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Hydrogeomorphic settings of late Paleolithic and early-mid Neolithic sites in relation to subsistence variation in Gansu and Qinghai Provinces, northwest China
Quaternary International xxx (2016) 1e8
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Hydrogeomorphic settings of late Paleolithic and early-mid Neolithic sites in relation to subsistence variation in Gansu and Qinghai Provinces, northwest China Lin Wang a, *, Yishi Yang b, Xin Jia c a
School of Architecture, HuaQiao University, Jimei Road 668, Xiamen, Fujian Province, 361021, China MOE Key Laboratory of Western China's Environmental System, Research School of Arid Environment and Climate Change, Lanzhou University, South Tianshui Road 222, Lanzhou, Gansu Province, 730000, China c School of Geographic and Oceanographic Sciences, Nanjing University, Nanjing, Jiangsu Province, 210023, China b
a r t i c l e i n f o
a b s t r a c t
Article history: Available online xxx
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. © 2016 Elsevier Ltd and INQUA. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Hydrogeomorphic analysis GIS Subsistence strategy Gansu and Qinghai Early-mid Holocene
1. Introduction The late Paleolithic and early-mid Neolithic were one of the most important periods for studying the evolution of human societies and the subsistence strategy transition from hunting and gathering to the raising of domestic plants and animals (Yan, 2000; Lee et al., 2007; Liu et al., 2013). The variety of human subsistence strategies (especially the origin of agriculture) and its relation to cultural expansion and climate change during that period has been intensively discussed (Weiss, H. and Bradley, R.S., 2001; Bellwood, P., 2005; Larson et al., 2007; Crawford, G., 2009; Chen et al., 2015; d'Alpoim Guedes et al., 2015). However, the changing hydrogeomorphic settings of human settlements during different phases has not been well understood, due to the absence of transitional sites between late Paleolithic and early Neolithic in most parts of the world and the scarcity of quantitative analysis of hydrogeomorphic features of prehistoric sites.
* Corresponding author. E-mail address: [email protected] (L. Wang).
Gansu and Qinghai provinces in northwest China are one of the key regions for the spread of millet cultivation (Zhang et al., 2010; Liu et al., 2012, 2014), where thousands of late Paleolithic and Neolithic sites are known (BNCR, 1996, 2011). The diversity of landforms in the region provides suitable space for different economies such as farming and herding, both in ancient times and nowadays. Subsistence strategy variation during prehistoric times in Gansu and Qinghai Provinces became increasingly clear from archaeobotanic and zooarchaeological studies and isotopic analysis of human and animal bones from prehistoric sites in this area (eg. Li et al., 2007; Dodson et al., 2013; Jia et al., 2013; Ma et al., 2013, 2014; Liu et al., 2014; Chen et al., 2015). The environmental background of prehistoric cultural transition has also been intensively studied (eg. An et al., 2004, 2006; Dong et al., 2012, 2013a,b; Hou et al., 2015). Nevertheless, most these works focus on human-land evolution during mid-late Neolithic and Bronze periods, the relationship between subsistence strategy and geomorphic settings of human settlements during late Paleolithic and early-mid Neolithic periods remains enigmatic. Subsistence strategy during late Paleolithic and early-mid Neolithic periods in Gansu and Qinghai can be roughly divided to
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.quaint.2016.03.017 1040-6182/© 2016 Elsevier Ltd and INQUA. All rights reserved.
Please cite this article in press as: Wang, L., et al., Hydrogeomorphic settings of late Paleolithic and early-mid Neolithic sites in relation to subsistence variation in Gansu and Qinghai Provinces, northwest China, Quaternary International (2016), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/ j.quaint.2016.03.017
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L. Wang et al. / Quaternary International xxx (2016) 1e8
three phases, hunting and gathering during late Paleolithic period, primary hunting and gathering and auxiliary farming during Dadiwan I period (7800e7200 BP), and primary intensive farming since 5900 BP (Barton et al., 2009). In this paper, we select nine well-dated typical sites of these three phases, conducting quantitative analysis of their hydrogeomorphic settings and examining the changing patterns in local scales, to aid understanding how ancient people engaged in habitat selection in relation to subsistence variation. 2. Study area 2.1. Geographic background The study area is located in the western part of the Loess Plateau and the northeastern margin of the Tibet Plateau, covering an area from A'nimaqing Mountains and Qinghai Lake in the west to the
Liupan Mountains in the east (Fig. 1a). The mean annual temperature ranges from 0.3e14.8 C and the mean annual precipitation from 50 to 860 mm. Altitude declines gradually from 6295 m a.s.l at Animaing Mountain in the west to 490 m a.s.l at Qingyang County in the east. 2.2. Materials and database We selected three late Paleolithic sites (151, Jiangxigou I and Yantaidong), three pre-Yangshao and early-mid Yangshao sites (Dadiwan, Xishanping and Gaoshitou sites), and three Majiayao sites (Shuza, Hulijia and Linjia) (Fig. 1) to study the variety of human habitat selection during the transitional period from huntinggathering to millet cultivation. Among the nine sites, seven were excavated systematically with 14C dating and tools assemblage statistics (The excavation report of Yantaidong site is unpublished yet). Detailed results of radiocarbon dating, statistics of artifacts
Fig. 1. a. Nine typical sites in our study area. b. Distribution of Majiayao sites in Guanting and Hualong basin (Jia, 2012). c. Distribution of late Paleolithic sites and early Yangshao sites in Zhuanglang County, Gansu (Zhang, 2010a).
Please cite this article in press as: Wang, L., et al., Hydrogeomorphic settings of late Paleolithic and early-mid Neolithic sites in relation to subsistence variation in Gansu and Qinghai Provinces, northwest China, Quaternary International (2016), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/ j.quaint.2016.03.017
L. Wang et al. / Quaternary International xxx (2016) 1e8
assemblage, plant and animal remains identification are listed in Table 1 (Archaeological team of Gansu, 1984; Wang and Guo, 1984; Institute of Archaeology of Chinese Academy of Social Science, 1999; Gansu-Qinghai Archaeological team of Institute of Archaeology CASS and Archaeological Institute of Qinghai Province, 2001; Archaeological Institute of Gansu, 2006, 2012; Tang, 2011; Yi et al., 2011; Jia, 2012; Rhode et al., 2014; Hu, 2014). The locations of late Paleolithic, Pre-Yangshao and early-mid Yangshao sites in Zhuanglang County, Gansu Province (Fig. 1c) and Majiayao sites in Guanting basin, Qinghai Province (Fig. 1b) were obtained by previous archaeological surveys (BNCR, 1996, 2011; Zhang, 2010b; Jia, 2012). The improved ASTER GDEM V2 was released in October 2011 and provides an elevation model to conduct hydrogeomorphic analysis. An improved 30 m horizontal resolution and better vertical accuracy, now delivers a more accurate representation of the ground over rugged mountainous terrain (Rexer and Hirt, 2014). 3. Methodology 3.1. Site's catchment area within pedestrian scope In our study, a site's surrounding hydrogeomorphic condition was examined. Due to topographic obstruction and trip mode employed by ancient people, the exploitable scope is not likely a circle but an irregular polygon representing the pedestrian range at any particular period of time. In other words the walking range is more rationally defined than a circle area with fixed radius; when inspecting a site's surrounding hydrogeomorphic setting. According to Vita-Finzi and Higgs, who proposed the concept of “Site Catchment” and bridged the on-site relic analysis and the off-site environmental analysis (Vita-Finzi and Higgs, 1970), the exploitable scope for a site can be defined as 1 h's walk for agricultural people and 2 h for hunter-gatherers (Vita-Finzi, 1969). Actually, according to our experience, a reduced exploitable scope like 10 min' walking scope is preciser to inspect surrounding microlandscapes and make the geomorphic analysis more comparatively significant. Based on the new standard, micro-landscapes like foothill of a mountain and valley bottom near the foothill can be distinguished. Although it is still reasonable to deem that most farming activities are likely happening within 1 h's walking scope according to Vita-Finzi, here we posit that ancient people tend to inspect the geomorphic conditions within 10 min' walking scope when selecting a new habitat site. Here we used a 2 h' pedestrian scope to indicate the accessibility of surrounding surface runoff for a site, due to encompass possible variation of drainage network in ancient times. Some researchers have studied the functional relationship between slopes and walking speed, which includes the famous “Naismith Rules” proposed by Scottish mountaineer William Naismith in 1892 and “Tobler Rules” by Tobler Waldo in 1993 (Tobler, 1993). Factors other than slope, like vision field and road base materials, would also affect ordinary person's walking speed, but the relation can be assumed to be weak (Kondo and Seino, 2010). Subsequent studies mostly focus on improving the forecasting accuracy by experimental measures (Langmuir, 1984; Pingel, 2009; ska and Dombay, 2012). Considering similarity of the Magyari-Sa simulative topographic environment to this study, the functional model revised from “Tobler Rules” and proposed recently by Japanese researchers Kondo and Seino were adopted in our work (Kondo and Seino, 2010). The slope raster generated from ASTER GDEM data was used to produce catchment area (or pedestrian scope) for each site by “functional transformation” and “cost distance” analysis tools of ArcGIS 10.1. To analyze the hydrogeomorphic settings in a
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hierarchical way, the pedestrian scope was reclassified into 5 spheres (Fig. 2a). The inter-pixel walking direction and negative slopes, which will complicate the calculation model and exert limited affection on final results, were not taken into account here. 3.2. Flat lands supply and proximity to local stream network within pedestrian scope According to the “Survey procedure of present land use status” issued by “China Agricultural Zoning Committee” in 1984, 5 slope levels were identified to indicate the suitability for farming: The first level (2 slope) indicates most suitable farm lands without water and soil loss; Mild, moderate and serious soil erosion happen in lands of level 2 (2 ～ 6 ), level 3 (6 ～ 15 ) and level 4 (15 ～ 25 ) respectively; Lands of level 5 (>25 ) are not suitable for farming but for grassland and forestry use (Fig. 2c). Lacking technologies of soil and water conservation, we consider here lands of slope level 1 and 2 as suitable for primordial agriculture due to the low soil erosion and nutrient loss. We also use this slope classification with overlaid hill shade raster in 2 h' pedestrian scope to reflect the geomorphic positions for the 9 typical sites we are analyzing (Fig. 3). As for the hydrologic condition within pedestrian scopes, the STRAHLER method proposed by STRAHLER in 1952 was used to identify stream orders. According to this method, all links with no tributaries are assigned a magnitude (stream order) of one. Stream order only increases when streams of the same order intersect (Gleyzer et al., 2004). Results show seven magnitudes with higher stream orders indicating better impoundment condition and higher availability of water (Fig. 2b). Both flow accumulation and stream ordering analysis were achieved by the hydrology module of ArcGIS 10.1. 4. Results and discussion To reflect the amount of cultivable flat lands, an accumulative bar graph was used to manifest the actual land areas (unit: hectare) of different slope levels within 10 min pedestrian range (Lands of lower slope levels, like level 1 and 2, are more suitable for farming). The pie charts indicate corresponding proportions of different slope levels for each site (Fig. 4a). Another bar graph indicating stream orders attainable in different pedestrian time was used to reflect the proximity of surrounding surface runoff (Higher magnitude indicates better impoundment condition and higher possibility of mainstream rivers) (Fig. 4b). Final results are shown in Fig. 4 in a comparative way. The three late Paleolithic sites in Qinghai lake basin don't occupy the abundant arable flat lands (<6 ) within easiest accessible area (10 min walking scope), compared to the six Neolithic sites (see Fig. 4a) in either amount (mean value: 13.4 ha) or proportion (mean value: 20.7%). These Paleolithic sites are located at the transitional areas between mountain and tablelands in Qinghai lake basin which are also in the area of the forest-steppe ecotone, they manifest no obvious features related to valley landform (Fig. 3). Foragers preferred to occupy the mountain edge with easy access to mountain area for the convenience of hunting that was the primary subsistence strategy during the Paleolithic period, for most easily hunted wild animals (such as deer, blue sheep, etc.) were distributed in the boundary zones between forest and steppe (Chen, 2006a,b). The rugged surrounding landform might also provide cover to resist wild animals or enemies. Tree pollen concentration from the sediments in Qinghai lake in early Holocene are much higher than mid-late Holocene (Liu et al., 2002; Shen et al., 2005), suggesting relatively large forest cover which favoured hunting for late Paleolithic groups. Hunters-gathers inclined to occupy areas near small stream branches instead of large mainstreams, as is
Please cite this article in press as: Wang, L., et al., Hydrogeomorphic settings of late Paleolithic and early-mid Neolithic sites in relation to subsistence variation in Gansu and Qinghai Provinces, northwest China, Quaternary International (2016), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/ j.quaint.2016.03.017
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Period
Late Paleolithic
Site
Topographic location
Date
mountain footslope mountain front
Jiangxigou I
Early-middle Yangshao
The Majiayao
Animal
Ground stone tools
Unearthed stone tools
Subsistence strategy
Reference
e
√
hunting and gathering
e
e
√
hunting and gathering
e
e
e
√
3
2
1
17 (40%)
42
1
1
e
e
2 (18%)
11
hunting and gathering (dominant), agriculture (supplementary) hunting and gathering (dominant), agriculture (supplementary) hunting and gathering (dominant), agriculture (supplementary)
Yi et al. (2011), Rhode et al. (2014) Madsen et al. (2006), Yi et al. (2011) Madsen et al. (2006), Tang (2011)
136
234
46
11
89
516 (45%)
1158
√
1
1
e
e
e
2 (66%)
3
√
√
17
5
4
2
e
28 (62%)
45
√
√
√
√
√
√
√
e
√
√
√
√
√
√
√
√
√
√
√
√
about200
√
√
√
√
246
211
e
312
2
771 (78%)
984
Setaria italica
Panicum miliaceum
Domestic animal
Wild animal
Knife
Axe
Shovel
Adze
Grinding plate
sum (percentage)
7760 ± 60 B.P.
e
e
e
√
e
e
e
e
e
10360 ± 60 B.P.
e
e
e
√
e
e
e
e
mountain footslope
12420 ± 120 B.P. 12370 ± 90 B.P.
e
e
e
√
e
e
e
Dadiwan
foothills in valley
7350 ± 115 B.P.
e
√
e
√
11
Xishanping
foothills in valley
8170e7370 B.P.
√
√
√
√
e
Dadiwan
foothills in valley
6400 ± 190 B.P. 5600 ± 120 B.P.
√
√
√
√
Xishanping
foothills in valley
5895e5450 B.P.
√
√
√
Gaoshitou
foothills in valley
6500e5600 B.P.
√
√
Shuza
tablelands in valley
5300e4800 B.P.
√
Hulijia
tablelands in valley
5450 ± 136 B.P.
Linjia
tablelands in valley
4675 ± 80 B.P. 4540 ± 80 B.P.
151 Yantaidong
Pre-Yangshao
Crop
agriculture (more), hunting, &gathering (less) agriculture (more), hunting &gathering (less)
agriculture (more), hunting &gathering (less) agriculture (dominant), hunting &gathering (supplementary) agriculture (dominant), hunting &gathering (supplementary)
agriculture (dominant), hunting &gathering (supplementary)
Archaeological Institute of Gansu (2006) Institute of Archaeology of Chinese Academy of Social Science (1999) Archaeological Institute of Gansu (2006) Institute of Archaeology of Chinese Academy of Social Science (1999) Archaeological Institute of Gansu (2012) Hu (2014)
Jia (2012), Institute of Archaeology of Chinese Academy of Social Science (2001) Archaeological Team of Gansu (1984), Wang and Guo (1984)
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Please cite this article in press as: Wang, L., et al., Hydrogeomorphic settings of late Paleolithic and early-mid Neolithic sites in relation to subsistence variation in Gansu and Qinghai Provinces, northwest China, Quaternary International (2016), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/ j.quaint.2016.03.017
Table 1 Summary archaeological information of the nine sites from published materials and their inferred subsistence strategy and geomorphic positions.
L. Wang et al. / Quaternary International xxx (2016) 1e8
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Fig. 2. a. Five levels of pedestrian spheres with different walking time identified around Shuzha site in Gansu. b. Seven magnitudes of stream order identified by the “STRAHLER method” around Shuzha site. c. Geomorphic positions of Shuzha site reflected by 5 slope levels and overlaid hill shade within 2 h' pedestrian scope.
Fig. 3. Geomorphic positions of nine sites reflected by raster image of slope classification and overlaid hill shade of ASTER GDEM data within 2 h' pedestrian scope.
Please cite this article in press as: Wang, L., et al., Hydrogeomorphic settings of late Paleolithic and early-mid Neolithic sites in relation to subsistence variation in Gansu and Qinghai Provinces, northwest China, Quaternary International (2016), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/ j.quaint.2016.03.017
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Fig. 4. a. Statistical results of lands' sloping levels within 10 min' pedestrian scope for the nine sites; b. Stream orders recorded within 5 hierarchical pedestrian scopes for the nine sites.
suggested in Fig. 4b where only low magnitudes of stream order (level 1 and 2) are identified within 2 h' walking scope. It is likely that most wild animals lived in or near mountains far from main streams. In Zhuanglang county of east Gansu Province, many late Paleolithic sites were identified by previous archaeological investigations (Zhang, 2010b), which are located in similar settings (Fig. 1c). The areas and proportion of arable flat lands (<6 ) within 10 min' walk at Dadiwan, Xishanping and Gaositou sites reach 15.2, 16.8 and 26.7 ha and 25.9%, 26.8% and 36% respectively, which are slightly higher than those three late Paleolithic sites. The ages of these three sites span from the Dadiwan period (7800e7200 BP) to the early-mid Yangshao period (7000e5500 BP) (Table 1), when hunting was still the main subsistence strategy in the western Loess Plateau region, although domesticated plants and animals had been utilized during that period (Barton et al., 2009). Comparing with the late Paleolithic sites, surrounding lands of the three preYangshao and early-mid Yangshao sites are flatter (Fig. 4a) in a river valley setting (Fig. 3), and higher magnitudes of stream order (level 3e5) are recorded within walking range (Fig. 4b). The variation of hydrogeomorphic settings of the sites between late Paleolithic and early-mid Neolithic can also been identified in
Zhuanglang county in east Gansu Province (Fig. 1c), suggesting humans had considered the facility of both hunting-gathering and millet cultivation when choosing settlement sites, which likely promoted human to settle at foothills of river valley that are adjacent to both mountains and valley terraces. Previous work also suggest that early Neolithic sites in north China are mostly located in foothills (Liu et al., 2009), where people are conveniently located close to hunting and farming lands. The areas of arable flat lands (<6 ) within 10 min walking time of Linjia, Hulijia and Shuza sites increase remarkably to 33.7, 48.2 and 60.4 ha, the proportions of which reach 41.7%, 49.5% and 60.6%. These three Majiayao sites are located on the loess tableland in river valleys, where abundant arable flat lands and high soil nutrients favour millet cultivation (Fig. 3). Additionally, all three Majiayao sites are recorded with even higher magnitude stream order (level 6) within the 3rd zone of walking access which approximates an hour's walk, implying that the exploration of valley tablelands adjacent to mainstream rivers was initiated by Majiayao societies. This can be further testified by the distribution of archaeological survey data in the Guanting and Hualong basins of upper Yellow River where most Majiayao sites are located on the second and third terraces of the Yellow River (Fig. 1b) (Jia, 2012).
Please cite this article in press as: Wang, L., et al., Hydrogeomorphic settings of late Paleolithic and early-mid Neolithic sites in relation to subsistence variation in Gansu and Qinghai Provinces, northwest China, Quaternary International (2016), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/ j.quaint.2016.03.017
L. Wang et al. / Quaternary International xxx (2016) 1e8
The Majiaoyao is the predominant Neolithic culture in Gansu and Qinghai Provinces, expanding westward to the northeastern edge of the Tibetan Plateau and southward to Sichuan Province around 5000 BP (Chen et al., 2015b). Intensive millet agriculture developed rapidly and became the most important subsistence strategy during late Yangshao and Majiayao periods in the west Loess Plateau (Barton et al., 2009; Zhou et al., 2011), and promoted the expansion of Majiayao culture (Jia et al., 2013). Sufficient arable lands and water access are necessary for millet cultivation, which was the foundation for the survival and development of Majiayao groups. The more variable and dryer climate during 5000e4000 BP compared to the previous Yangshao period in north China (Feng et al., 2004; An et al., 2006; Cai et al., 2010; Dong et al., 2012; Chen et al., 2015a) probably forced Majiayao farmers to settle near the main streams that can supply stable water resources. Our GIS based hydrogeomorphic analysis of late Paleolithic, early-mid Neolithic and late Neolithic sites suggests that cultures adopting different subsistence strategy tend to occupy lands with different topographic features. Most Paleolithic groups were inclined to select footslopes as their encampments, some even inhabited mountain areas (Fig. 1c), without the consideration of arable lands and stable water resources, probably due to the high mobility of wild animals and themselves. During the pre-Yangshao and early-mid Yangshao periods, the emergence and development of primitive millet cultivation induced humans to choose more permanent settlement in foothills of river valleys, due to the demand for both hunting in mountains and planting in flat valley lands. The principal factors for pre-Yangshao sites (eg. Dadiwan and Xishanping) selection was likely landform position (foothills), when hunting was still the primary subsistence strategy. As humans relied more on millet cultivation during early-mid Yangshao periods such as at Gasoshitou site and the second periods of Dadiwan and Xishanping sites (Table 1), the significance of arable lands increased in decision making, while the high precipitation in north China during Yangshao period (Chen et al., 2015a) might reduce the reliance on stable main surface runoff. The need of arable lands evidently increased after the establishment of intensive rain-fed agriculture after 5900 BP in east Gansu Province (Barton et al., 2009), humans tended to settle on tablelands near main rivers which provided abundant flat lands and stable water resources when rainfall declined and fluctuated, for example, during Majiayao periods. 5. Conclusion and prospection Hydrogeomorphic settings of nine late Paleolithic, early-mid Neolithic and late Neolithic sites in Gansu and Qinghai Provinces vary in relation to the shift of human subsistence strategy from hunting-gathering, primordial millet cultivation, to the emergence of intensive rain-fed agriculture. During the transitional periods, humans tended to keep apart from mountains, and approached larger rivers and settle in tablelands, for obtaining enough arable lands and stable water resources that are necessary for the maintenance and development of farming societies. The changing hydrogeomorphic settings of sites distribution might be affected by both technical progress and climate fluctuation in early-mid Holocene, which should be further testified in different areas and scales. Our work indicates that a site's geomorphological environment within a specified walking range can be quantitatively described through GIS analysis, which facilitates inter-site comparisons and sheds light on mechanisms of habitat selection driven by subsistence activities adopted. Further improvement of this work will be based on more sample sites with supporting evidence from archaeobotanic and zooarchaeological studies, improved precision
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on digital elevation model (DEM) and its quantitative modification caused by geomorphological evolution. With the development of UAV (Unmanned Aerial Vehicle) photogrammetry and abundance of archaeological excavation materials, this should be achieved in near future. Acknowledgements This work was supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 41401224) and Promotion Program for Young and Middle-aged Teacher in Science and Technology Research of Huaqiao University (No. ZQN-PY310). We thank Prof. Dong Guanghui from Lanzhou University and Prof. John Dodson from the Institute of Earth Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences (Xi'an) for providing valuable suggestions and modification of the manuscript. We also thank Dr. Zhang Dongju in Lanzhou University for providing some GPS data. References An, C.B., Feng, Z.D., Tang, L.Y., 2004. Environmental change and cultural response between 8000 and 4000 cal.yr BP in the western Loess Plateau, northwest China. Journal of Quaternary Science 19 (6), 529e535. An, C.B., Feng, Z.D., Barton, L., 2006. Dry or humid? Mid-Holocene humidity changes in arid and semi-arid China. Quaternary Science Reviews 25, 351e361. Archaeological Institute of Gansu, 2006. Dadiwan in Qin’an. Cultural Relics Press, Beijing, pp. 686e917 (in Chinese). Archaeological Institute of Gansu, 2012. Excavation report on Gaositou Neolithic site in Lixian county, Gansu. Archaeology and Cultural Relics 4, 14e33 (in Chinese). Archaeological team of Gansu, 1984. Excavation Report on Dongxianglinjia Site in Gansu. Collection of Archaeological Papers 4th. China Social Sciences Press, Beijing, pp. 111e161 (in Chinese). Barton, L., Newsome, S.D., Chen, F.H., Wang, H., Guilderson, T.P., Bettinger, R.L., 2009. Agricultural origins and the isotopic identity of domestication in northern China. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 106 (14), 5523e5528. Bellwood, P., 2005. First Farmers: the Origin of Agricultural Societies. Blackwell Publishing, London, p. 360. Bureau of National Cultural Relics, 1996. Atlas of Chinese Cultural Relics- Fascicule of Qinghai Province. China Cartographic Publishing House Press, Beijing (in Chinese). Bureau of National Cultural Relics, 2011. Atlas of Chinese Cultural Relics-fascicule of Gansu Province. China Surveying and Mapping Publishing House Press, Beijing (in Chinese). Cai, Y.J., Tan, L.C., Cheng, H., An, Z.S., Edwards, R.L., Kelly, M.J., Kong, X.G., Wang, X.F., 2010. The variation of summer monsoon precipitation in central China since the last deglaciation. Earth and Planetary Science Letters 291, 21e31. Chen, F.H., Xu, Q.H., Chen, J.H., Birks, H.J.B., Liu, J.B., Zhang, S.R., Jin, L.Y., An, C.B., Telford, R.J., Cao, X.Y., Wang, Z.L., Zhang, X.J., Selvaraj, K., Lu, H.Y., Li, Y.C., Zheng, Z., Wang, H.P., Zhou, A.F., Dong, G.H., Zhang, J.W., Huang, X.Z., Bloemendal, J., Rao, Z.G., 2015a. East Asian summer monsoon precipitation variability since the last deglaciation. Scientific Reports 5, 11186. Chen, F.H., Dong, G.H., Zhang, D.J., Liu, X.Y., Jia, X., An, C.B., Ma, M.M., Xie, Y.W., Barton, L., Ren, X.Y., Zhao, Z.J., Wu, X.H., Jones, M.K., 2015b. Agriculture facilitated permanent human occupation of the Tibetan Plateau after 3600 B.P. Science 347 (6219), 248e250. Chen, S.Q., 2006a. Adaptive changes of hunter-gatherers during the late Pleistocene-early Holocene transition in China. Acta Anthropologica Sinica 25 (3), 195e207. Chen, S.Q., 2006b. Environment adaption and diffusion of north China humans in late Pleistocene. Quaternary Sciences 26 (4), 522e533. Crawford, G., 2009. Agricultural origins in North China pushed back to the PleistoceneeHolocene boundary. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 106 (18), 7271e7272. d’Alpoim Guedes, J., Lu, H.L., Hein, A.M., Schmidt, A.H., 2015. Early evidence for the use of wheat and barley as staple crops on the margins of the Tibetan Plateau. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 112 (18), 5625e5630. Dodson, J.R., Li, X., Zhou, X., Zhao, K., Sun, N., Atahan, P., 2013. Origin and spread of wheat in China. Quaternary Science Reviews 72, 108e111. Dong, G.H., Jia, X., An, C.B., Chen, F.H., Zhao, Y., Tao, S.C., Ma, M.M., 2012. Mid-Holocene climate change and its effect on prehistoric cultural evolution in eastern Qinghai Province, China. Quaternary Research 77 (1), 23e30. Dong, G.H., Wang, L., Cui, Y.F., Elston, R., Chen, F.H., 2013a. The spatiotemporal pattern of the Majiayao cultural evolution and its relation to climate change and variety of subsistence strategy during late Neolithic period in Gansu and Qinghai Regions, northwest China. Quaternary International 316, 155e161. Dong, G.H., Jia, X., Elston, R., Chen, F.H., Li, S.C., Wang, L., Cai, L.H., An, C.B., 2013b. Spatial and temporal variety of prehistoric sites and its influencing factors in
Please cite this article in press as: Wang, L., et al., Hydrogeomorphic settings of late Paleolithic and early-mid Neolithic sites in relation to subsistence variation in Gansu and Qinghai Provinces, northwest China, Quaternary International (2016), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/ j.quaint.2016.03.017
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Liu, L., Bestel, S., Shi, J., Song, Y.H., Chen, X.C., 2013. Paleolithic human exploitation of plant foods during the last glacial maximum in North China. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 110 (14), 5380e5385. Ma, M.M., Dong, G.H., Liu, X.Y., Lightfoot, E., Chen, F.H., Wang, H., Li, H., Jones, M.K., 2013. Stable isotope analysis of human and animal remains at the Qijiaping site in Middle Gansu, China. International Journal of Osteoarchaeology. http:// dx.doi.org/10.1002/oa.2379 online. Ma, M.M., Dong, G.H., Lightfoot, E., Wang, H., Liu, X.Y., Jia, X., Zhang, K.R., Chen, F.H., 2014. Stable isotope analysis of human and faunal remains in the western loess Plateau, Gansu, China, approximately 4000 cal BP. Archaeometry 56, 237e255. Suppl. Madsen, D.B., Ma, H.Z., Brantingham, P.J., Gao, X., Rhode, D., Zhang, H.Y., Olsen, J.W., 2006. The Late Upper Paleolithic occupation of the northern Tibetan Plateau margin. Journal of Archaeological Science 33, 1433e1444. ska, Z., Dombay, S., 2012. Determining minimum hiking time using DEM. Magyari-Sa Geographia Napocensis (Academia Romana e Filiala Cluj Colectivul de Geografie) Anul VI (2), 124e129. Pingel, T.J., 2009. Modeling Slope as a Contributor to Route Selection in Mountainous Areas. UCGIS 2009 Summer Assembly. Rexer, M., Hirt, C., 2014. Comparison of free high-resolution digital elevation data sets (ASTER GDEM2, SRTM v2.1/v4.1) and validation against accurate heights from the Australian National Gravity Database. Australian Journal of Earth Sciences 61 (2). http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/08120099.2014.884983. Rhode, D., Brantingham, P.J., Perreault, C., Madsen, D.B., 2014. Mind the gaps: testing for hiatuses in regional radiocarbon date. Journal of Archaeological Science 52, 1e11. Shen, J., Liu, X.Q., Wang, S.M., Matsumoto, R., 2005. Palaeoclimatic changes in the Qinghai Lake area during the last 18,000 years. Quaternary International 136, 131e140. Tang, H.S., 2011. The archaeological cultures and their economic types on the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau in the late Paleolithic age to the early Neolithic age. Acta Archaeological Sinica 4, 443e465 (in Chinese). Tobler, W., 1993. Three presentations on geographical analysis and modeling: nonisotropic geographic modeling speculations on the geometry of geography global spatial analysis. In: NCGIA (National Center for Geographic Information and Analysis) Technical Report 93 (1), 1e24. Vita-Finzi, C., Higgs, E.S., 1970. Prehistoric economy in the mount carmel area of Palestine. Site catchment analysis. In: Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society, 36, pp. 1e37. Vita-Finzi, C., 1969. Early man and environment. In: Cooke, R.U., Johonson, James H. (Eds.), Trends in Geography e an Introductory Survey. Oxford, Pergamon, pp. 102e109. Wang, Q.R., Guo, D.Y., 1984. Millet and Cannabis sativa excavated from Dongxianglinjia Majiayao site in Gansu. Archaeology (7), 654e655. Weiss, H., Bradley, R.S., 2001. What drives societal collapse? Science 291 (5504), 609e610. Yan, W.M., 2000. The Origin of Agriculture and Civilization. Science Press, Beijing (in Chinese). Yi, M.J., Gao, X., Zhang, X.L., Sun, Y.J., Brantingham, P.J., Madsen, D.B., Rhode, D., 2011. A preliminary report on investigation in 2009 of some prehistoric sites in the Tibetan Plateau marginal region. Acta Anthropologica Sinica 30 (2), 124e134 (in Chinese). Zhang, D.J., Chen, F.H., Bettinger, R.L., Barton, L., Ji, D.X., Morgan, C., Wang, H., Cheng, X.Z., Dong, G.H., Guilderson, T.P., Zhao, H., 2010a. Archaeological records of Dadiwan in the past 60 ka and the origin of the millet agriculture. Chinese Science Bulletin 55 (10), 887e894 (in Chinese). Zhang, D.J., 2010b. Environmental Change of Late Pleistocene and Paleolithic Archaeological Cultures in Loess Plateau of Western Gansu. PhD Thesis. Lanzhou Unviersity, Lanzhou (in Chinese). Zhou, X.Y., Li, X.Q., Zhao, K.L., Dodson, J., Sun, N., Yang, Q., 2011. Early agricultural development and environmental effects in the Neolithic Longdong basin (eastern Gansu). Chinese Science Bulletin 56 (4e5), 318e326.
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Hydrogeomorphic settings of late Paleolithic and early-mid Neolithic sites in relation to subsistence variation in Gansu and Qinghai Provinces, northwest China Lin Wang a, *, Yishi Yang b, Xin Jia c a
School of Architecture, HuaQiao University, Jimei Road 668, Xiamen, Fujian Province, 361021, China MOE Key Laboratory of Western China's Environmental System, Research School of Arid Environment and Climate Change, Lanzhou University, South Tianshui Road 222, Lanzhou, Gansu Province, 730000, China c School of Geographic and Oceanographic Sciences, Nanjing University, Nanjing, Jiangsu Province, 210023, China b
a r t i c l e i n f o
a b s t r a c t
Article history: Available online xxx
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. © 2016 Elsevier Ltd and INQUA. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Hydrogeomorphic analysis GIS Subsistence strategy Gansu and Qinghai Early-mid Holocene
1. Introduction The late Paleolithic and early-mid Neolithic were one of the most important periods for studying the evolution of human societies and the subsistence strategy transition from hunting and gathering to the raising of domestic plants and animals (Yan, 2000; Lee et al., 2007; Liu et al., 2013). The variety of human subsistence strategies (especially the origin of agriculture) and its relation to cultural expansion and climate change during that period has been intensively discussed (Weiss, H. and Bradley, R.S., 2001; Bellwood, P., 2005; Larson et al., 2007; Crawford, G., 2009; Chen et al., 2015; d'Alpoim Guedes et al., 2015). However, the changing hydrogeomorphic settings of human settlements during different phases has not been well understood, due to the absence of transitional sites between late Paleolithic and early Neolithic in most parts of the world and the scarcity of quantitative analysis of hydrogeomorphic features of prehistoric sites.
* Corresponding author. E-mail address: [email protected] (L. Wang).
Gansu and Qinghai provinces in northwest China are one of the key regions for the spread of millet cultivation (Zhang et al., 2010; Liu et al., 2012, 2014), where thousands of late Paleolithic and Neolithic sites are known (BNCR, 1996, 2011). The diversity of landforms in the region provides suitable space for different economies such as farming and herding, both in ancient times and nowadays. Subsistence strategy variation during prehistoric times in Gansu and Qinghai Provinces became increasingly clear from archaeobotanic and zooarchaeological studies and isotopic analysis of human and animal bones from prehistoric sites in this area (eg. Li et al., 2007; Dodson et al., 2013; Jia et al., 2013; Ma et al., 2013, 2014; Liu et al., 2014; Chen et al., 2015). The environmental background of prehistoric cultural transition has also been intensively studied (eg. An et al., 2004, 2006; Dong et al., 2012, 2013a,b; Hou et al., 2015). Nevertheless, most these works focus on human-land evolution during mid-late Neolithic and Bronze periods, the relationship between subsistence strategy and geomorphic settings of human settlements during late Paleolithic and early-mid Neolithic periods remains enigmatic. Subsistence strategy during late Paleolithic and early-mid Neolithic periods in Gansu and Qinghai can be roughly divided to
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Please cite this article in press as: Wang, L., et al., Hydrogeomorphic settings of late Paleolithic and early-mid Neolithic sites in relation to subsistence variation in Gansu and Qinghai Provinces, northwest China, Quaternary International (2016), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/ j.quaint.2016.03.017
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L. Wang et al. / Quaternary International xxx (2016) 1e8
three phases, hunting and gathering during late Paleolithic period, primary hunting and gathering and auxiliary farming during Dadiwan I period (7800e7200 BP), and primary intensive farming since 5900 BP (Barton et al., 2009). In this paper, we select nine well-dated typical sites of these three phases, conducting quantitative analysis of their hydrogeomorphic settings and examining the changing patterns in local scales, to aid understanding how ancient people engaged in habitat selection in relation to subsistence variation. 2. Study area 2.1. Geographic background The study area is located in the western part of the Loess Plateau and the northeastern margin of the Tibet Plateau, covering an area from A'nimaqing Mountains and Qinghai Lake in the west to the
Liupan Mountains in the east (Fig. 1a). The mean annual temperature ranges from 0.3e14.8 C and the mean annual precipitation from 50 to 860 mm. Altitude declines gradually from 6295 m a.s.l at Animaing Mountain in the west to 490 m a.s.l at Qingyang County in the east. 2.2. Materials and database We selected three late Paleolithic sites (151, Jiangxigou I and Yantaidong), three pre-Yangshao and early-mid Yangshao sites (Dadiwan, Xishanping and Gaoshitou sites), and three Majiayao sites (Shuza, Hulijia and Linjia) (Fig. 1) to study the variety of human habitat selection during the transitional period from huntinggathering to millet cultivation. Among the nine sites, seven were excavated systematically with 14C dating and tools assemblage statistics (The excavation report of Yantaidong site is unpublished yet). Detailed results of radiocarbon dating, statistics of artifacts
Fig. 1. a. Nine typical sites in our study area. b. Distribution of Majiayao sites in Guanting and Hualong basin (Jia, 2012). c. Distribution of late Paleolithic sites and early Yangshao sites in Zhuanglang County, Gansu (Zhang, 2010a).
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L. Wang et al. / Quaternary International xxx (2016) 1e8
assemblage, plant and animal remains identification are listed in Table 1 (Archaeological team of Gansu, 1984; Wang and Guo, 1984; Institute of Archaeology of Chinese Academy of Social Science, 1999; Gansu-Qinghai Archaeological team of Institute of Archaeology CASS and Archaeological Institute of Qinghai Province, 2001; Archaeological Institute of Gansu, 2006, 2012; Tang, 2011; Yi et al., 2011; Jia, 2012; Rhode et al., 2014; Hu, 2014). The locations of late Paleolithic, Pre-Yangshao and early-mid Yangshao sites in Zhuanglang County, Gansu Province (Fig. 1c) and Majiayao sites in Guanting basin, Qinghai Province (Fig. 1b) were obtained by previous archaeological surveys (BNCR, 1996, 2011; Zhang, 2010b; Jia, 2012). The improved ASTER GDEM V2 was released in October 2011 and provides an elevation model to conduct hydrogeomorphic analysis. An improved 30 m horizontal resolution and better vertical accuracy, now delivers a more accurate representation of the ground over rugged mountainous terrain (Rexer and Hirt, 2014). 3. Methodology 3.1. Site's catchment area within pedestrian scope In our study, a site's surrounding hydrogeomorphic condition was examined. Due to topographic obstruction and trip mode employed by ancient people, the exploitable scope is not likely a circle but an irregular polygon representing the pedestrian range at any particular period of time. In other words the walking range is more rationally defined than a circle area with fixed radius; when inspecting a site's surrounding hydrogeomorphic setting. According to Vita-Finzi and Higgs, who proposed the concept of “Site Catchment” and bridged the on-site relic analysis and the off-site environmental analysis (Vita-Finzi and Higgs, 1970), the exploitable scope for a site can be defined as 1 h's walk for agricultural people and 2 h for hunter-gatherers (Vita-Finzi, 1969). Actually, according to our experience, a reduced exploitable scope like 10 min' walking scope is preciser to inspect surrounding microlandscapes and make the geomorphic analysis more comparatively significant. Based on the new standard, micro-landscapes like foothill of a mountain and valley bottom near the foothill can be distinguished. Although it is still reasonable to deem that most farming activities are likely happening within 1 h's walking scope according to Vita-Finzi, here we posit that ancient people tend to inspect the geomorphic conditions within 10 min' walking scope when selecting a new habitat site. Here we used a 2 h' pedestrian scope to indicate the accessibility of surrounding surface runoff for a site, due to encompass possible variation of drainage network in ancient times. Some researchers have studied the functional relationship between slopes and walking speed, which includes the famous “Naismith Rules” proposed by Scottish mountaineer William Naismith in 1892 and “Tobler Rules” by Tobler Waldo in 1993 (Tobler, 1993). Factors other than slope, like vision field and road base materials, would also affect ordinary person's walking speed, but the relation can be assumed to be weak (Kondo and Seino, 2010). Subsequent studies mostly focus on improving the forecasting accuracy by experimental measures (Langmuir, 1984; Pingel, 2009; ska and Dombay, 2012). Considering similarity of the Magyari-Sa simulative topographic environment to this study, the functional model revised from “Tobler Rules” and proposed recently by Japanese researchers Kondo and Seino were adopted in our work (Kondo and Seino, 2010). The slope raster generated from ASTER GDEM data was used to produce catchment area (or pedestrian scope) for each site by “functional transformation” and “cost distance” analysis tools of ArcGIS 10.1. To analyze the hydrogeomorphic settings in a
3
hierarchical way, the pedestrian scope was reclassified into 5 spheres (Fig. 2a). The inter-pixel walking direction and negative slopes, which will complicate the calculation model and exert limited affection on final results, were not taken into account here. 3.2. Flat lands supply and proximity to local stream network within pedestrian scope According to the “Survey procedure of present land use status” issued by “China Agricultural Zoning Committee” in 1984, 5 slope levels were identified to indicate the suitability for farming: The first level (2 slope) indicates most suitable farm lands without water and soil loss; Mild, moderate and serious soil erosion happen in lands of level 2 (2 ～ 6 ), level 3 (6 ～ 15 ) and level 4 (15 ～ 25 ) respectively; Lands of level 5 (>25 ) are not suitable for farming but for grassland and forestry use (Fig. 2c). Lacking technologies of soil and water conservation, we consider here lands of slope level 1 and 2 as suitable for primordial agriculture due to the low soil erosion and nutrient loss. We also use this slope classification with overlaid hill shade raster in 2 h' pedestrian scope to reflect the geomorphic positions for the 9 typical sites we are analyzing (Fig. 3). As for the hydrologic condition within pedestrian scopes, the STRAHLER method proposed by STRAHLER in 1952 was used to identify stream orders. According to this method, all links with no tributaries are assigned a magnitude (stream order) of one. Stream order only increases when streams of the same order intersect (Gleyzer et al., 2004). Results show seven magnitudes with higher stream orders indicating better impoundment condition and higher availability of water (Fig. 2b). Both flow accumulation and stream ordering analysis were achieved by the hydrology module of ArcGIS 10.1. 4. Results and discussion To reflect the amount of cultivable flat lands, an accumulative bar graph was used to manifest the actual land areas (unit: hectare) of different slope levels within 10 min pedestrian range (Lands of lower slope levels, like level 1 and 2, are more suitable for farming). The pie charts indicate corresponding proportions of different slope levels for each site (Fig. 4a). Another bar graph indicating stream orders attainable in different pedestrian time was used to reflect the proximity of surrounding surface runoff (Higher magnitude indicates better impoundment condition and higher possibility of mainstream rivers) (Fig. 4b). Final results are shown in Fig. 4 in a comparative way. The three late Paleolithic sites in Qinghai lake basin don't occupy the abundant arable flat lands (<6 ) within easiest accessible area (10 min walking scope), compared to the six Neolithic sites (see Fig. 4a) in either amount (mean value: 13.4 ha) or proportion (mean value: 20.7%). These Paleolithic sites are located at the transitional areas between mountain and tablelands in Qinghai lake basin which are also in the area of the forest-steppe ecotone, they manifest no obvious features related to valley landform (Fig. 3). Foragers preferred to occupy the mountain edge with easy access to mountain area for the convenience of hunting that was the primary subsistence strategy during the Paleolithic period, for most easily hunted wild animals (such as deer, blue sheep, etc.) were distributed in the boundary zones between forest and steppe (Chen, 2006a,b). The rugged surrounding landform might also provide cover to resist wild animals or enemies. Tree pollen concentration from the sediments in Qinghai lake in early Holocene are much higher than mid-late Holocene (Liu et al., 2002; Shen et al., 2005), suggesting relatively large forest cover which favoured hunting for late Paleolithic groups. Hunters-gathers inclined to occupy areas near small stream branches instead of large mainstreams, as is
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4
Period
Late Paleolithic
Site
Topographic location
Date
mountain footslope mountain front
Jiangxigou I
Early-middle Yangshao
The Majiayao
Animal
Ground stone tools
Unearthed stone tools
Subsistence strategy
Reference
e
√
hunting and gathering
e
e
√
hunting and gathering
e
e
e
√
3
2
1
17 (40%)
42
1
1
e
e
2 (18%)
11
hunting and gathering (dominant), agriculture (supplementary) hunting and gathering (dominant), agriculture (supplementary) hunting and gathering (dominant), agriculture (supplementary)
Yi et al. (2011), Rhode et al. (2014) Madsen et al. (2006), Yi et al. (2011) Madsen et al. (2006), Tang (2011)
136
234
46
11
89
516 (45%)
1158
√
1
1
e
e
e
2 (66%)
3
√
√
17
5
4
2
e
28 (62%)
45
√
√
√
√
√
√
√
e
√
√
√
√
√
√
√
√
√
√
√
√
about200
√
√
√
√
246
211
e
312
2
771 (78%)
984
Setaria italica
Panicum miliaceum
Domestic animal
Wild animal
Knife
Axe
Shovel
Adze
Grinding plate
sum (percentage)
7760 ± 60 B.P.
e
e
e
√
e
e
e
e
e
10360 ± 60 B.P.
e
e
e
√
e
e
e
e
mountain footslope
12420 ± 120 B.P. 12370 ± 90 B.P.
e
e
e
√
e
e
e
Dadiwan
foothills in valley
7350 ± 115 B.P.
e
√
e
√
11
Xishanping
foothills in valley
8170e7370 B.P.
√
√
√
√
e
Dadiwan
foothills in valley
6400 ± 190 B.P. 5600 ± 120 B.P.
√
√
√
√
Xishanping
foothills in valley
5895e5450 B.P.
√
√
√
Gaoshitou
foothills in valley
6500e5600 B.P.
√
√
Shuza
tablelands in valley
5300e4800 B.P.
√
Hulijia
tablelands in valley
5450 ± 136 B.P.
Linjia
tablelands in valley
4675 ± 80 B.P. 4540 ± 80 B.P.
151 Yantaidong
Pre-Yangshao
Crop
agriculture (more), hunting, &gathering (less) agriculture (more), hunting &gathering (less)
agriculture (more), hunting &gathering (less) agriculture (dominant), hunting &gathering (supplementary) agriculture (dominant), hunting &gathering (supplementary)
agriculture (dominant), hunting &gathering (supplementary)
Archaeological Institute of Gansu (2006) Institute of Archaeology of Chinese Academy of Social Science (1999) Archaeological Institute of Gansu (2006) Institute of Archaeology of Chinese Academy of Social Science (1999) Archaeological Institute of Gansu (2012) Hu (2014)
Jia (2012), Institute of Archaeology of Chinese Academy of Social Science (2001) Archaeological Team of Gansu (1984), Wang and Guo (1984)
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Please cite this article in press as: Wang, L., et al., Hydrogeomorphic settings of late Paleolithic and early-mid Neolithic sites in relation to subsistence variation in Gansu and Qinghai Provinces, northwest China, Quaternary International (2016), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/ j.quaint.2016.03.017
Table 1 Summary archaeological information of the nine sites from published materials and their inferred subsistence strategy and geomorphic positions.
L. Wang et al. / Quaternary International xxx (2016) 1e8
5
Fig. 2. a. Five levels of pedestrian spheres with different walking time identified around Shuzha site in Gansu. b. Seven magnitudes of stream order identified by the “STRAHLER method” around Shuzha site. c. Geomorphic positions of Shuzha site reflected by 5 slope levels and overlaid hill shade within 2 h' pedestrian scope.
Fig. 3. Geomorphic positions of nine sites reflected by raster image of slope classification and overlaid hill shade of ASTER GDEM data within 2 h' pedestrian scope.
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Fig. 4. a. Statistical results of lands' sloping levels within 10 min' pedestrian scope for the nine sites; b. Stream orders recorded within 5 hierarchical pedestrian scopes for the nine sites.
suggested in Fig. 4b where only low magnitudes of stream order (level 1 and 2) are identified within 2 h' walking scope. It is likely that most wild animals lived in or near mountains far from main streams. In Zhuanglang county of east Gansu Province, many late Paleolithic sites were identified by previous archaeological investigations (Zhang, 2010b), which are located in similar settings (Fig. 1c). The areas and proportion of arable flat lands (<6 ) within 10 min' walk at Dadiwan, Xishanping and Gaositou sites reach 15.2, 16.8 and 26.7 ha and 25.9%, 26.8% and 36% respectively, which are slightly higher than those three late Paleolithic sites. The ages of these three sites span from the Dadiwan period (7800e7200 BP) to the early-mid Yangshao period (7000e5500 BP) (Table 1), when hunting was still the main subsistence strategy in the western Loess Plateau region, although domesticated plants and animals had been utilized during that period (Barton et al., 2009). Comparing with the late Paleolithic sites, surrounding lands of the three preYangshao and early-mid Yangshao sites are flatter (Fig. 4a) in a river valley setting (Fig. 3), and higher magnitudes of stream order (level 3e5) are recorded within walking range (Fig. 4b). The variation of hydrogeomorphic settings of the sites between late Paleolithic and early-mid Neolithic can also been identified in
Zhuanglang county in east Gansu Province (Fig. 1c), suggesting humans had considered the facility of both hunting-gathering and millet cultivation when choosing settlement sites, which likely promoted human to settle at foothills of river valley that are adjacent to both mountains and valley terraces. Previous work also suggest that early Neolithic sites in north China are mostly located in foothills (Liu et al., 2009), where people are conveniently located close to hunting and farming lands. The areas of arable flat lands (<6 ) within 10 min walking time of Linjia, Hulijia and Shuza sites increase remarkably to 33.7, 48.2 and 60.4 ha, the proportions of which reach 41.7%, 49.5% and 60.6%. These three Majiayao sites are located on the loess tableland in river valleys, where abundant arable flat lands and high soil nutrients favour millet cultivation (Fig. 3). Additionally, all three Majiayao sites are recorded with even higher magnitude stream order (level 6) within the 3rd zone of walking access which approximates an hour's walk, implying that the exploration of valley tablelands adjacent to mainstream rivers was initiated by Majiayao societies. This can be further testified by the distribution of archaeological survey data in the Guanting and Hualong basins of upper Yellow River where most Majiayao sites are located on the second and third terraces of the Yellow River (Fig. 1b) (Jia, 2012).
Please cite this article in press as: Wang, L., et al., Hydrogeomorphic settings of late Paleolithic and early-mid Neolithic sites in relation to subsistence variation in Gansu and Qinghai Provinces, northwest China, Quaternary International (2016), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/ j.quaint.2016.03.017
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The Majiaoyao is the predominant Neolithic culture in Gansu and Qinghai Provinces, expanding westward to the northeastern edge of the Tibetan Plateau and southward to Sichuan Province around 5000 BP (Chen et al., 2015b). Intensive millet agriculture developed rapidly and became the most important subsistence strategy during late Yangshao and Majiayao periods in the west Loess Plateau (Barton et al., 2009; Zhou et al., 2011), and promoted the expansion of Majiayao culture (Jia et al., 2013). Sufficient arable lands and water access are necessary for millet cultivation, which was the foundation for the survival and development of Majiayao groups. The more variable and dryer climate during 5000e4000 BP compared to the previous Yangshao period in north China (Feng et al., 2004; An et al., 2006; Cai et al., 2010; Dong et al., 2012; Chen et al., 2015a) probably forced Majiayao farmers to settle near the main streams that can supply stable water resources. Our GIS based hydrogeomorphic analysis of late Paleolithic, early-mid Neolithic and late Neolithic sites suggests that cultures adopting different subsistence strategy tend to occupy lands with different topographic features. Most Paleolithic groups were inclined to select footslopes as their encampments, some even inhabited mountain areas (Fig. 1c), without the consideration of arable lands and stable water resources, probably due to the high mobility of wild animals and themselves. During the pre-Yangshao and early-mid Yangshao periods, the emergence and development of primitive millet cultivation induced humans to choose more permanent settlement in foothills of river valleys, due to the demand for both hunting in mountains and planting in flat valley lands. The principal factors for pre-Yangshao sites (eg. Dadiwan and Xishanping) selection was likely landform position (foothills), when hunting was still the primary subsistence strategy. As humans relied more on millet cultivation during early-mid Yangshao periods such as at Gasoshitou site and the second periods of Dadiwan and Xishanping sites (Table 1), the significance of arable lands increased in decision making, while the high precipitation in north China during Yangshao period (Chen et al., 2015a) might reduce the reliance on stable main surface runoff. The need of arable lands evidently increased after the establishment of intensive rain-fed agriculture after 5900 BP in east Gansu Province (Barton et al., 2009), humans tended to settle on tablelands near main rivers which provided abundant flat lands and stable water resources when rainfall declined and fluctuated, for example, during Majiayao periods. 5. Conclusion and prospection Hydrogeomorphic settings of nine late Paleolithic, early-mid Neolithic and late Neolithic sites in Gansu and Qinghai Provinces vary in relation to the shift of human subsistence strategy from hunting-gathering, primordial millet cultivation, to the emergence of intensive rain-fed agriculture. During the transitional periods, humans tended to keep apart from mountains, and approached larger rivers and settle in tablelands, for obtaining enough arable lands and stable water resources that are necessary for the maintenance and development of farming societies. The changing hydrogeomorphic settings of sites distribution might be affected by both technical progress and climate fluctuation in early-mid Holocene, which should be further testified in different areas and scales. Our work indicates that a site's geomorphological environment within a specified walking range can be quantitatively described through GIS analysis, which facilitates inter-site comparisons and sheds light on mechanisms of habitat selection driven by subsistence activities adopted. Further improvement of this work will be based on more sample sites with supporting evidence from archaeobotanic and zooarchaeological studies, improved precision
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Please cite this article in press as: Wang, L., et al., Hydrogeomorphic settings of late Paleolithic and early-mid Neolithic sites in relation to subsistence variation in Gansu and Qinghai Provinces, northwest China, Quaternary International (2016), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/ j.quaint.2016.03.017