September 25, 2020

Early China Seminar Lecture Series

Title: “What were the Prime Movers for the Transition to Agriculture: Insights from Archaeological Research in Northeast China”
Speaker: Gideon Shelach-Lavi, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Time: September 25, 2020 (9:00-11:00 AM)

The reasons and processes that led hunter-gatherers to transition into a sedentary and agricultural way of life are a fundamental unresolved question of human history. Over the years scholars debated many related issues such as what came first – sedentism or plant cultivation and domestication – and whether such transition occurred in an environment of plentiful resources or under stressful conditions. Other issues related to this fundamental change in human history are the social institutions and technologies that enabled it and the cultural changes that occurred as a result of this transition.  In this talk I will present the results of an archaeological research I conducted in Northeast China. The results of this research, which include a systematic regional survey, excavations at two early Neolithic sites, paleobotanic and paleoclimatic research, will be used to address same of those fundamental issues which are relevant to our understanding of the early history of North China as well as for more general insights on global human history.