Hi everybody, from Wondery, welcome to another episode of Tides of History.

So one of my favorite parts about our series on prehistory has been diving into places

all over the world.

I've been particularly struck by East Asia and China in particular.

Their area is about which I knew very little prior to my episodes on them, they don't

figure nearly as prominently in the basic versions of the deep past that we might get

in a high school or undergraduate class.

The road to food production and complex societies looks quite a bit different there.

I still have so many unanswered questions and things I'm curious about.

And that's why I'm so stoked to talk to our guest today.

I relied heavily on her work in my research, particularly her excellent book The Archaeology

of China from the Late Paleolithic to the Early Bronze Age.

She's the Sir Robert Houton professor in Chinese archaeology at Stanford University.

She's one of the leading experts on Neolithic and Bronze Age China.

She's the author of several books and a staggering number of book chapters and journal articles.

Her most recent work looks at the early brewing of alcohol around the world.

Professor Lidliew, thank you so much for joining me today.

Oh, thank you for inviting me.

So I'd like to start with the general outlines of your work on Late Prehistoric China.

So what drew your interest to this time and place, or rather these times and places?

I think the interesting topics about the late prehistoric China is that it's one of the

common questions we always ask about human evolution.

...