00:00 Professor Li Liu is an expert on Neolithic and Bronze Age China and has conducted research on the origin of agriculture and state formation in the region.

05:17 The discovery of plant remains and the use of fire in cooking helped humans evolve and develop larger brains, and in China, 28,000-year-old plant remains show the transition from eating wild grasses to harvesting and processing wild millet, but the domestication of millet took over 10,000 years due to the lack of planting and the nomadic lifestyle of the people.

11:11 The domestication of millet in China took a long time due to the small size of the grain and the lack of productivity, leading people to rely on other foods like tubers, which were easier to deal with but did not show evidence of domestication.

16:12 Archaeological evidence suggests that there were interactions and exchanges between different cultures in prehistoric East Asia, particularly in relation to the production and use of jade objects, which were likely influenced by cosmological beliefs and knowledge about seasonal changes.

21:52 Archaeological evidence suggests that there were movements of people and the spread of plants and technologies in prehistoric East Asia, but the patterns of these movements are still being studied and understood.

27:13 Archaeologists in China are motivated by political agendas and funding opportunities, leading to an explosion of archaeological projects and discoveries, with a particular focus on connections with foreign countries and the Silk Road, and a shift towards a more open-minded approach to research questions and connections with non-Chinese populations.

32:54 The goal of archaeology in East Asia, particularly in countries like China, Japan, Korea, and Vietnam, is to reconstruct social identity and national history, serving political agendas and reflecting modern ideology, with a focus on their own culture and country.

38:33 Ancestral worship and the continuity of cultural traditions, such as genealogy and ancestral burials, have a long-lasting practice in China, with families remembering and worshiping their ancestors for thousands of years, in contrast to the shorter time periods seen in other cultures; additionally, the Sino-Tibetan language speaking population can be traced back to about 8,000 years ago in the Yellow River, with the population dispersing and carrying their culture to other regions.

43:19 6,000 years ago, the use of metropotanic analysis allows researchers to identify the types of alcohol produced in ancient China, such as those made from millet or rice, and the presence of starch patterns and molds in pottery residues help determine the specific type of alcohol produced, which served both as a staple food and for ritual purposes, bringing communities together and later being used by individuals to gain power and raise their social status.

49:13 Alcohol consumption and production reflect social complexity and can be used to track social change and evolution in ancient societies.