Subsistence economy in the eastern Ordos Plateau, China during the late Warring States Period (c. 221 BCE) by stable isotope analysis

Abstract

This case study presents stable carbon and nitrogen isotopic results of 40 human bones (δ¹³C value range: −9.7 ‰ ∼ −7.7 ‰, mean ± SD value: −8.6 ± 0.4 ‰; δ¹⁵N value range: 6.7 ‰ ∼ 10.0 ‰, mean ± SD value: 8.3 ± 0.7 ‰) from the Chuanzhang cemetery in the eastern Ordos Plateau, China during the late Warring States Period (c. 221 BCE), which indicate that the past populations mainly relied on C₄-based food. Despite different archaeological cultures, all past populations in the Chuanzhang cemetery had a similar dietary pattern and subsistence economy. Based on archaeological and historical analysis, people in the Chuanzhang cemetery made their living mainly by millet-based agriculture, supplemented by animal husbandry. Comparing isotopic data published from adjacent and contemporary cemeteries, we can conclude that millet-based agriculture was a consistency and dominated subsistence economy in central-south, Inner Mongolia, which also provided a solid material foundation for the central plains government to control the eastern Ordos Plateau during the late Warring States Period.