The cropping systems reflected by weeds in the Eastern Jianghuai region during the late Zhou period

The remains of weed taxa in flotation assemblages has been and are increasingly valued in archaeobotanical research as shedding lights into environmental and cultivation conditions of past farming practices. In this paper, we analyze charred remains of weed taxa unearthed from Datongpu site in the eastern Jianghuai region to infer crop sowing and harvesting schedules during the late Zhou period. The sowing time was estimated to be between March and June and harvesting was likely conducted between August and October. Such a schedule would have been consistent with a practice involving cultivation of rice varieties with medium/late ripening habit, spring or summer sown millets, and photoperiod insensitive wheat (spring type). Our results infer a monoculture cropping systems during the late Zhou period with long fallows between years. This is different from the polyculture system developed later that is commonly known to the region today. This work provides key information concerning cropping system in the marginal areas of the Zhou Dynasty, promoting a deeper understanding of the human-landscape relations during the first millennium BC.