Farmland management practices, including manuring, are crucial for the evolution and sustainable development of early dryland agriculture in China. Previous studies have demonstrated that S15N values serve as reliable indicators of manuring effects on foxtail and broomcorn millet. However, a comprehensive indicator system for millets remains undeveloped, hindering the understanding of the underlying causes, development processes, and impacts of early farmland management. This study investigated three sites on the Loess Plateau-wasteland in Yulin, farmland in Changzhi (Shanxi), and in Xi'an (Shaanxi)-through multi-site comparative experiments to explore the relationship between land management and the agronomic traits, yields, and isotopic compositions of millet. Results from Yulin and Xi'an show that, compared to foxtail millet without soil management, the ear length, diameter and weight under field management increased severalfold, or even more than tenfold. Key indicators, such as yield, thousand-grain weight and grain size, also show significant improvements, with pig manure having the most pronounced effect, where a relatively low amount sufficed to achieve remarkable traits and yields. This undoubtedly facilitates the emergence of early farmland management. The comprehensive analysis of crops and soil in Xi 'an and Changzhi reveals that soil characteristics are key factors influencing crop S15N values. Minor but systematic soil S15N differences between regions significantly influence crop values. Based on existing manuring experiments in millet fields along the Yellow River, this study proposes that S15N values of foxtail and broomcorn millet below 2 %o are largely unaffected by animal manure, values above 3 %o indicate a higher likelihood of manure input, and values between 2 %o and 3 %o suggest low intensity or residual manuring effects. This study provides a scientific foundation for exploring the impact of farmland management, particularly pig manure application, on millet agriculture, and offers valuable insights for comparative isotopic analysis across regions and the study of past field management strategies.

The Salawusu River basin preserves an important record of Late Pleistocene hominin presence, crucial for understanding early human survival and migration in the semi-arid regions of East Asia. At the Shaojiagouwan site, located within this basin, abundant mammalian fossils and stone tools have been discovered. We conducted optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) dating, together with sediment grain size and pollen analyses, to establish a chronological framework and reconstruct the paleoenvironmental context. The sedimentary sequence is characterized by fluvial deposits, with OSL ages constraining the site's occupation to between 62.2 and 49.3 ka, spanning Marine Isotope Stages (MIS) 4 and 3. Evidence of hominin presence, however, is confined to 63.1-57.3 ka and can be divided into two phases. Pollen data indicate that the regional vegetation was predominantly arid steppe, reflecting a generally cold and dry climate, although conditions during early MIS 3 were relatively warmer and wetter than during MIS 4. Within this framework, three millennial-scale warm and humid phases are identified at approximately 62-61 ka, 57.5-56.5 ka, and 54-53 ka, separated by longer intervals of arid and cold climate. Our findings suggest that early humans inhabited this semi-arid region during these relatively favorable climatic optima, and may have dispersed from the area during colder and more arid intervals. The Shaojiagouwan site thus demonstrates that early humans were capable of occupying semi-arid landscapes even during the cold MIS 4 period. There may have been climate fluctuations on a millennial timescale, which have had a significant impact on human presence in the region.

It remains unclear how hunter-gatherers used plant resources to adapt to climate change during the LGM in southern China. In this study, new pollen and archaeobotanical results from Weijia Cave were used to analyse vegetation-climate change and plant exploitation of hunter-gatherers, then fossil pollen dataset and archaeological data from across China were used to evaluate the potential of nuts in the adaptation of hunter-gatherers to climate change during the LGM. Pollen analysis results show that vegetation around Weijia Cave was dominated by coniferous trees and the climate was quite cold during ca. 30000–19500 cal yr BP; the reduction of coniferous trees and the increase of broad-leaved trees suggested a warm trend in climate during ca. 19500–12500 cal yr BP. The hunter-gatherers at Weijia Cave adopted a plant exploitation strategy of diversified resource utilization centred on fat-rich nuts at the end of MIS 3, then transitioned to intensified tannin-rich acorn exploitation during the LGM to cope with the severe climate conditions. The sustained high-coverage of nut trees in southern China provided the hunter-gatherers with a low-cost adaptive strategy to address winter food shortages through prioritized nut exploitation during the LGM.

Historical narratives hold that sericulture originated in China and spread along the Silk Road roughly two millennia ago. In questioning this assumption, we conducted micromorphological and proteomics analyses on three cocoons recovered from the Sapalli Tepe (approximately 2000 to 1500 BCE) site in Uzbekistan. We identified them as Bombyx mori, directly dated to 1940 to 1765 cal. BCE, representing the earliest remains of Bombyx cocoons. We further report the earliest mulberry (Morus sp.) charcoal fragments from Central Asia, attesting to mulberry-Bombyx sericulture in the Oxus nearly 2000 years earlier than previously documented. We highlight that early silkworms and mulberry trees may have been introduced to Central Asia along the southern slope of the Himalayas, although other routes could also plausibly explain the observed pattern. This multidisciplinary research rewrites the enigmatic history of early sericulture and its globalization.

The gathering and use of ochre is a common behavior documented among Late Pleistocene human populations across the globe. Yet ochre use in the Paleolithic archaeological record of China remains poorly understood. Here we report on 36 pieces of ochre and 21 lithic artifacts with ochre residues from the archaeological deposits in Fodongdi Cave, Yunnan Province. These ochre finds, recovered from a succession of well-dated stratigraphic layers, offer an opportunity to discuss ochre use during the terminal Pleistocene in southwest China between 18,400 and 14,000 cal BP. We characterized the ochre assemblage using a combination of optical microscopy, thin section analysis, portable X-ray fluorescence, laser-induced breakdown and Raman spectrographic techniques, alongside scanning electron microscopy (with energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy). Results indicate at least three petrographic and chemically distinct groups of locally available ochre were used (presumably as red pigments). The ochre assemblage contains 27 pieces with clear anthropogenic modification including microstriations within grooves, parallel striations with polish, as well as smoothed areas with microstriations and luster. Use-wear traces and ochre residues on processing tools indicates that ochre was ground on grindstones and rubbed on soft materials, with quartzite pebbles used to process ochre before the pebbles were themselves flaked (used for tool stone). The Fodongdi Cave study provides novel information for southern China, suggesting the selection of local ochre sources, their processing directly onto grindstones and by rubbing against soft surfaces such as hide or human skin at the site, and the collection and use of different proportions of (local) ochres during the terminal Pleistocene.

Using organic carbon isotope (S13CTOC) and total organic carbon (TOC) records from Core G3, Tianjin, together with published pollen records, we reconstruct vegetation evolution on the North China Plain over the past 2.0 Ma and examine its relationship with long-term orbital variability. Positive excursions in S13CTOC, reflecting changes in vegetation and organic-matter sources, broadly coincide with long-eccentricity minima, reduced global mean surface temperature (ZGMST), and lower atmospheric CO2 concentrations. Spectral analyses reveal a relatively persistent 405-kyr cycle in the G3 S13CTOC record, suggesting that long-eccentricity pacing may have contributed to orbital-scale vegetation variability over the past 2.0 Ma. Pollen records further suggest that vegetation patterns may reflect the combined influence of regional hydroclimatic variability and global orbital-scale climate change. Long-eccentricity variability may have indirectly influenced vegetation dynamics through temperature changes and climate-carbon cycle feedbacks, suggesting a possible link between orbital-scale climate change and longterm ecosystem evolution in East Asia.

The eastern coastal zone of China plays a pivotal role in both terrestrial-marine ecosystem interactions and human subsistence in East Asia. During the deglaciation period from the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM, similar to 21ka BP) to the early Holocene, rapid sea-level rise significantly influenced coastal and shelf ecosystems. However, the vegetation ecological landscape across the exposed shelf during this transgression remains poorly constrained. In this study, we integrate pollen and sedimentary records from representative marine and terrestrial cores collected in the eastern coastal zone of China and apply the biomization method to reconstruct vegetation patterns during key periods (LGM, 15 ka BP, 12 ka BP, and 10 ka BP) from the LGM to the early Holocene. Additionally, we examine the potential mechanisms underlying vegetation shifts in the coastal zone. Our results show that during the LGM, the exposed Bohai and Yellow Sea shelf were primarily covered by steppe and meadow dominated by Artemisia and Chenopodioideae (Amaranthaceae), while the East China Sea shelf supported forest steppe to deciduous broadleaved forest. During the Last Deglaciation, the warmer climatic condition and rising sea level triggered a shift from terrestrial to marine deposition, driving a northward vegetation migration and the replacement of steppe by forest. Concurrently, sea-level fluctuation promoted the development of azonal vegetation in coastal zone. By the early Holocene, vegetation diversity increased, with steppe and meadow re-expanding along the Bohai and Yellow Sea coast, while the East China Sea coast became dominated by mixed deciduous-evergreen broadleaved forest. Our findings offer a scientific framework for predicting coastal ecosystem responses to future warming and illuminate the ecological context of human activities during periods of shelf exposure.

Since the Holocene, marked transformations have occurred in patterns of human activity and modes of subsistence, with agriculture progressively becoming the principal means by which human societies modified and adapted to natural environments and sustained social development. The North China Plain (NCP) serves as the core region for the origin of millet agriculture in northern China and remains a pivotal area for understanding the genesis and evolution of Chinese civilization. By analyzing plant macrofossils from three sites—Zhujia, Dalaidian, and Wangzhuang—in the Qihe River basin (QRB), and integrating with crop assemblages from 54 representative sites across the North China Plain, this study systematically examines the synchrony between the evolution of Neolithic agricultural structures and climatic change in the region. The results demonstrate that multiple drought events had varying impacts on millet and rice agricultural systems in the NCP throughout the Neolithic period. Early communities responded to abrupt climatic perturbations by strategically adjusting agricultural structures to secure stable food supplies, thereby ensuring the sustained development of their societies. Furthermore, confronted with recurrent Neolithic drought events, prehistoric communities adopted diverse adaptive strategies, with their adaptive capacity progressively strengthening over time.

Charcoal, a primary product of fires, can be examined for its morphological traits to help distinguish between fuel sources, which is useful for understanding the relationship between regional vegetation environments and fire regimes. However, current research on charcoal morphology heavily relies on lab-based simulation experiments, lacking sufficient empirical data from natural wildfires. This study focuses on the morphological characteristics of charcoal formed under wildfire from four distinct vegetation types, including evergreen coniferous forests, warm-humid herbs, evergreen broad-leaf forests, and grasslands. All the charcoal samples were extracted using a standardized pollen methodology. And the parameters of charcoal, such as length, width, and area, were measured by ImageJ software. The findings indicate variations in charcoal size across different ecosystems. The length-to-width (L/W) ratio of charcoal alone is insufficient for reliable classification of fuel types. To address this issue, a decision tree model was crafted to categorize charcoal types, achieving an accuracy rate of 72.44%. This paper presents a thorough examination of charcoal morphology from diverse vegetation, offering insights into fuel type identification based on charcoal characteristics as well as into the intricate interactions between vegetation and wildfire dynamics. It also provides essential reference data for accurate environmental interpretation of charcoal records from geological periods.

Located in the foothills of the Tianshan Mountains, the Adunqiaolu site (c.1800‒1300 BCE) represents one of the easternmost extensions of the Andronovo Cultural Complex. Through analyses of 4,800 fragments of wood charcoal and 44 seed remains from the site, our study illustrates the plant utilization strategies and construction techniques adopted by these early transhumant agropastoralists, offering direct insights into how humans coped with the harsh environment of the arid Inner Asian mountains. Our findings reveal that the inhabitants mainly exploited riparian vegetation as their wood resources, while coniferous forest remains were present only in limited amount. Moreover, growth ring curvature measurements indicate that distinct collection strategies based on wood species were adopted, with people selectively harvesting branches or twigs from riparian plants but utilising trunks of spruce trees. Riparian branches were primarily used as fuel but also intentionally incorporated into domestic structures, where narrow willow branches (mostly 2–5 cm in diameter) were arranged within double-layered walls for reinforcement. In contrast, spruce remains were dispersed throughout the dwelling showing no evidence of specialized use. We conclude that by the second millennium BCE, agropastoralist communities in the Tianshan Mountains were already actively engaging with the local ecosystem, strategically utilising available woody resources to sustain their livelihoods in a challenging landscape.

Perennial woody crops play crucial roles in global food security and food system diversification, yet they have long been overlooked in archaeobotanical research, constraining our understanding of their domestication trajectories, dispersal pathways, and the social-ecological conditions underlying these processes. The peach (Prunus persica), with its abundant archaeobotanical record and established genomic resources, provides an ideal model to address this challenge. Here, we conduct an integrated analysis of similar to 1,000 well-preserved endocarps from the Jingtoushan site (8.0-7.7 ka BP) in the Lower Yangtze, combining ecological and paleoenvironmental approaches to demonstrate early utilization within its suitable range. Variations in endocarp morphology and abundance correlate with environmental changes and subsistence shifts, suggesting that ecological suitability and human strategies shape the early peach use as a seasonal nutritional supplement. Coefficients of variation in peach endocarp metrics suggest incipient management as early as 8000 years ago. A synthesis of multidisciplinary evidence reconciles competing genetic and archaeological perspectives on peach origin, thus establishing a domestication process that includes a prolonged pre-domestication management phase. These findings provide one of the oldest and most continuous pre-domestication utilities of perennial crops, enabling insights into human-environment interactions shaping early crop management and domestication. They also provide an interdisciplinary perspective on agricultural origins and germplasm resource conservation for future investigations.

Wheat has consistently occupied a crucial position in China's agricultural structure throughout history. It serves as a key entry point for understanding the features of early agricultural practices and the cultural interactions between the East and the West. Moreover, fertilization was a critical method for sustaining the development of ancient agriculture. Owing to the absence of systematic modern field experiments on crop positioning, the fertilization indicators and intensity for wheat crops remain ambiguous. This study carried out the first field-based positioning experiment on wheat fertilization in northern China, offering a crucial reference for interpreting the 615N values of ancient wheat remains. The findings revealed that the application of organic fertilizer markedly enhanced the thousand-grain weight of wheat and elevated its 615N value (ranging from 1.9 to 5.9%o). Under identical fertilizer types and intensities, the variation in 615N values of wheat grains does not exceed 2.2%o. Grains treated with cattle manure and sheep manure exhibited significantly higher 615N values compared to those treated with pig manure. The 615N values of the grains demonstrated a distinct gradient depending on varying fertilizer intensities. Based on these findings, this study aimed to construct a fertilization model for early wheat cultivation in northern China, offering novel insights into the relationship between nitrogen stable isotope values of ancient wheat remains and manure application intensity.

The Fergana Valley has been a crucial passage for cultural exchange since the Middle Holocene. Despite numerous archaeological discoveries, research on the subsistence patterns of its populations remains limited. In this study, carbon and nitrogen stable isotope analysis was applied to human skeletal remains from the Iron Age Khanabad-1 cemetery in the eastern Fergana Valley. This provides the first small subset reconstruction of dietary patterns for the local population around 2000 BP. The preliminary results indicate an average delta 13C value of -17.9%o, confirming a C3 dominated mixed plant intake. The average delta 15N value of 10.0%o is approximately 3.0%o higher than that of contemporaneous livestock in the surrounding area, suggesting a modest level of animal protein consumption. Considering the local environment of the Khanabad-1 cemetery and the artifacts recovered from the graves, we infer that agriculture formed the important part in the local population subsistence system. The diet was mainly composed of C3 plants, supplemented by C4 plants and animal resources. This dietary structure represents a transitional pattern between the mountain agropastoral populations and the oasis agricultural populations during the Bronze to Iron Age in the region. Notably, it closely resembles the isotopic records of the medieval agricultural populations in the Fergana Valley. This similarity may demonstrate both the connections between local agricultural groups, the agropastoral populations of the IAMC, and the oasis agricultural societies, as well as the continuity of local dietary traditions over time.

Scholars are increasingly favoring models for the origins of agriculture that involve a protracted process of increasing interdependence within a series of mutualistic relationships between humans and plants, as opposed to a rapid single event or innovation. Nonetheless, these scholars continue to debate over when people first started foraging for grass seeds, when they began to readily utilize sickles, how prominent the early selection pressures were, and when the first traits of domestication fully introgressed into the cultivated grass population. Here, we present complementary archaeobotanical and archaeological (stone tool) evidence for cereal foragers from Toda-1 Cave in the Surkhan Darya, dating to 9200 cal BP. We conclude that early Holocene foragers were processing grains along with nuts and fruits as far north as the rich river valleys of southern Uzbekistan. These data expand the known range that preagricultural cereal foragers covered in the early Holocene, adding to our understanding of the cultural processes that led to farming. Additionally, we present the earliest evidence for people interacting with the progenitors for pistachios and apples (or a close apple relative). The complex foraging behaviors that led to cultivation were being undertaken by people during the early Holocene across a wider area of Eurasia than previously thought.

The Central Asian (CA) steppe ecosystem and its fauna experienced a marked transition during the Miocene Climatic Optimum (MCO), though the specific process and dynamics remain elusive. We selected the Duolebulejin (DLB) section within the Junggar Basin to reconstruct vegetation and climate changes, using proxies such as particle size, mammalian fossils, and previously reported data including pollen, delta 13CTOC, and magnetic susceptibility. The results reveal three distinct phases of transformation in regional vegetation and fauna from 18.8 to 13.2 Ma. During the pre-MCO (18.8-17.0 Ma), the landscape was dominated by desert scrubland, primarily inhabited by rodents. The MCO (17.0-14.5 Ma) witnessed a shift towards steppe vegetation, initially with herbaceous taxa followed by the establishment of C4 plants, alongside a diversity of large mammals adapted to open habitats. This suggests the emergence of savanna-like woodland steppes. In the post-MCO (14.5-13.2 Ma), the region transitioned to a dry steppe, accompanied by a decline in animal populations, although a significant proportion of species remained adapted to steppe environments. These findings underscore a co-evolutionary relationship between the development of steppe ecosystems and mammalian adaptations, driven by global MCO warming and subsequent cooling, with regional hydroclimatic changes acting as a modulating factor. The steppe-fauna biome emerged in the Junggar Basin during the MCO warming, with mechanisms resembling those of tropical savannas in the late Miocene. These insights enhance our understanding of early steppe ecosystem evolution through past warming periods, shedding light on the pathways to modern steppe formation.

Carbonate weathering is crucial for regulating global C cycle and short-term climate change. Calcium (Ca) is one of the major elements involved in carbonate weathering, and studying complex carbonate weathering processes can be helped by Ca isotopes in river system. Here, elemental and Ca isotopic (δ44/40Ca) data for dissolved loads and suspended sediments from the Lancang River (Southeastern Tibetan Plateau) were determined. Dissolved δ44/40Ca values in river water (0.64

The region of Transoxiana underwent an early agricultural-demographic transition, leading to the emergence of the earliest proto-urban centers in Central Asia. However, the development of horticulture activity aspects of this cultural shift remain poorly understood, particularly regarding the role and place of long-generation nativity fruit trees, such as Russian olive (Elaeagnus angustifolia), in the horticulture system. In this research, we conduct a systematic modern carbonization experiment on Russian olive seeds, present directly AMS 14C dated result, and use geometric morphometric methods to analyze the carbonized Russian olive seeds from the early community of Sapalli Tepa in southern Uzbekistan. The results show that the deformation during carbonization had minimal impact on the morphology of the seeds. The Russian olive seeds found at Sapalli Tepa include two types: Elaeagnus angustifolia and Elaeagnus angustifolia var. orientalis, both showing no signs of domestication. This suggests that the Russian olive in Bronze Age Southern Central Asia was not subjected to intensive selection by local people, and its sources may have included both cultivation and wild collection.

Early continental crust mainly consists of tonalite, trondhjemite, and granodiorite (TTG), yet the origin of TTG rocks has been controversial with respect to the operation of plate tectonics. It is of critical importance, therefore, to resolve whether Archean TTG rocks formed from thick oceanic crust generated at spreading ridges or from oceanic plateaus in intraplate settings. Here, we use K and O isotopes to trace the source of Archean TTG rocks. The rationale is that the hydrothermal alteration of oceanic crust during its growth at mid-ocean ridges would result in correlated changes in their delta 41K and delta 18O values. A series of Archean TTG rocks with zircon U-Pb ages of 3.45-2.85 Ga and zircon delta 18O values ranging from 5.3 %o to 7.4 %o from the Kaapvaal Craton of South Africa and the Yangtze Craton of South China were analyzed for K isotope compositions. These TTG rocks show variable delta 41K values from -0.58 %o to -0.19 %o. The delta 41K values show weakly positive correlations with Na/K, Eu/Eu* and Sr/Y ratios, suggesting that accumulation of plagioclase may lead to the increase of K isotope ratios because plagioclase is enriched in heavier K isotopes. After correcting for the effect of plagioclase accumulation on samples with high Eu/Eu* and Sr/Y ratios, a negative correlation is obtained between whole-rock delta 41K and zircon delta 18O values. This suggests that the source of Archean TTG rocks should be the oceanic crust that had experienced hydrothermal alteration. Given that hydrothermal alteration is pervasive near mid-ocean ridges but minimal in oceanic plateaus, we propose that the source of Archean TTG rocks was thick oceanic crust generated at spreading mid-ocean ridges rather than oceanic plateau basalts in intraplate settings. The most plausible geodynamic setting for the formation of early continental crust, therefore, is at convergent plate margins, where thick seawater-altered oceanic crust would be subducted or stacked and partially melted to produce TTGs.