**7. Conclusions**

Archaeobotanical studies present the long and complicated trajectory of indigenous agricultural development in China. It is certainly not as simple (i.e., northern millet and southern rice) as noted in the historical documents but rather a dynamic process involving and responding to the key elements of climate change. The period 9000–4000 BP was characterized by the combination of rice-based agriculture in the Yangtze River valley and millet-based agriculture in the Yellow River valley, together with a series of variations in regional cropping patterns during di fferent phases of the Neolithic Age. After 7000 BP, there was an important decline in temperature, which might have triggered the transformation of landscape and vegetation and promoted the transition from hunting/gathering to farming activities. The spatial–temporal variation of precipitation played an influential role in the shifting spatial patterns of farming activities during 6000–4000 BP, shedding more light on the issue of humans adapting to climate change in China during the Neolithic period prior to the adoption of exotic crops such as wheat and barley from the west.

**Author Contributions:** Data curation, R.L.; Investigation, R.L., L.Y. and F.L.; Methodology, F.L.; Supervision, G.D.; Visualization, L.Y.; Writing—original draft, R.L. and G.D.; Writing—review & editing, F.L. and R.L. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

**Funding:** This research was funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 41671077 and 41825001) and supported by the 111 Project.

**Acknowledgments:** We would like to thank the three anonymous reviewers for their useful comments and Philly Howarth from the University of Oxford for editing the manuscript.

**Conflicts of Interest:** The authors declare no conflicts of interest.
