Millet domestication (broomcorn and foxtail)
Domesticación del mijo común y de cola de zorra
- Date
- c. 7500 BCE · confidence medium
- Place
- Cishan, Hebei, and Xinglonggou, Inner Mongolia, China
- Credited to
- Cishan-Peiligang and Xinglongwa cultures
- Field
- Life & health
⚠️ Disputed: the sources disagree.
What it is
Cultivation of Panicum miliaceum and Setaria italica on the loess lands of northern China, short-cycle cereals highly resistant to drought. The foundation of the northern Chinese Neolithic and of Yellow River civilisation.
The Cishan dates (c. 8000 BCE, Lu et al. 2009) are based on phytoliths and are disputed; firm consensus from c. 6000 BCE onward.
What it led to
- Dryland farming on the loess and the demography of northern China
- Spread of millet towards Central Asia and Europe (2nd millennium) as a summer crop
- A north (millet)–south (rice) complementarity that structures Chinese history
Built on
- Wild grass gathering
- Grinding stones
Made possible
- Independent pig domestication in Chinac. 6600 BCE
- Chicken domesticationc. 5400 BCE (muy discutido)
- Soybean domesticationc. 3000-1000 BCE
- Millet noodles of Lajiac. 2000 BCE
- Storage pits of Cishan
- Cereal fermentation in China
- Pig rearing in China