新石器晚期颍河上游旱作农业的多元化特征

用王城岗遗址地层中炭化作物种子、植物花粉的分选鉴定结果,讨论了颍河上游地区龙山文化晚期至二里岗文化时期(约4.2~3.3 kaBP)的气候背景、作物类型和农业活动对环境的影响。结果显示,粟、黍种子数目一直占绝对优势,小麦种子在二里岗时期出现并逐渐走强;由于土地承载力和气候条件限制,王城岗地区的早期农业自龙山晚期后加速了多元化的进程,逐渐形成了以粟、黍、麦、豆为主,水稻、高粱、荞麦、稗子为辅,兼有果实采集的多样化农业生产。小麦的引入表明,本区早期农业与西部地区文化交流是主体,同时促进了颍河上游早期农业的多元化,巩固了史前社会可持续发展的物质基础。

DIVERSIFICATION OF RAINFED AGRICULTURE IN THE UPPER YING RIVER DURING THE LATE NEOLITHIC AGE

The objective of this paper is to seek for the relationship between the cereals cultivated in the Late Neolithic age within the area of the upper Ying River and their environmental settings. Various charred cereal grains in the archaeobotanical assemblages from the Wangchenggang site, especially in the proportion of millet, glutinous millet and wheat, have been discovered. The cereal assemblages are studied regarding their site altitude, weather conditions, soil and soil productivity. The most important environmental variable, which influences the choice of a particular crop, seemed to be the altitude which is correlated with other variables such as the length of growing season, mean annual temperature, soil quality etc. Although the ecological requirements of cereals cultivated in the late Neolithic ages are not known, they presumably thrived under similar conditions to present species/varieties, and the strategy of past crop husbandry was based on similar principles as it today, e.g. flexible adaptation to local environmental conditions, in an effort to achieve optimal yields and maintain social sustainability.