A 5,500-Year Model of Changing Crop Niches on the Tibetan Plateau
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 2225042 |
|---|---|
| Authors | J D''Alpoim Guedes (0000-0002-2627-7863, Cornell University, corresponding author), W Manning (0000-0002-6917-0927, Cornell University, corresponding author), Sturt W Manning, R Kyle Bocinsky (0000-0003-1862-3428, Cornell University, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2016 |
| Volume | 57 |
| Issue | 4 |
| Pages | 517-522 |
| Publication date | 2016-08-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Current Anthropology (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0011-3204 • E-ISSN: 1537-5382 |
| Publisher | University of Chicago Press (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.1086/687255 |
| OpenAlex | W2461388631 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 37 |
| References cited | 31 |
The timing and mechanics of the spread of agriculture to the Tibetan Plateau-one of the most challenging environmental contexts on earth-is a focus of recent work and debate. Understanding the timing and spread of agriculture is basic to archaeology and history worldwide. Researchers seek evidence for the earliest, furthest, or highest occurrences of diagnostic elements. However, the Tibetan Plateau case illustrates a key flaw in current work: archaeologists have often uncritically interpreted the presence of plant domesticates at archaeological sites as being indicative of local agricultural practice. This assumption neglects the long history of food exchange on the Plateau, as elsewhere in the world, even beyond what were then the limits of agriculture. The cause is a fundamental lack of understanding of where crops could be grown in prehistory. Using a formal model of the agricultural thermal niche between the 5500 BP and the present, we argue that agricultural niches on the Tibetan Plateau were tightly constrained to lower-elevation river valleys throughout time. This pattern is confirmed by analysis of the extent of modern crop production on the Plateau. The challenges deriving from these altitudinal constraints placed on early Tibetans largely explain how and why the Tibetan economy developed in the way that it did
Agriculture · Archaeology · Biology · Ecological niche · Geography · Habitat · Niche · Physical geography · Plateau (mathematics · Prehistory · Archaeology and ancient environmental studies · Ecology · Geology and Paleoclimatology Research · Pacific and Southeast Asian Studies
Human–animal–environment dynamics and formation of pastoralism in the southern Tibetan Plateau during the Middle–Late Holocene
Mismatches of scale in the application of paleoclimatic research to Chinese archaeology
Formal ratification of the subdivision of the Holocene Series/Epoch (Quaternary System/Period)
Twenty-first century approaches to ancient problems
The linguistic (pre)history on the eastern Tibetan Plateau
Secuencias cronológicas del Calcolítico y Edad del Bronce en el interior de la Península Ibérica
From paleoclimate variables to prehistoric agriculture
Did foragers adopt farming? A perspective from the margins of the Tibetan Plateau
New evidence for early 4th millennium BP agriculture in the Western Himalayas
Socioecological Dynamics Structuring the Spread of Farming in the North American Basin-Plateau Region
The Archaeology of the Early Tibetan Plateau
Archaeological Approaches to Agricultural Economies
Past, Present, and Future of Complex Systems Theory in Archaeology
Synchronous change in the intensified millet cultivation and ecological environment from the early to middle Holocene on the Inner Mongolia Plateau, northern China
New evidence from the Qugong site in the central Tibetan Plateau for the prehistoric Highland Silk Road
Foodways of the Medieval Tibetans on the Silk Road
Linguistic evidence supports a long antiquity of cultivation of barley and buckwheat over that of millet and rice in Eastern Bhutan
Modelling the potential ecological niche of domesticated buckwheat in China
The role of environmental factors in the spatiotemporal distribution of millet in Late Neolithic to Bronze Ages sites in the Tibetan plateau and surrounding regions
Reaching the human scale
A Reply to Bellezza
The importance of localized hunting of diverse animals to early inhabitants of the Eastern Tibetan Plateau at the Neolithic site of Xiaoenda
Benefits of Niche Construction in Northern Rio Grande Pueblo Agriculture
Cultivating the highlands
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An Archaeobotanical Perspective on the Relationship between Grain Crops, Non-Grain Crops and States
The Majiayao to Qijia transition
Pottery circulation and cultural exchange during the mid-late Neolithic Age in the northeastern Tibetan Plateau
Farming and multi-resource subsistence in the third and second millennium BC
Foraging and farming
Three thousand years of farming strategies in central Thailand
The early adoption of East Asian crops in West Asia
Early evidence of naked barley in western Tibet
A Dialogue Between Empirical and Model-Based Agricultural Studies in Archaeology
Rethinking the Landscape
A 5,500-Year Model of Changing Crop Niches on the Tibetan Plateau
The transition to a barley-dominant cultivation system in Tibet
The Melting Himalayas
A high-resolution, absolute-dated Holocene and deglacial Asian monsoon record from Dongge Cave, China
Insolation values for the climate of the last 10 million years
Origin and spread of wheat in China
Early evidence for the use of wheat and barley as staple crops on the margins of the Tibetan Plateau
Holocene climate variability
A Reconstruction of Regional and Global Temperature for the Past 11,300 Years
A 2,000-year reconstruction of the rain-fed maize agricultural niche in the US Southwest
Eastward Spread of Wheat into China – New Data and New Issues
The origins of wheat in China and potential pathways for its introduction
Modeling constraints on the spread of agriculture to Southwest China with thermal niche models
Building ecosystem resilience for climate change adaptation in the Asian highlands
Rethinking the spread of agriculture to the Tibetan Plateau
Early cultivated wheat and broadening of agriculture in Neolithic China
Latitudinal variation in a photoperiod response gene in European barley
Moving agriculture onto the Tibetan plateau
An evaluation of competing hypotheses for the early adoption of wheat in East Asia
Pastoral Nomadism in the Andes
| Unique citing works | 37 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 3,7 |
| Citation span | 2016 - 2026 (11) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 35 |