The UMMAA is pleased to present Dr. Chao Zhao, lecturer at Shaanxi Normal University, Xi’an, China, who will speak on Friday, February 18, 12-1 p.m., as part of the online UMMAA Brown Bag Lecture Series.

Dr. Chao Zhao's lecture is titled Neolithic Pathways in East Mongolian Plateau: Early Sedentism and Subsistence Strategy.

Although the harsh environment of the Mongolian Plateau was once assumed to be unable to support a fully sedentary lifestyle, sedentism can be spotted across regions within the Eastern Mongolian Plateau during the Holocene Climatic Optimum. This talk will focus on both new and existing data from Early Neolithic (8.5-7 kya) sites on the East Mongolian Plateau to reveal a simultaneous shift towards increasing intensity and stability of site use, with distinct variation in the organization of settlement and subsistence across biogeographic zones. Here, the development of sedentary communities emphasizes the importance of climatic amelioration in the attempt towards sedentism in the Mongolian Plateau and demonstrates how differences in ecological and cultural contexts can encourage various responses to the same environmental stimuli.

Zoom link:
https://umich.zoom.us/j/95567379046

The Museum’s Brown Bag Lecture Series is free and open to the public.