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ENVIRONMENTAL ARCHAEOLOGY

How Neolithic farming changed China

Early human impacts on the environment can illuminate current sustainability challenges. A new paper argues that 5,500 years ago in North China a positive feedback cycle between two domesticated species sparked ongoing intensification of agriculture production and intervention in nature.

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Fig. 1: A ceramic model of a pigsty and latrines, Han dynasty (206 bcad 220).

Heritage Images / Contributor / Getty / Hulton Archive.

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Correspondence to Gideon Shelach-Lavi.

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Shelach-Lavi, G. How Neolithic farming changed China. Nat Sustain 5, 735–736 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41893-022-00899-4

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