My research focuses on plant domestication, the origins of agriculture, and the human-mediated adaptation of domesticated species. I am particularly interested in how crops, people, and knowledge moved across Eurasia, and how these processes reshaped both environments and societies. My work has contributed to renewed momentum in understanding the globalization in deep antiquity and its biological and social consequences, and has helped prompt a reconsideration of world history with greater appreciation of contributions from the East and the Global South. I have conducted fieldwork on the Tibetan Plateau, in the Hexi Corridor and Inner Mongolia, and across Central Asia and Eastern Europe. Together, these archaeological investigations highlight the relevance of deep-time perspectives to contemporary challenges and draw inspiration from humanity at its deepest levels.

My recent work centres on historically important yet contemporarily neglected plant foods, especially millets—a generic term for small-grained cereals that have long sustained communities across extensive biogeographical zones in Asia, Africa, and beyond. Today, millets are consumed less frequently in the developed world and have attracted comparatively little scientific attention relative to their high-yielding, large-grained counterparts. Yet, given their ecological resilience, nutritional potential, and deep community roots, millets are among the key crops for addressing food security, sustainability, and climate adaptation.

Members of my lab group, the Laboratory for the Analysis of Early Food-webs (LAEF), use a multidisciplinary approach to address questions of nutrition and ecology, palaeodiet and palaeoenvironment. Combining archaeobotany, zooarchaeology, isotopic analysis, and other scientific techniques, they conduct research in a diverse range of environments, including the Tibetan Plateau, the Yangtze and Yellow River valleys, the Inner Asian Mountain Corridor, the Maya lowlands, the Andes, and Costa Rica.

SELECTED PUBLICATIONS (full list in google scholar)

Chen, X., Z. Sun, S. Zhang, G-A. Lee, H. Nasu, F. Zhang, H. Cai, X. Liu, J. Gao, C. Zhu, J. Lang, Z. Zhao and X. Liu, 2025. The discovery of adzuki bean (V. angularis) in Eastern China during the 9th millennium BP and its domestication in East Asia. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA, 122(39), e2510835122. Abstract

Zhang, Z., H. Lu, S. Wangdue, X. Chen, L. Tang, H. Xu, J. Song, P. Vaiglova and X. Liu, 2024, Sequential isotope analyses of enamel bioapatite on the Tibetan Plateau reveal sheep and goat provisioning at high elevation environment, 3000-2200 BP. Antiquity, 98 (401), 1219-1235. Abstract

Liu, X. and M. K. Jones, 2024, Needs for a conceptual bridge between biological domestication and early food globalization. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA, 121 (16), e2219055121. Abstract

Sun, Y., M. Ritchey, H. Zhong, L. Tang, E. Sergusheva, T. Shi, J. Song, H. Li, G. Dong and X. Liu, 2024. Gran size variations of millets and cooking techniques across Asia between the late fourth and first millennium BCE. Antiquity, 98(398), 401-416. Abstract

Chen, N. Z. Zhang, J. Hou, J. Chen, X. Gao, L. Tang, S. Wangdue, X. Zhang, M-H. S. Sinding, X. Liu, J. Han, H. Lü, C. Lei, F. Marshall and X. Liu, 2023. Evidence for early domestic yak, taurine cattle, and their hybrids on the Tibetan Plateau. Science Advances, 9, eadi6857. Open access article

Li, H., Y. Sun, Y. Yang, Y. Cui, L. Ren, H. Li, G. Chen, P. Vaiglova, G. Dong and X. Liu, 2022. Distinct water and soil management by first wheat and barley cultivators in north China. Antiquity, 96(390): 1478-1494. Abstract

Ritchey, M. M., Y. Sun, G. Motuzaite Matuzeviciute, S. Shaoda, A. K. Pokharia, M. Spate, L. Tang, J. Song, H. Li, G. Dong, P. Vaiglova, M. Frachetti and X. Liu, 2022. The Wind that Shakes the Barley: the role of eastern Eurasian cuisines and environments on barley grain size. World Archaeology, 53(1): 1-18. Abstract

Vaiglova, P., R. E. B. Reid, E. Lightfoot, S. E. Pilaar Birch, H. Wang, G. Chen, S. Li, M. K. Jones and X. Liu, 2021. Localized management of non-indigenous animal domesticates in northwestern China during the Bronze Age. Scientific Reports, 11: 15764. Open access article

Liu, X., and R. E. B. Reid, 2020. The prehistoric roots of Chinese cuisines: Mapping staple food systems of China, 6000 BC -220 AD. PLOS One, 15(11), e0240930. Open access article

Liu, X., P.J. Jones, G. Motuzaite Matuzeviviute, H.V. Hunt, D.L. Lister, T. An, N. Przelomska, C.J. Kneale, Z. Zhao and M.K. Jones, 2019. From ecological opportunism to multi-cropping: mapping food globalisation in prehistory. Quaternary Science Reviews, 206(15), 21-8. Abstract

Liu, X., D.L. Lister, Z. Zhao, C.A. Petrie, X. Zeng, P.J. Jones, R. Staff, A.K. Pokharia, J. Bates, R.N. Singh, S.A. Weber, G. Motuzaite Matuzeviviute, G. Dong, H. Li, H. Lü, H. Jiang, J. Wang, J. Ma, D. Tian, G. Jin, L. Zhou, X. Wu & M.K. Jones, 2017. Journey to the East: diverse routes and variable flowering times for wheat and barley en route to prehistoric China. PLOS One, 12(11), e0209518. Open access article

Chen, F., F. Dong, D. Zhang, X. Liu, X. Jia, C. An, M. Ma, Y. Xie, L. Barton, X. Ren, Z. Zhao, X. Wu and M. K. Jones. 2015. Agriculture facilitated permanent human occupation of the Tibetan Plateau after 3600 B.P. Science 347 (6219), 248-250. Abstract

Liu, X., E. Lightfoot, T. C. O'Connell, H. Wang, S. Li, L. Zhou, Y. Hu, G. Motuzaite Matuzeviciute and M. K. Jones. 2014. From necessity to choice: dietary revolutions in west China in the second millennium BC. World Archaeology 46 (5), 661-680. Abstract

Liu, X. and M. K. Jones. 2014. Food globalization in prehistory: top down or bottom up? Antiquity 88 (341), 956-963. Abstract

Liu, X., M. K. Jones, Z. Zhao, G. Liu and T. C. O'Connell. 2012. The earliest evidence of millet as a staple crop: New light on Neolithic foodways in North China. American Journal of Physical Anthropology 149 (2), 238-290. Abstract

Jones, M. K. and X. Liu. 2009. Origins of agriculture in East Asia. Science 324 (5928), 730-731. Abstract

Liu, X., H. V. Hunt and M. K. Jones. 2009. River valleys and foothills: changing archaeological perceptions of north China's earliest farms. Antiquity 83 (319), 82-95. Abstract

EDITED VOLUME AND SPECIAL ISSUES:

Lightfoot, E., X. Liu and D. Q. Fuller, eds. 2018. Far from the Hearth: Essays in Honour of Martin K. Jones. Cambridge: McDonald Institute Conversations.

Xinyi Liu, Giedre Motuzaite Matuzeviciute, Shinya Shoda and Petra Vaiglova, eds. 2022/23. Research Topic: Effects of Novel Environments on Domesticated Species. Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution.

Jianping Zhang, Ying Guan and Xinyi Liu, eds. 2022/23. Research Topic: Frontiers in the Study of Ancient Plant Remains. Frontiers in Plant Science.

COURSES:

Archaeology of China: Food and People (L48-3163)

New Advances in Archaeology (L48-4655)

Environmental Archaeology (L48-4285)

Bio-molecular Archaeology: Are you what you eat? (L48-4565)

Introduction to Scientific Approaches in Archaeology (L48-4107)

Culinary Globalization: The First 30,000 Years (L48-3101)