Survey, Excavation, and Geophysics at Songjiaheba—A Small Bronze Age Site in the Chengdu Plain

The Chengdu 成都 Plain, in the northwest corner of the Sichuan 四川Basin (Figure 1), was the setting for the emergence of a complex civilization in the second millennium BC. This civilization is most notably associated with the site of Sanxingdui 三星堆, in Guanghan 廣漢, where two sacrificial pits discovered in 1986 revealed a rich and unexpected collection of jade objects, ceramics, elephant tusks, and elaborate bronze and gold objects (Bagley 2001; Flad 2012; Sichuan 1999). The discovery of the Sanxingdui pits was followed by research at other sites in the Chengdu Plain, including several loci in the city of Chengdu that post-date Sanxingdui, such as an elite residential location called Shi’erqiao 十二橋 (Sichuan et al. 1987; Jiang 1998), a zone of ritual deposits, cemeteries, and settlement areas named Jinsha 金沙 (Chengdu Institute 2006; Chengdu & Beijing 2002; Zhu et al. 2003), and Shangyejie 商業街, a Late Bronze Age elite burial site with large log coffins filled with lacquers and other elite objects (Chengdu 2002). Based on the excavations of these sites, we now know that bronze-producing communities that commanded multi-community networks of resource acquisition existed in the 2 Chengdu Plain starting at least as early as the middle of the second millennium BC (Flad and Chen 2013).Anthropolog

Open science in archaeology

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The thermal niche of temperate and tropical <i>O. japonica</i> at a series of different temperature perturbations.

<p>The area in red represents the area in which tropical <i>O. japonica</i> can be grown. The area in white represents the area in which temperate <i>O. japonica</i> can be grown. Sites represented by black dots are sites where only millet has been recovered from the assemblage. Sites with a black square represent sites where rice has been unearthed in contexts dating to 6000–5000 cal. BC. Sites with an open circle are sites where rice has been unearthed between 5000–3000 cal. BC, however come from poor or undated contexts. Sites with a black triangle represent finds of rice that date between 2600–2000 cal. BC. Sites with a diamond represents sites where rice has been found that post-dates 1800 cal. BC. Map relief from ETOPO1 [<a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0130430#pone.0130430.ref006" target="_blank">6</a>]; country and province outlines from Natural Earth (naturalearthdata.com).</p

Sites and botanical evidence.

<p>Sites and botanical evidence.</p

The Impact of Climate on the Spread of Rice to North-Eastern China: A New Look at the Data from Shandong Province

<div><p>Moving crops outside of their original centers of domestication was sometimes a challenging process. Because of its substantial heat requirements, moving rice agriculture outside of its homelands of domestication was not an easy process for farmers in the past. Using crop niche models, we examine the constraints faced by ancient farmers and foragers as they moved rice to its most northerly extent in Ancient China: Shandong province. Contrary to previous arguments, we find that during the climatic optimum rice could have been grown in the region. Climatic cooling following this date had a clear impact on the distribution of rice, one that may have placed adaptive pressure on rice to develop a temperate phenotype. Following the development of this temperate phenotype, rice agriculture could once again become implanted in select areas of north-eastern China.</p></div

The coefficient of variation in the distribution of growing degree-days across Shandong.

<p>Map relief from ETOPO1 [<a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0130430#pone.0130430.ref006" target="_blank">6</a>]; country and province outlines from Natural Earth (naturalearthdata.com).</p

The northern hemisphere temperature anomaly and presence of rice in Shandong during the Holocene.

<p>Temperature anomaly (black line) and confidence intervals (orange band) are as reported by Marcott [<a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0130430#pone.0130430.ref023" target="_blank">23</a>]. Gray regions indicate periods of probable rice cultivation in Shandong.</p

The thermal niche of foxtail millet.

<p>At all temperature perturbations it is possible to practice foxtail millet within the area of Shandong. The area in red represents the area in which foxtail can be grown with certainty. The area in white represents the area in cooler adapted varieties of foxtail millet can be grown. Sites represented by black dots are sites where only millet has been recovered from the assemblage. Sites with a black square represent sites where rice has been unearthed in contexts dating to 6000–5000 cal. BC. Sites with an open circle are sites where rice has been unearthed between 5000–3000 cal. BC, however come from poor or undated contexts. Sites with a black triangle represent finds of rice that date between 2600–2000 cal. BC. Sites with a diamond represents sites where rice has been found that post-dates 1800 cal. BC. Map relief from ETOPO1 [<a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0130430#pone.0130430.ref006" target="_blank">6</a>]; country and province outlines from Natural Earth (naturalearthdata.com).</p