SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA—The Science Times reports that researchers from the University of Sydney have reconstructed seasonal migration routes of Bronze Age herders inhabiting Xinjiang, in what is now northwestern China. The team used a combination of satellite imagery, archaeological evidence from herding camps, and ethnographic information provided by modern-day herders in the region to model vegetation cycles and snow cover. These factors affected where pastoralists and their flocks could exploit the landscape's resources more than 3,500 years ago. Archaeologist Peter Jia said that the team's ethnographic interviews with today's herders proved especially crucial, as they explained how summer grass growth and lack of winter snow determined their selection of seasonal grazing locations. Read the original scholarly article about this research in PLOS ONE. To read about the mysterious disappearance of a Bronze Age civilization in China's Sichuan Basin, go to "Seismic Shift."
