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The reasons and processes that led hunter-gatherers to transition into a sedentary and agricultural way of life are a fundamental unresolved question of human history. Here we present results of excavations of two single-occupation early Neolithic sites (dated to 7.9 and 7.4 ka) and two high-resolution archaeological surveys in northeast China, which capture the earliest stages of sedentism and millet cultivation in the second oldest center of domestication in the Old World. The transition to sedentism coincided with a significant transition to wetter conditions in north China, at 8.1-7.9 ka. We suggest that these wetter conditions were an empirical precondition that facilitated the complex transitional process to sedentism and eventually millet domestication in north China. Interestingly, sedentism and plant domestication followed different trajectories. The sedentary way of life and cultural norms evolved rapidly, within a few hundred years, we find complex sedentary villages inhabiting the landscape. However, the process of plant domestication, progressed slowly over several millennia. Our earliest evidence for the beginning of the domestication process appear in the context of an already complex sedentary village (late Xinglongwa culture), a half millennia after the onset of cultivation, and even in this phase domesticated plants and animals were rare, suggesting that the transition to domesticated (sensu stricto) plants in affluent areas might have not played a substantial role in the transition to sedentary societies.

This paper explores, for the first time, a 405 km long wall system located in eastern Mongolia: the "Mongolian Arc" consists of an earthen wall, a trench, and 34 structures. It is part of a much larger system of walls built between the 11th and 13th centuries a.d. The Mongolian Arc, despite its magnitude, has been largely overlooked in existing academic discourse. Our team collected remote sensing data of different types and conducted an archaeological field survey of the entire Mongolian Arc. The different datasets obtained in the lab and the field were analyzed using a geographic information system (GIS). These results were integrated with excerpts from relevant primary sources to provide a preliminary interpretation of the design and potential functions of the Mongolian Arc. Key areas of exploration include the idiosyncratic gaps along the wall, the spatial organization of the wall and structures, and their interrelationship with the adjacent landscape. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The long walls of China and the Eurasian Steppe are considered to have functioned as either defensive structures against aggressive nomadic tribes, or as elements to control the movement of local nomadic groups following imperialist expansion. This article focuses on a hitherto understudied 737km-long medieval wall running from northern China into north-eastern Mongolia. Built by either the Liao or Jin Dynasties, the wall features numerous auxiliary structures that hint at its function. In research relevant to interpreting other Eurasian and global wallbuilding episodes, the authors employ extensive archaeological survey and GIS analysis to understand better the reasons behind the wall's construction, as well as its various possible functions. Keywords: China, Mongolia, Liao, Jin, long walls, pastoralism, Introduction Periodic construction and use of long (or 'great') walls occurred in China from the last centuries BC to the seventeenth century AD (Waldron 1990; Jing 2006; Pines 2018). These [...]

Explaining the origins of agriculture is a topic of ongoing debate in anthropology. Traditional explanations have often been categorized as either push or pull models. The former considers the transition as an adaptive response to environmental change, and the latter views farming as a result of cultural innovations. The theoretical debates reflect the traditional dichotomy between materialism and idealism in archaeological research. Yet underlying both approaches is an anthropocentric ontology that privileges humans over nonhumans as the principal agents of historical change. This paper seeks to transcend the limitation through a close examination of the role of nonhumans in the origins of rice agriculture in southern China. Challenging traditional approaches that attribute the rise of agriculture to human interventions on the environment, this paper explores how the active agencies exercised by nonhumans, such as plants and material tools, entrapped humans into a long-term dependence and later into a sedentary lifestyle, eventually leading up to fully agricultural societies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Medieval Wall System of China and Mongolia is one of the longest wall systems in the world, but its specific chronology, function, and purpose remain ambiguous. Constructed at various points throughout the 10th to 13th centuries CE, this network of walls, forts, and enclosures covers an estimated 4000 km and spans a wide range of ecozones, from the deserts of western China to the steppes of northern Mongolia and the Khingan mountain range. In this article we used historical atlases, topographic maps, and an array of different kinds of data derived from satellite remote sensing, to produce one of the first accurate maps of the Medieval Wall System. Through this large-scale mapping program, we are now able to evaluate previous work that estimates the length of the wall system and different areas of construction. By measuring the structures associated with the wall and the length of the wall itself, we identified at least three different areas of construction along the Medieval Wall System. Future studies may be able to use similar tools to develop more accurate maps of other wall systems throughout Eurasia to further advance the comparative study of ancient wall systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Issues surrounding the difficult task of correlating archaeological and climatic trajectories are directly impacting the study of human-environmental interaction in Ancient China. We have chosen to focus on the 4.2 ka BP event due to the widespread belief in recent Chinese archaeological publications that it brought about the collapse of Neolithic cultures in multiple regions of China. Following a literature review concerning the many issues surrounding the reconstruction of the 4.2 ka BP event in East Asia, we present three short case studies from the Lower Yangzi, the Shaanxi loess plateau, and the Central Plains detailing a number of problems with Chinese archaeological attempts at using climate change as a causal mechanism for sociopolitical change. We then focus on a common but highly problematic methodology—the growing use of archaeological data compiled in the Atlas of Chinese Cultural Relics to correlate with climate proxies in order to generate linear, causal models explaining sociopolitical collapse. We follow with an example from Northeast China, where work from the past three decades has provided ample data with which to begin answering these questions in a more productive manner, and end with a set of suggestions for archaeologists and climate scientists going forward. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In China, as in many other modern and contemporary states, the past is often used to inform public opinions and legitimate the political regime. This article examines two examples of archaeological exhibitions in China: at the National Museum of China (中国国家博物馆) in Beijing and the Liaoning Provincial Museum (辽宁省博物馆) in Shenyang. It discusses the development and change over time in the content of these archaeological exhibitions, the way they were organized and presented to the public, and the explanations that accompanied the prehistoric artefacts. I argue that the way the past, and in particular the distant, prehistoric and proto-historic past, is presented in Chinese museums reveals a process of entrenchment of the standardized narrative of Chinese history, with a powerful sense of connection and continuity between the past, no matter how distant, and the present. I also argue that although the general outline of the historical trajectory of the 'Chinese civilization' is universally accepted, small variations in the way it is presented and the different emphases of the two exhibitions can inform us about various ways of constructing local and national identities in China during the 20th century and up to the current time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]