Origins of the earliest farmers in Central China: a lithic perspective

PI: Dr Weiya Li (Supervisor: Dr Deborah Barsky)

Brief Introduction: The origins of early agricultural societies have been the subject of major interest for archaeologists over the past decades. China was one of the world’s oldest primary centres of independent agricultural development. The most thoroughly studied early agricultural societies in China are located along the Yangtze and Yellow River Valleys, which provide some of the oldest firm evidence for rice (Oryza sativa) and millet (Setaria italica and Panicum miliaceum) farming respectively. Notably, the upper catchment of Huai River, a transitional climatic zone between northern and southern China, also has some of the first significant occurrences of cultivated rice, domesticated animals, and ground stone tools (i.e., stone sickles and stone shovels) that have been linked to agricultural practices at the archae- ological site of Jiahu (9000 to 7500 BP), making this population the earliest farmers in Central China. One of the hypotheses is that the Jiahu people probably migrated from southern China along the coastline. This assumption is based on the evidence that sea levels have risen in Southeast China since around 20,000 years ago, thus humans who lived by the coast had to move to higher locations (e.g., Central China). This MSCA COFUND project explores whether it may possible to link the Neolithic farmers at the site of Jiahu in Central China and their potential places of origin through their stone toolkits, from the technological, typological, and functional perspectives.The project also aims to contribute to various dissemination, outreach, and communication activities.

Conference and workshop on ancient starch grains, Stanford University, USA, 2023

For the conference, Weiya Li was invited to present his research entitled “Learning from experiments and blind tests: different interpretations of starch data in previous archaeological studies”. 

The goal for the two-day workshop after the conference is to develop better methods for understanding the use of starch-rich plant foods in the deep past.

Weiya 31 August EAA_1 - Copy.pptx

International Conference (EAA, 2023)

Weiya Li presented his project and some preliminary results at the Annual meeting of European Accounting Association (EAA), 2023. 

His talk was accepted in the session of 350: Bio-Arch Methodologies to Assess Mobility in the Past: The Need for Interdisciplinary and Multi-Proxy Investigations.  

Oral presentation: “Origins of the earliest farmers in Central China: a lithic perspective”, 29 August-2 September 2023, Belfast, UK


International Conference (AHEAD, 2023, Tarragona, Spain)

Weiya Li presented his project and some preliminary results in the form of a poster in the AHEAD conference in Tarragona, Spain.

International Conference (AEA, 2023, Tarragona, Spain)

In the 43rd Conference of the Association for Environmental Archaeology, Weiya Li presented a study about an experimental study on starch grain analysis. 

Scientific dissemination (European Researchers' Night, 2023)

Who makes flour in the morning? The processing of cereals among the first farmers of prehistory

Do you know how flour was made in prehistoric times? We propose a challenge: to get as much flour as possible using very prehistoric techniques. And on top of that, you'll learn techniques for sampling and observing prehistoric cereal remains from around the world.



Personal Training in 2023 

Typo-technological analysis (with Dr Deborah Barsky)

Experimental archaeology (with Dr Deborah Barsky)-making flakes using bipolar technique


Use of different microscopes-Dr Josep Maria Vergès Bosch demonstrating how to use SEM microscope


✉️  You are welcome to contact me through email: wli@iphes.cat