Agricultural Practices of the Qin People from the Warring States Period to the Qin Dynasty: A Case from the Matengkong Site in Guanzhong Basin, China

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Populations of Early Medieval China: Developing Anthropological Approaches to Historical Archaeology in China" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

In archaeological studies, the Qin people have often been the subject of research. The areas of investigation about the Qin include their origin, structure of tombs, funeral rites and interment processes, and cities and settlements. Although there are some studies on the Qin people’s diet through isotope analysis, the research on the agricultural system of the Qin people is still limited, especially during the period from the Qin people’s settlement in the Guanzhong Basin to the First Emperor bringing the seven states under his domination. In the backdrop of the Warring States period, it is necessary to investigate what the Qin people’s agricultural economy was and how it impacted their social progress. This study evaluates the Qin people’s agricultural practice based on flotation results from the Matengkong site, located southeast of the Guanzhong Basin in Shaanxi province. The results showed that the inhabitants practiced multi-cropping, and the crop assemblage had five categories, including dominant foxtail millet (Setaria italica) and wheat (Triticum aestivum), important broomcorn millet (Panicum miliaceum), less important soybean (Glycine max) and adzuki bean (Vigna angularis), less utilized barley (Hordeum vulgare), and cannabis (Cannabis sativa) and rice (Oryza sativa) of the lowest utilization.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Populations of Early Medieval China: Developing Anthropological Approaches to Historical Archaeology in China   •
• Society for American Archaeology 88th Annual Meeting, Portland, OR (2023)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 36101.0