Agricultural Diversification, Perennials and Complex Societies in Mesopotamia and the Yellow River

Summary

Mesopotamia and the Yellow River of China had long trajectories from early farming through to primary urbanisation, but to what extent do the archaeobotanical records indicate parallel developments in terms of agriculture? In both areas agriculture diversifies during the later Neolithic, with an increasing range of annual field crops as well as evidence for the cultivation of some perennials (tree fruits or vines). However, diversity was much higher in western Asia, from both a highly diverse Neolithic package of staples (multiple cereals and pulses) and co-staples to a range of livestock, craft-related/cash crops (e.g. flax, carthamus), and fruits (olive, grape, fig). In China a cereal-focused Neolithic was slowly augmented by beans, fibre, drugs, and a few fruits, but evidence for regional specialization and trade in crop products is lacking. Thus, while secondary crops may indeed have been important in the agricultural rise of complex societies, a more crucial common denominator would appear to have been simple agricultural expansion to provide more land for more staple crops to support larger overall populations and larger population centers.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 82nd Annual Meeting, Vancouver, BC (2017)   •
• 2017 Fryxell Award Symposium: Papers in Honor of Naomi F. Miller

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 15809