Agricultural Economic Transformations and Their Impacting Factors around 4000 BP in the Hexi Corridor, Northwest China

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

This paper focuses on trans-Eurasian agricultural exchanges increased across the Hexi Corridor based on the archaeobotanical data from the ancient Haizang site (3,899–29 3,601 cal a BP) within the Hexi Corridor. Findings show that the transformations are likely due to adaption to a cooler and drier climate through cultural exchange.

However, I am worried that the relevance of the theme to the journal of land is not strong. The paper is more about the description of the phenomenon, not the analysis of professional problems. Moreover, the paper is more inclined to historical research.

 

The author highlights “This work deepens our understanding of the complexities surrounding prehistoric transcontinental cultural exchange. “ However, the main context of this paper is the agricultural economic transformations, how to reveal culture? What is the marginal contribution?

Author Response

Response to Reviewer 1 Comments

 

This paper focuses on trans-Eurasian agricultural exchanges increased across the Hexi Corridor based on the archaeobotanical data from the ancient Haizang site (3,899–3,601 cal a BP) within the Hexi Corridor. Findings show that the transformations are likely due to adaption to a cooler and drier climate through cultural exchange.

 

Point 1: However, I am worried that the relevance of the theme to the journal of land is not strong. The paper is more about the description of the phenomenon, not the analysis of professional problems.

 

Response 1: Thank you for your suggestion! Firstly, agriculture is a production activity that directly uses land, climate and water resources. It can be said that the development and change of agriculture is a practical manifestation of land use change. This paper analyzes the plant remains in the archaeological sites to explore the agricultural innovation of human beings around 4,000 BP in the ancient Hexi Corridor and then explore their changes in land use. Therefore, the theme of this article is very consistent with the land magazine. Secondly, the theme of the paper album we submitted is “Effects of Human-Environment Interaction on Land Ecosystem since Holocene”, which is very consistent with the theme of our paper – “The relationship between human agricultural economic changes and environmental changes around 4,000 BP”. Regarding the question you raised in our paper, “The paper is more about the description of the phenomenon, not the analysis of professional problems”. Firstly, we clearly put forward professional scientific problems in the introduction and solved them in the discussion, please see lines 68-71, 80-82, 83-89, 207-210, 230-231, 254-259, 286-288, 297-299, 306-310, 311-315 and 316-328 of the text for details. Secondly, we believe that the writing of the paper should first describe the observed phenomena, then raise questions through the observed phenomena, and finally analyze and solve the problems. In the introduction section, we first put forward professional scientific problems through the observed phenomena, and then put forward materials and methods to solve the problems in the materials and methods section, and finally analyzed and solved the problems in the results and discussions sections.

 

Point 2: Moreover, the paper is more inclined to historical research.

 

Response 2: As you said, this article is a historical study, but it focuses more on the study of human-land relationship changes. The theme of this article is to discuss the relationship between human agricultural economic changes and climate and environmental changes during Machang culture, Xichengyi culture and Qijia culture.

 

Point 3: The author highlights “This work deepens our understanding of the complexities surrounding prehistoric transcontinental cultural exchange.” However, the main context of this paper is the agricultural economic transformations, how to reveal culture?

 

Response 3: Previous studies have shown that prehistoric transcontinental cultural exchanges including painted potteries, crops, livestock, bronze and gold vessels, lapis lazuli, bean decorations, jade wares, metallurgy, and building approaches (Sherratt, 2006; Kuz’mina, 2008; Jones et al., 2011; Dong et al., 2017). Crops, as a part of transcontinental cultural exchange in prehistoric times, can undoubtedly reveal the changes in prehistoric cultural exchange. Our result find that the agricultural production transformed from purely millet-based agriculture during the Machang Period (4300–4000) to predominantly millet-based agriculture increasingly supplemented with wheat and barley during Xichengyi and Qijia periods (4000–3600 BP). At the same time, we also found that the adoption of wheat and barley began with first the Xichengyi culture, and soon spread further eastward within the Hexi Corridor to the Qijia culture. These results show that the western cultural groups first contact with the Xichengyi culture group, and then the Qijia culture groups. Therefore, by observing the agricultural economic changes of different prehistoric cultural groups in the Hexi Corridor, we can understand the spatiotemporal change relationship behind the exchange between eastern and western cultural groups in the Hexi Corridor.

 

Point 4: What is the marginal contribution?

 

Response 4: The previous study only revealed that the eastern and western cultures began to communicate frequently in the Hexi Corridor around 4000 BP, but did not clarify the sequence of contact between various cultural groups in the Hexi Corridor around 4000 BP. However, our results reveal that the first people who contact with western culture are the people of Xichengyi culture, followed by the people of Qijia culture. Therefore, we point out that “This work deepens our understanding of the complexities surrounding prehistoric transcontinental cultural exchange.” At the same time, we believe that with more and more archaeological research results in the Hexi Corridor, the complexity of cultural exchanges between the East and the West in the Hexi Corridor will become clearer.

All the revisions in the text were highlighted by red color.

 

Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Reviewer 2 Report

The article respects the rigors of a scientific work is divided into the following sections: Summary, Introduction, Materials and Methods, Results, Discussion, Conclusions and references.

The paper is well documented, with practical studies carried out and a rich bibliographic material.

The article is particularly interesting due to the theme addressed, that of investigating what our ancestors cultivated and implicitly what they consumed, and starting from this information, the transformations that took place over time in the economy of the area that was in the past part of The ancient silk road.

The materials and methods subsection presents the stages of the work performed and how the seeds were extracted. Its valuable results were represented by a large number of discovered artifacts: pottery, stone artifact, jade artifact, bronzes, bones. artifacts etc. At the same time, a large number of charred plant seeds, human remains and faunal material were excavated. Four types of crop species were identified from the seeds of charred plants: foxtail millet (Setaria italica), broom millet (Panicum milia-ceum), wheat (Triticum aestivum) and barley (Hordeum vulgare L), but also twenty types of weed seeds.

The climate changes that resulted in global cooling also favored the transformations of agricultural production, in the sense that more wheat and barley were introduced into the culture to support the agricultural system.

The results obtained indicate that there was a dependence on millet, and this fact proves that the Machang agricultural economy in the Hexi Corridor was a dry farming system dominated by millet cultivation, and wheat and barley were cultivated "little or not at all".

The images are very suggestive and indicate the location of the Machang culture, the Xichengyi culture and the Qijia culture in the Hexi Corridor, northwest China; shows carbonized plant seeds excavated from the Haizang site in the Hexi Corridor

The rich bibliography is well chosen for the topic of the article and supports the theoretical part of the article, helping to compare the results obtained by the authors with other data.

Author Response

Response to Reviewer 2 Comments

 

Point 1: The article respects the rigors of a scientific work is divided into the following sections: Summary, Introduction, Materials and Methods, Results, Discussion, Conclusions and references. The paper is well documented, with practical studies carried out and a rich bibliographic material. The article is particularly interesting due to the theme addressed, that of investigating what our ancestors cultivated and implicitly what they consumed, and starting from this information, the transformations that took place over time in the economy of the area that was in the past part of the ancient silk road.

 

Response 1: Thank you for your compliment!

 

Point 2: The materials and methods subsection presents the stages of the work performed and how the seeds were extracted. Its valuable results were represented by a large number of discovered artifacts: pottery, stone artifact, jade artifact, bronzes, bones, artifacts etc. At the same time, a large number of charred plant seeds, humans remains and faunal material were excavated. Four types of crop species were identified from the seeds of charred plants: foxtail millet (Setaria italica), broom millet (Panicum milia-ceum), wheat (Triticum aestivum) and barley (Hordeum vulgare L), but also twenty types of weed seeds.

 

Response 2: Yes, we introduced how to obtain and process samples in the materials and methods section. The sample identification results showed that a large number of plant remains were unearthed, including four crops (foxtail millet, broomcorn millet, wheat and barley) and twenty types of weed seeds.

 

Point 3: The climate changes that resulted in global cooling also favored the transformations of agricultural production, in the sense that more wheat and barley were introduced into the culture to support the agricultural system.

 

Response 3: Thank you for your approval. Climate change may be the main factor to promote the transformation of agricultural system, and of course it is also related to the properties carried by crops themselves, such as millets crops are not resistant to low temperature, while wheat and barley crops are resistant to low temperature.

 

Point 4: The results obtained indicate that there was a dependence on millet, and this fact proves that the Machang agricultural economy in the Hexi Corridor was a dry farming system dominated by millet cultivation, and wheat and barley were cultivated "little or not at all".

 

Response 4: The climate was in the warm and wet stage during the Machang culture period, which was very beneficial to the cultivation of millet. During this time, wheat and barley may not have been introduced into the Hexi Corridor, or have been introduced but not cultivated by the Machang culture groups.

 

Point 5: The images are very suggestive and indicate the location of the Machang culture, the Xichengyi culture and the Qijia culture in the Hexi Corridor, northwest China; shows carbonized plant seeds excavated from the Haizang site in the Hexi Corridor

 

Response 5: Thank you for your compliment! Figure 1 clearly shows the location of the Machang culture, the Xichengyi culture and the Qijia culture in the Hexi Corridor, northwest China, and expresses the expansion region of the Machang culture, the Xichengyi culture and the Qijia culture in the Hexi Corridor. Figure 2 shows the photos of carbonized plant seeds unearthed from the Haizang site. Figure 3 shows the percentage of charred crop seeds unearthed from Machang culture, Xichengyi culture and Qijia culture sites in the Hexi Corridor.

 

Point 6: The rich bibliography is well chosen for the topic of the article and supports the theoretical part of the article, helping to compare the results obtained by the authors with other data.

 

Response 6: Thank you for your approval.

 

All the revisions in the text were highlighted by red color.

 

Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Round 2

Reviewer 1 Report

The author has revised the paper as suggested. I have no further questions.