Přínos genetiky a izotopových analýz k poznání prehistorie a rané historie severní Číny
| Pages | 15–28 |
|---|---|
| DOI | 10.37520/amnph.2024.003 |
| Keywords | Northern China, Neolithic, Bronze Age, archaeogenetics, isotopic analyses, Sino-Tibetan language family, agriculture |
| Citation | MARŠÁLEK, Jakub. Přínos genetiky a izotopových analýz k poznání prehistorie a rané historie severní Číny. Acta Musei Nationalis Pragae – Historia. Prague: National Museum, 2024, 78(1-2), 15–28. DOI: https://doi.org/10.37520/amnph.2024.003. ISSN 2570-6845 (print), 2570-6853 (online). Also available from: https://publikace.nm.cz/en/periodicals/acta-musei-nationalis-pragae-historia/78-1-2/prinos-genetiky-a-izotopovych-analyz-k-poznani-prehistorie-a-rane-historie-severni-ciny |
The last twenty years have seen significant development in bioarchaeological methods that have greatly increased knowledge of prehistory and early history worldwide. The area of modern China is no exception. Among the approaches mentioned, perhaps the most important contributions have come from archaeogenetics and isotopic reconstructions of the diets of ancient populations. Here, we review results from both disciplines concerning the area of northern China around the Yellow River. Genetic analyses of both modern populations and ancient DNA reveal westward migrations from the middle Yellow River valley – the so-called Central Plains – supporting the widely accepted hypothesis that these migrations are linked to the spread of the Sino-Tibetan language family, whose place of origin can be traced to the Central Plain region. Furthermore, it appears that these migrations were driven by the development and intensification of millet agriculture during the fourth millennium BC, an issue for which isotopic analyses provide substantial evidence. In the west, on the northern margins of the Tibetan Plateau, contacts between newly arriving farmers and populations settling in Central Asia led to the spread of typical western domesticates – wheat and barley – first to the upper and then to the middle reaches of the Yellow River. This process, which took place in the second and first millennia BCE, is also partly illustrated by the isotopic analyses. However, it sometimes differs from the picture depicted by the archaeobotanical research or based on the written sources. It is worth noting different ways in which western domesticates were adopted and incorporated into the local agricultural system and diet. These appear to have depended not only on environmental but also on social and cultural factors, which in the Central Plain area contrasted sharply with the approach to rice cultivated in the region since the early Neolithic.
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