Subsistence economic changes and their influencing factors in the lower Yangtze river region during 11,000–2,300 BP: archaeobotanical and zooarchaeological evidence

Abstract

The Lower Yangtze River Region (LYRR), is one of the oldest centers of rice agriculture in the world, though the long-term trajectory of this subsistence system and the environmental and cultural factors that influenced the trajectory remain to be fully elucidated. Drawing on published archaeobotanical and zooarchaeological evidence from 76 archaeological sites, this paper integrates paleoclimatic, paleoenvironmental, and other archaeological data, providing an overview of the trajectory of LYRR subsistence economies between 11,000–2300 BP. The integrated data indicates that between 11,000–6000 BP in LYRR, subsistence practices were mainly based on gathering, hunting and fishing, supplemented by rice cultivation during its incipient domestication. Between 6000–4000 BP a shift to rice agricultural production and animal husbandry took place, supplemented by gathering, hunting, and fishing. By 4000–2300 this subsistence system transformed into a diversified agricultural and hunting economy, supplemented by gathering, animal husbandry and fishing. Multiple environmental and social factors such as topography, landforms, climate, sea level fluctuations and population increase have jointly influenced the formation of subsistence economy in various periods of past LYRR peoples. Between 11,000–6000 BP the warm and humid climate and the geographical environment heavily influenced LYRR subsistence. Between 6000–4000 BP, a combination of the warm and humid climate, slowing sea level rise, the formation of the Yangtze River Delta, population growth, and shared belief systems were the primary influences on subsistence economies. By 4000–2300 BP, a colder-drier climate, and local geomorphological environments played a dominant role in the formation of a diversified subsistence economy.