Different trajectories of livelihood transformations in response to the trans-Eurasian exchange in agricultural, pastoral, and agro-pastoral regions of north China during the late Neolithic and Bronze Age

Significant spatiotemporal variation in human livelihood patterns and its relationship to trans-Eurasian exchange and climate change in north China during the late Neolithic and Bronze Age, has been intensively studied in recent years, but the comprehensive influence of natural and social factors on this variation is not well understood. Therefore, we analyze archaeobotanical, zooarchaeological and carbon isotopic data from late Neolithic and Bronze Age sites in agricultural, pastoral, and agro-pastoral regions of north China. Our results demonstrate human subsistence strategies transformed at different speeds in these three geographic areas after wheat, barley, and sheep, goats, and cattle were introduced into north China. Introduced crops and livestock dominated human livelihoods in pastoral regions and became important subsistence in areas above ∼1500 m a.s.l. in agro-pastoral regions after ∼3600 BP. In agricultural regions, indigenous millet crops were the most important subsistence throughout 6000–2200 BP, but wheat use increased significantly around 2700 BP. Our study suggests that the introduction of new crops and herbivorous livestock related to the prehistoric trans-Eurasian exchange, and their adaptive advantage in high-cold environments might have rapidly facilitated human adaptability and social development in pastoral regions and northwest margin of agro-pastoral regions during the Bronze Age.