The diffusion of animal husbandry in Eurasia and its influence on Hexi Corridor, NW China

Dramatic changes of human livelihood including animal exploitation have occurred across the Eurasiasince ~۱۰,۵۰۰a B.P., accompanied by massive human migrations and cultural communications. However,the diffusion process of animal husbandry at the continental scale remains cloudy, which limits theunderstanding of the prehistoric human-environment relationship. Hexi Corridor (HC), located in NWChina, acted as the pioneer in prehistoric trans-Eurasia cultural communications. Archaeobotanical andstable isotopic researches have captured the evidences that trans-Eurasia exchanges triggered thetransformations of crops and diet in this region, especially during the Bronze Age (~۴,۰۰۰–۲,۵۰۰ a B.P.).But constrained by the scant zooarchaeological data, the temporal pattern of animal exploitation in theHC, and its relationship with prehistoric trans-Eurasia exchanges remain unclear. We report here the resultof a systematic zooarchaeological study at Haizang site (۴,۰۰۰–۳,۵۵۰a B.P.), located in the eastern HC.Combined with published studies in adjacent areas, we analyzed the animal exploitation strategy duringthe Bronze Age in the HC. Beyond that, we reviewed and reconstructed the spatio-temporal patterns ofanimal exploitation in the Eurasia, and discussed its influence on the HC. The results indicated thatintroduced livestock, sheep/goat and cattle, rather than indigenous livestock, started to play the mostimportant role in animal exploitation during ۴,۰۰۰–۳,۵۰۰a B.P., the animal exploitation strategy in the HCtransformed faster and more intense than that in other regions nearby. We argue that this transformationis affected by the trans-Eurasia communication while the rapid increase of population and the cold-dryclimate during that period may contribute to it.