Demography and subsistence dynamics of some ancient populations in China

Abstract

This thesis explores issues of population size, movement and subsistence across prehistoric China at the broad scale over the period 10-2 ka BP, and in focused case studies in the context of the Qin state. A review is given of the hydroclimatic background, the developing agricultural economies and their social settings, together with background to the Qin expansion. This is followed by an investigation of changing subsistence practice from the Neolithic to the Zhou Dynasty across China based on carbon and nitrogen isotopic data from 3785 humans and 2744 animals. This demonstrates regional rises and falls of millet as a staple crop and its use for animal fodder, as well as varying consumption of meat. Next the demography of prehistoric China is explored using summed probability densities of 21368 radiocarbon dates combined with settlement data from the Atlas of Chinese Cultural Relics. Demographic trends derived from the latter are found to be unreliable, while the radiocarbon data reveals regional variation in population dynamics, better explained by subsistence adaptations than climatic changes. On a microregional scale, this research explores population movements and subsistence using strontium, oxygen, carbon and nitrogen isotope analyses of human tooth enamel and bone collagen in the Qin population of the Guanzhong Plain. This is underpinned by a novel strontium isoscape for China developed using random forest regression models of river water data. At Bao’an in the eastern Guanzhong Plain, a millet-based diet is found with a notable proportion of migrants (6/49). At Xuliangpo, Gongxi and Jihuayuan, near the Qin capital Xianyang, more migrants are detected (24/93) and variations in millet consumption are found to be informative about individual origins. However, uniform strontium and carbon isotope ratios make identifying mobility in this area difficult, and human oxygen isotope ratios much lower than expected from local meteoric water.