From necessity to choice: dietary revolutions in west China in the second millennium BC

Abstract

This article explores the context of the long-distance translocation of crops in prehistory. We draw upon contrasts in the isotopic signatures of Southwest Asian crops, including wheat and barley – C₃ plants, compared to Asian millets – C₄ plants, to investigate a key region of trans-Eurasian exchange, the Chinese province of Gansu. The isotopic results demonstrate that in Gansu province prior to 2000 cal. bc, the staples were millets. Between 2000 and 1800 cal. bc, there was a significant shift in staple foods towards the Southwest Asian crops. In the broader regional context, however, it would seem that these novel crops were not consumed in large quantities in many parts of China during the second millennium bc. This suggests that, while the Southwest Asian crops were adopted and became a staple food source in Gansu province in the second millennium bc, they were disregarded as staple foods elsewhere in the same millennium.

Keywords:

• Food globalization
• millet
• Southwest Asian crops
• isotopes
• Eurasia
• Gansu

Acknowledgements

The authors are grateful to the European Research Council, under grant 249642 (FOGLIP), the Leverhulme Trust, under grant f/09717/C (PPAC), Darwin College, National Project of Philosophical and Social Sciences of China, under grant 12&ZD151, and the European Union Structural Funds project, Postdoctoral Fellowship Implementation in Lithuania, for financial support. We are also grateful to members of the FOGLIP team for useful discussions of the manuscript. We are also thankful to Yaowu Hu and Minmin Ma from the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Catherine Kneale and James Rolfe from Cambridge for assistance with isotopic analysis and to Jianing He and Zhijun Zhao for liaising for the sampling process.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Xinyi Liu

Xinyi Liu, Ph.D. Cantab, is an assistant professor at Washington University in St. Louis, having been previously a European Research Council-funded post-doctoral researcher within the Food Globalization in Prehistory Project at the University of Cambridge.

Emma Lightfoot

Emma Lightfoot, PhD Cantab, is Adrian Research Fellow, Darwin College, and within the Food Globalization in Prehistory Project, University of Cambridge.

Tamsin C. O’Connell

Tamsin C. O’Connell, DPhil Oxon, is a university lecturer in bioarchaeology at the University of Cambridge.

Hui Wang

Hui Wang is director of Gansu Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology, Lanzhou.

Shuicheng Li

Shuicheng Li is a professor at the School of Archaeology and Museology, Peking University.

Liping Zhou

Liping Zhou, PhD Cantab, is a professor at the College of Urban and Environmental Sciences and director of the Laboratory of Quaternary Geology and Archaeological Chronology, Peking University.

Yaowu Hu

Yaowu Hu is a professor and Director of the History of Science and Archaeological Science Department, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences.

Giedre Motuzaite-Matuzeviciute

Giedre Motuzaite-Matuzeviciute, PhD Cantab, is an EU-funded post-doctoral researcher in the Department of Archaeology, Vilnius University, having been previously a Leverhulme Trust-funded post-doctoral researcher and within the Food Globalization Project.

Martin K. Jones

Martin Jones, DPhil Oxon, is George Pitt-Rivers Professor of Archaeological Science at the University of Cambridge and Principal Investigator of the Food Globalization in Prehistory Project.