Forager-farmer transition at the crossroads of East and Southeast Asia 4900 years ago

Minmin Ma; Minxia Lu; Rui Sun; Zhonghua Zhu; Dorian Q Fuller; Jianxin Guo; Guanglin He; Xiaomin Yang; Lingling Tan; Yongxiu Lu; Jiajia Dong; Ruiliang Liu; Jishuai Yang; Bo Li; Tiannan Guo; Xiaorui Li; Dongyue Zhao; Ying Zhang; Chuan-Chao Wang; Guanghui Dong

doi:10.1016/j.scib.2023.10.015

Forager-farmer transition at the crossroads of East and Southeast Asia 4900 years ago

Sci Bull (Beijing). 2024 Jan 15;69(1):103-113. doi: 10.1016/j.scib.2023.10.015. Epub 2023 Oct 16.

Authors

Minmin Ma¹, Minxia Lu², Rui Sun³, Zhonghua Zhu⁴, Dorian Q Fuller⁵, Jianxin Guo⁶, Guanglin He⁶, Xiaomin Yang⁶, Lingling Tan⁷, Yongxiu Lu², Jiajia Dong², Ruiliang Liu⁸, Jishuai Yang², Bo Li⁹, Tiannan Guo³, Xiaorui Li⁴, Dongyue Zhao¹⁰, Ying Zhang¹¹, Chuan-Chao Wang¹², Guanghui Dong¹³

Affiliations

¹ Key Laboratory of Western China's Environmental Systems (Ministry of Education), College of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou 730000, China; Zhaotong University, Zhaotong 657000, China.
² Key Laboratory of Western China's Environmental Systems (Ministry of Education), College of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou 730000, China.
³ Westlake Laboratory of Life Sciences and Biomedicine, Key Laboratory of Structural Biology of Zhejiang Province, School of Life Sciences, Westlake University, Hangzhou 310024, China; Institute of Basic Medical Sciences, Westlake Institute for Advanced Study, Hangzhou 310024, China.
⁴ Yunnan Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology, Kunming 650118, China.
⁵ Institute of Archaeology, University College London, London WC1H 0PY, UK; School of Cultural Heritage, Northwest University, Xi'an 710069, China.
⁶ State Key Laboratory of Cellular Stress Biology, School of Life Sciences, Xiamen University, Xiamen 361102, China; Department of Anthropology and Ethnology, Institute of Anthropology, School of Sociology and Anthropology, Xiamen University, Xiamen 361005, China; State Key Laboratory of Marine Environmental Science, Xiamen University, Xiamen 361102, China.
⁷ Westlake Omics (Hangzhou) Biotechnology Co., Ltd., Hangzhou 310024, China.
⁸ The Department of Asia, British Museum, London WC1E 7JW, UK; School of Cultural Heritage, Northwest University, Xi'an 710069, China.
⁹ Tonghai Cultural Relics Management, Yuxi 652700, China.
¹⁰ School of Cultural Heritage, Northwest University, Xi'an 710069, China.
¹¹ Group of Alpine Paleoecology and Human Adaptation, Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China; State Key Laboratory of Tibetan Plateau Earth System, Resources and Environment, Beijing 100101, China.
¹² State Key Laboratory of Cellular Stress Biology, School of Life Sciences, Xiamen University, Xiamen 361102, China; Department of Anthropology and Ethnology, Institute of Anthropology, School of Sociology and Anthropology, Xiamen University, Xiamen 361005, China; State Key Laboratory of Marine Environmental Science, Xiamen University, Xiamen 361102, China; Ministry of Education Key Laboratory of Contemporary Anthropology, Department of Anthropology and Human Genetics, School of Life Sciences, Fudan University, Shanghai 200433, China. Electronic address: wang@xmu.edu.cn.
¹³ Key Laboratory of Western China's Environmental Systems (Ministry of Education), College of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou 730000, China; Zhaotong University, Zhaotong 657000, China. Electronic address: ghdong@lzu.edu.cn.

PMID: 37914610
DOI: 10.1016/j.scib.2023.10.015

Abstract

The southward expansion of East Asian farmers profoundly influenced the social evolution of Southeast Asia by introducing cereal agriculture. However, the timing and routes of cereal expansion in key regions are unclear due to limited empirical evidence. Here we report macrofossil, microfossil, multiple isotopic (C/N/Sr/O) and paleoproteomic data directly from radiocarbon-dated human samples, which were unearthed from a site in Xingyi in central Yunnan and which date between 7000 and 3300 a BP. Dietary isotopes reveal the earliest arrival of millet ca. 4900 a BP, and greater reliance on plant and animal agriculture was indicated between 3800 and 3300 a BP. The dietary differences between hunter-gatherer and agricultural groups are also evident in the metabolic and immune system proteins analysed from their skeletal remains. The results of paleoproteomic analysis indicate that humans had divergent biological adaptations, with and without farming. The combined application of isotopes, archaeobotanical data and proteomics provides a new approach to documenting dietary and health changes across major subsistence transitions.

Keywords: Agricultural origins; Human health; Isotopes; Millet; Proteomics; Yunnan.

MeSH terms

Agriculture* / methods
Animals
Asia, Southeastern
China
Edible Grain
Farmers*
Humans
Isotopes

Substances

Isotopes