Abstract
This study investigates the population history and subsistence of farming communities at the Erdaojingzi site (ca. 3700–3330 cal. BP), a well-preserved Bronze Age settlement located in the agro-pastoral transition zone of the West Liao River Basin in northern China. We apply a multidisciplinary approach, combining ancient DNA, carbon and nitrogen stable isotope analysis, zooarchaeological data and archaeobotanical evidence, to evaluate population affinities at the site and to characterise subsistence practices in relation to environmental and cultural conditions. Ancient DNA from two individuals shows ancestry profiles closely related to farming populations of the Yellow River Basin, rather than to previously published Neolithic groups from the western Liao region, indicating strong genetic connections with Central Plains related farming communities. Stable isotope results from 43 animal and two human bone samples demonstrate that millet and its by-products formed dietary staples for both humans and domestic animals. Humans, pigs and dogs primarily relied on C4 plants, whereas cattle and sheep consumed mixed diets of C3 and C4 plants. Nitrogen isotope values point to a diet rich in animal protein for humans. Combined age at death and isotopic data from pig remains further indicate that young pigs constituted an important component of meat consumption. Variation in nitrogen isotope values among sheep suggests differences in grazing and foddering regimes, and may also reflect localised soil enrichment by dung and other management practices. Taken together, these results provide new insight into how farming communities organised their subsistence and how population history and economic strategies were intertwined in an agro-pastoral transition zone of prehistoric East Asia.
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Data availability
The raw alignment file (in BAM format) can be accessed publicly at the Genome Warehouse in the National Genomics Data Center, Beijing Institute of Genomics (part of the China National Center for Bioinformation), under the Chinese Academy of Sciences. The data set will be catalogued under the Accession Number: HRA010456 and can be retrieved from (https://bigd.big.ac.cn/gsa-human/). The other original contributions presented in the study are included in the article. The other original contributions presented in the study are included in the article.
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Funding
This work was funded by Archaeological Talent Promotion Program of China (No.2025-197 & No.2024-280), Major Project of the Key Research Base for Philosophy and Social Sciences of the Ministry of Education (No.22JJD780009), The Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (No.2022CXTD17), Jilin University “Chinese-style Modernization and New Forms of Human Civilization” Philosophy and Social Sciences Innovation Team Project (No.2023QNTD12), The National Social Science Fund Special Project (No.23VMZ003), Key Projects of the National Social Science Foundation of China (No.23AKG009), Lantai Young Scholars Program of Chinese History Institute (2022LTQN602), theNational Social Science Fund of China (19VJX074), the National Key Research and Development Program (2020YFE0201600), Major Special Project of Philosophy and Social Sciences Research of the Ministry of Education (2022JZDZ023), the Key Research and Development Program Project of Karamay (2025BA0092), The Doctoral Students’ Scientific Research Innovation Ability Enhancement Project in Jilin University (No.2024KC012; No.2024KC011) and Program for Enhancing Doctoral Research Innovation Capacity in Jilin Province (JJKH20250043BS; JJKH20250044BS).
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Xiaohong Lv: Formal analysis, methodology, data curation, visualization, writing—original draft, writing—review & editing. Yao Yu: Formal analysis, methodology, data curation, visualization, writing—original draft, writing—review & editing. Lin Ban: Formal analysis, methodology, data curation, visualization, writing—original draft, writing—review & editing. Panxin Du: Formal analysis, data curation, visualization, supervision, writing—review & editing. Jianxue Xiong Validation, Xin Chang: Validation. Baoshuai Zhang: Validation. Bangyan Wang: Validation. Yiran Xu: Validation. Chunxue Wang: Conceptualization, Data curation, Formal analysis, Funding acquisition, Investigation, Methodology, Project administration, Resources, Supervision, Validation, Writing—original draft, Writing—review & editing. Jianen Cao: Investigation, Methodology, Resources, Writing—review & editing. Shaoqing Wen: Conceptualization, Formal analysis, Methodology, Visualization, Validation, Writing—review & editing.
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Lv, X., Yu, Y., Ban, L. et al. Population history and subsistence of farming communities in an agro-pastoral transition zone of northern China: ancient DNA and isotopic evidence from the Erdaojingzi site. Sci Rep (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-026-42242-3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-026-42242-3
