Becoming Tibetan: from millet to barley cultivation

• 来源期刊: 国家科学评论（英文版）
• 年，卷（期）: 2019,（5）
• 页码范围: 1015
• 页数: 1页
• 语种: 英文
• DOI: 10.1093/nsr/nwz111

摘要

The settlement of humans on the Tibetan Plateau has been widely investigated in archaeology and other fields [1].Recent archaeological evidence has indicated that permanent human occupation on the Tibetan Plateau generally began around 3.6 thousand years ago (kya) and was likely facilitated by the introduction of barley agriculture.However,it remained unknown how barley agriculture spread onto the Plateau.Millet farmers had settled in lower-altitude regions in the north-eastern Tibetan Plateau by 5.2 kya,at the peak of a warm period,and adopted barley cultivation by 4.0 kya,at a time when an abrupt climatic shift was recorded in the eastern margin of the Tibetan Plateau.The hypothesis was raised that it was the millet farmers in the lower altitudes who eventually brought barley agriculture to the higher elevations.