grain cultivation
Historic buildings & sites
Historic sites
Laboratories
Millet
Neolithic
Oryza
Panicum
Panicum miliaceum
Rice
Rivers
Setaria italica
Stratigraphy
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Summary:The Peiligang Culture (9000-7000 cal. yr BP) in the Middle Yellow River region, North China, has long been considered representative of millet farming. It is still unclear, however, if broomcorn millet or foxtail millet was the first species domesticated during the Peiligang Culture. Furthermore, it is also unknown whether millet was cultivated singly or together with rice at the same period. In this study, phytolith analysis of samples from the Tanghu archaeological site reveals early crop information in the Middle Yellow River region, China. Our results show that broomcorn millet was the early dry farming species in the Peiligang Culture at 7800 cal. yr BP, while rice cultivation took place from 7800 to 4500 cal. yr BP. Our data provide new evidence of broomcorn millet and rice mixed farming at 7800 cal. yr BP in the Middle Yellow River region, which has implications for understanding the domestication process of the two crops, and the formation and continuance of the Ancient Yellow River Civilization.
ISSN:1932-6203
1932-6203
DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0052146