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Complex Pathways Towards Emergent Pastoral Settlements

New Research on the Bronze Age Xindian Culture of Northwest China

Bibliographic Data

ID7324858
AuthorsY Jaffe (0000-0002-4114-0910, University of Haifa), Anke Hein (0000-0002-5052-1504, Oxford Archaeology), A Womack (0000-0003-1046-6106, Furman University), K Brunson (0000-0001-9793-291X, Wesleyan University), J D''Alpoim Guedes (0000-0002-2627-7863, Scripps Institution of Oceanography), Rongzhen Guo (Shandong University), Jing Zhou (0009-0007-8795-5916, Institute of Archaeology), Jada Ko (0000-0003-2692-6736, Harvard University), Xiaohong Wu (0000-0002-3819-0829, Peking University), Hui Wang (0000-0001-5109-8691, Fudan University), Shuicheng Li (Sichuan University), R Flad (0000-0002-7018-8868, Harvard University)
Year2021
Volume34
Issue4
Pages595-647
Publication date2021-12-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of World Prehistory (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0892-7537 • E-ISSN: 1573-7802
PublisherSpringer Nature (PUBLISHER • SG)
DOI10.1007/s10963-021-09160-w
OpenAlexW4206119394
LanguageEN
Citations received8
References cited102

The Xindian culture of northwest China has been seen as a prototypical example of a transition toward pastoralism, resulting in part from environmental changes that started around 4000 years ago. To date, there has been little available residential data to document how and whether subsistence strategies and community organization in northwest China changed following or in association with documented environmental changes. The Tao River Archaeology Project is a collaborative effort aimed at gathering robust archaeological information to solidify our baseline understanding of economic, technological, and social practices in the third through early first millennia BC. Here we present data from two Xindian culture residential sites, and propose that rather than a total transition to nomadic pastoralism—as it is often reconstructed—the Xindian culture reflects a prolonged period of complex transition in cultural traditions and subsistence practices. In fact, communities maintained elements of earlier cultivation and animal-foddering systems, selectively incorporating new plants and animals into their repertoire. These locally-specific strategies were employed to negotiate ever-changing environmental and social conditions in the region of developing ‘proto-Silk Road’ interregional interactions

Agriculture · Archaeology · Biology · Bronze Age · China · Culture change · Ethnology · Geography · Human settlement · Livestock · Negotiation · Pastoralism · Settlement (finance · Social science · Sociology · Subsistence agriculture · Subsistence economy · Anthropology · Archaeology and ancient environmental studies · History · Pacific and Southeast Asian Studies · Pleistocene-Era Hominins and Archaeology · Ecology

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Unique citing works8
Citations per year2
Citation span2022 - 2026 (5)
Citation velocitycurrent
Highly citedNo
Citation typesNeutral: 8
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