Vegetation History and Survival Patterns of the Earliest Village on the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau

Jingyi Gao; Guangliang Hou; Yongming Xiao; Chongyi E; Haicheng Wei; Yongjuan Sun; Manping Sun; Hongpan Xue; Zhuoma Wende; Sunmei Jin; Xiaoliang Chen

doi:10.3389/fpls.2022.903192

Vegetation History and Survival Patterns of the Earliest Village on the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau

Front Plant Sci. 2022 May 12:13:903192. doi: 10.3389/fpls.2022.903192. eCollection 2022.

Authors

Jingyi Gao^{1

2}, Guangliang Hou^{1

2

3}, Yongming Xiao⁴, Chongyi E^{1

2

3}, Haicheng Wei⁵, Yongjuan Sun^{1

2

3}, Manping Sun^{1

2}, Hongpan Xue⁶, Zhuoma Wende^{1

2}, Sunmei Jin^{1

2}, Xiaoliang Chen^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ Key Laboratory of Tibetan Plateau Land Surface Processes and Ecological Conservation (Ministry of Education), College of Geographical Science, Qinghai Normal University, Xining, China.
² Qinghai Province Key Laboratory of Physical Geography and Environmental Process, College of Geographical Science, Qinghai Normal University, Xining, China.
³ Academy of Plateau Science and Sustainability, People's Government of Qinghai Province and Beijing Normal University, Xining, China.
⁴ Qinghai Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology, Xining, China.
⁵ Key Laboratory of Comprehensive and Highly Efficient Utilization of Salt Lake Resources, Qinghai Institute of Salt Lakes, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xining, China.
⁶ School of Earth and Space Sciences, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, China.

Abstract

The upper Yellow River valley in the northeastern Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau (QTP) is an important corridor for prehistoric migration to the hinterland plateau. However, most studies have focused on the Neolithic Age, with limited evidence for earlier periods. The Shalongka (SLK) site on the northeastern QTP spans the Epipaleolithic to Bronze Age and contains cultural deposits, so provides a good basis for unraveling the evolutionary history of the human-land relationship. In this study, we sampled the 420-cm-thick section T1406E at the SLK site and undertook lithologic stratigraphic description and analysis of grain size, redness, magnetic susceptibility, geochemical elements, pollen and charcoal. Dating control was provided by accelerated mass spectrometry ¹⁴C and optically stimulated luminescence methods. Results show that SLK site was affected by the local fluvial sedimentary environment. The absolute dating results of the SLK site have revealed that humans occupied the site during the Epipaleolithic (8.5-7.3 cal ka BP), Yangshao culture (5.9-5.1 ka) and Qijia Culture (4.1-3.9 cal ka BP). Pollen analysis showed that the humans lived in a landscape that was predominated by forest-steppe. Consolidating with multidisciplinary evidence, we learned that Epipaleolithic sites were occupied by microlithic hunter-gatherers and comprised by relatively fixed seasonal central campsites, and their mobility was significantly decreased from the early to late period. Subsequently, farmers of the Yangshao culture migrated from the low elevation (Chinese Loess Plateau) to the upper Yellow River valleys on the QTP and founded the earliest settlement villages (~5.9 ka) on the QTP. People of the Qijia culture adopted diversified survival strategies under the settled lifestyle. In all, we infered that SLK site may play an important role in the communication and integration between different people and cultures.

Keywords: Epipaleolithic to Bronze Age; Qinghai–Tibetan Plateau; end-member modeling analysis; pollen; survival patterns; vegetation change.