lowlands. Th ey lived in houses built of reeds and clay placed
atop mounds to keep them out of the fl oods. Th ey kept do-
mestic dogs, pigs, and water buff aloes. Th ey made agricul-
tural tools out of wood and the bones of their animals; for
example, they constructed shovels with wooden handles and
blades made from water buff alo shoulder blades. Growing
rice was very labor intensive, and most of the people in the
settlement would have spent much of their time sowing rice,
tending plants, and harvesting grains. Upriver a collection
of lakes formed the center of the settlements of the Hubei
Basin. Th ese towns arose between 4000 and 3000 b.c.e. Th e
people there used stone sickles to harvest rice, which was
then stored in ceramic bowls.
While southern Chinese farmers were domesticating
rice, their counterparts in northern China were conduct-
ing their own experiments with millet. Th e Yellow River is
north of the Yangtze and is separated from it by the Qin Ling
Mountains. Th e land surrounding the Yellow River is buff eted
by the cold, dry winds blowing east from the Central Asian
plains. Th e climate is harsh and unstable, prone to droughts
and unexpected violent fl oods. Summer rains are unreliable,
and winters can be severe. Th e plants native to this region
were drought-resistant grains adapted to growing with little
rainfall. Hunter-gatherers in the area knew these grains and
had been collecting them as food for centuries. In addition to
grains, they collected walnuts, hazelnuts, berries, acorns, and
dates, and they caught fi sh and killed deer.
Two species of millet, broomcorn and foxtail, both of
which need little water to survive, were chosen for cultivation
in northern China. Archaeologists know that people were
deliberately growing millet, because the settlements they
have excavated are too large to be anything but agricultural
communities and because they have found many millet grains
on the sites. Th e earliest evidence of millet agriculture is that
of the Peiligang culture in northern China. Th ese people lived
near the Yellow River starting about 7000 b.c.e. By around
4500 b.c.e. the Peiligang people were living in oval-shaped
tow ns surrounded by protective ditches. Wit hin t his enclosed
space families lived in circular houses with thatched roofs
arranged around a central square. Th ey stored their food in
pits and kept animals in enclosures in the main plaza. Dead
people were buried outside the town. Society was organized
according to kinship, and the year’s work was planned ac-
cording to the agricultural calendar. Th is pattern of social or-
ganization continued unaltered in rural China up until well
into the 20th century. Millet was never as dominant a grain
as rice, but it did spread to Japan by 4000 b.c.e. and Korea by
about 3000 b.c.e.ASIAN ANIMALS
Domesticated animals were important to the ancient people
in both northern and southern China because they off ered
a reliable source of protein and could provide labor as well.
Th e earliest evidence for the domestication of chickens comes
from the Yellow River region about 5400 to 5200 b.c.e. Pigs
appear at archaeological sites in the same area at about the
same time. Some historians have suggested that domesticated
pigs could have been brought to China from Mesopotamia,
but others think it more likely that native pigs were domesti-
cated independently in China by Chinese people. Water buf-
faloes seem to have been domesticated as draft animals in the
Yellow River basin about 4500 b.c.e. Th eir use had spread to
Southeast Asia by 1500 b.c.e.CONSEQUENCES OF AGRICULTURE
Once humans had learned the basics of agriculture and
animal husbandry, their lives changed dramatically. Th ese
changes in Chinese life had major implications for people
throughout Asia over the next several millennia. Farming
had several advantages over hunting and gathering. Domes-
ticating plants and animals allowed humans to feed more
people with available resources. Domestic animals supplied
people with milk, eggs, meat, fertilizer in the form of ma-
nure, and labor, pulling plows so that humans could cultivate
more land. Crops and livestock also provided humans with
nonfood items such as leather, feathers, and fabrics. Growing
crops allowed people to stay in one place, instead of forcing
them to move about regularly in pursuit of food as hunter-
gatherers did. Farming women had babies more oft en than
hunter-gatherer women, which resulted in rapid populationRitual spear blade from Japan, from the Yayoi Period (ca. 300 b.c.e.–300 c.e.), made for burial in a ceremony thought to have been connected
with agriculture (© Th e Trustees of the British Museum)
agriculture: Asia and the Pacific 31