The southerly spread of Chinese millets in prehistory, and its consequences for economy and health

The emergence of farming has long been construed as a funda-mental stepping stone on the path of human progress.Within archaeological research,that emergence has remained a major focus of enquiry,typically with an emphasis on the advantages it conveys upon human societies.Recent studies have opened up a wider range of perspectives,in which the transition to farming is shown to have displayed both positive and negative attributes[1,2].They have also involved a shift in focus from identifying modes of subsistence toward an awareness that communities over millennia have,for diverse reasons,combined and discarded sub-sistence choices in a variety of innovative ways.These broader per-spectives hold significant implications for an understanding,not just of our past,but also of our ecological future.