STONE TOOL-USE EXPERIMENTS TO DETERMINE THE FUNCTION OF GRINDING STONES AND DENTICULATE SICKLES

Within a broader study of early Chinese agriculture, stone tool-use experiments were undertaken to document usewear on sandstone and tuff implements used to process Quercus acorns, Avena oats and Setaria millet. In other experiments, we examined usewear on denticulate slate sickles used to harvest Quercus acorns, Poaceae grass and Typha reeds. Results support other studies that indicate different patterns of abrasive smoothing, striation formation and polish development together provide a basis for distinguishing some of these tasks. This research is aimed to establish a database for functional analysis of grinding stones and sickles from the early Neolithic Peiligang culture. Controlled experiments are required to identify critical variables (e.g. silica in husks) that affect usewear patterns

Archaeobotany in Australia and New Guinea: practice, potential and prospects

Archaeobotany is the study of plant remains from archaeological contexts. Despite Australasian research being at the forefront of several methodological innovations over the last three decades, archaebotany is now a relatively peripheral concern to most archaeological projects in Australia and New Guinea. In this paper, many practicing archaeobotanists working in these regions argue for a more central role for archaeobotany in standard archaeological practice. An overview of archaeobotanical techniques and applications is presented, the potential for archaeobotany to address key historical research questions is indicated, and initiatives designed to promote archaeobotany and improve current practices are outlined

Archaeobotany in Australia and New Guinea: practice, potential and prospects

Archaeobotany is the study of plant remains from archaeological contexts. Despite Australasian research being at the forefront of several methodological innovations over the last three decades, archaebotany is now a relatively peripheral concern to most archaeological projects in Australia and New Guinea. In this paper, many practicing archaeobotanists working in these regions argue for a more central role for archaeobotany in standard archaeological practice. An overview of archaeobotanical techniques and applications is presented, the potential for archaeobotany to address key historical research questions is indicated, and initiatives designed to promote archaeobotany and improve current practices are outlined

An archaeobotanical analysis of Late Palaeolithic, Peiligang and Yangshao sites in Henan and Shanxi Provinces, North China

This thesis examines plant based subsistence across the ‘agricultural transition’ in North China. The study was based around the Middle Yellow River region and included the Yiluo Basin in Henan Province, other sites in Henan and the Late Palaeolithic site of Shizitan in Shanxi Province. The study time period covered from c. 20,000 cal BP until the end of the Yangshao period c. 5,000 cal BP, with a focus on the transition period between c.13,800 cal BP – 5,000 cal BP. Plant remains examined included charred macrobotanical remains from the Late Palaeolithic, Peiligang and Yangshao periods. Microfossil remains from Peiligang artefacts included both starch and phytolith residues from grinding implements and denticulate stone sickles. The first macrobotanical evidence for the use of millet tribe grasses in North China was presented, with these occurring at the Shizitan site during the Late Palaeolithic period. Millet tribe grasses were subsequently domesticated during the Peiligang period and occur in the study region in the form of small numbers of foxtail and broomcorn millet grains. Domesticated cereal seeds accounted for less than 30 percent of seed taxa in the Peiligang period and less than 12 percent of seed taxa in the Yangshao period. During the Late Palaeolithic and Peiligang periods evidence for experimentation with other grasses was present in the form of panicoid and pooid (cf. Triticeae) starch remains on grinding implements. Residues recovered from Peiligang grinding implements suggest that acorns were an important aspect of subsistence. Macrobotanical evidence for acorns is recorded in the study region at sites such as Jiahu. Macrobotanical evidence for acorns was not present at Tieshenggou, where many of the analysed grinding implements were recovered. In addition to both Lithocarpus sp. and Quercus sp. acorns, Peiligang grinding implements preserved underground storage organ starch from the Cucurbitaceae or Dioscoreaceae families. Starch similar to that from the Phaseoloeae tribe of the bean family was also recovered. Denticulate stone sickles preserved evidence of both grass and eudicotyledonous residues from both the Shigu site and the Jiahu site. These residues do not rule out the possibility that these sickles were used to harvest grasses including millets (Shigu) and rice (Jiahu) but further evidence is needed to support this. The agricultural transition occurred later than expected in the study region, with domesticated cereals only accounting for a small proportion of seed-based subsistence in both the Peiligang and Yangshao periods. This is consistent with ‘middle ground’ subsistence (Smith, B. D., 2001) located between the two extremes of agriculture and hunting-gathering communities on a food production continuum scale

[Special section on the Yiluo project] CONTEXTUAL ANALYSIS OF PLANT REMAINS AT THE ERLITOU-PERIOD HUIZUI SITE, HENAN, CHINA

This paper examines intrasite distributional patterns of plant remains and their implications for plant use and disposal in the past. We analyzed charred plant remains from various excavated features dating to the Erlitou period at the Huizui regional center, Henan Province, China. The main subsistence strategy of the Erlitou period was dryland farming, as archaeologically evidenced by the dominance of dryland crops such as millet and soybean, and the new incorporation of wheat. However, wetland rice was more in use during the drier and cooler Erlitou than during the wetter and warmer preceding periods, and its regional distribution is restricted to major Erlitou centers. Therefore, rice likely played a primarily social role as a prestige crop and status symbol rather than satisfying basic dietary needs. At Huizui, quantities of plant remains by feature types are not correlated to the functions of the features, as defined by feature shape and size as well as artifact contents. Our quantitative analyses of plant remains suggest that the automatic dismissal of rare taxa as casual intrusions, which is common practice in archaeobotany, may be unwarranted, and that any quantitative classification of feature types by plant content is biased by sample size effects

HOL518595.indd

Abstract Charred grass seeds recovered by flotation from the late Upper Paleolithic Shizitan Locality 9 site in Shanxi province, China, are examined in relation to claims based on starch grain and phytolith analysis of early millet domestication and Neolithic plant foods in North China. Small numbers of wild millet (Paniceae tribe) grasses and goosefoot (Chenopodium sp.) seeds provide the first specific macrobotanical evidence for the association of these important plants with people in China during the late Paleolithic. Wild Setaria and Echinochloa spp. are present between 13,800 and 11,600 cal. BP, almost 4000 years before the earliest evidence of unequivocally domesticated millet macrofossils in the Yellow River region by c. 8000-7600 cal. BP. In fact, seed evidence for the process of foxtail millet domestication in North China has not been available until now, and these are the only late Upper Paleolithic seeds ever recovered from North China. This study suggests that domestication-related traits in foxtail millet were gradually established over several millennia

An archaeobotanical analysis of Late Palaeolithic, Peiligang and Yangshao sites in Henan and Shanxi Provinces, North China

This thesis examines plant based subsistence across the ‘agricultural transition’ in North China. The study was based around the Middle Yellow River region and included the Yiluo Basin in Henan Province, other sites in Henan and the Late Palaeolithic site of Shizitan in Shanxi Province. The study time period covered from c. 20,000 cal BP until the end of the Yangshao period c. 5,000 cal BP, with a focus on the transition period between c.13,800 cal BP – 5,000 cal BP. Plant remains examined included charred macrobotanical remains from the Late Palaeolithic, Peiligang and Yangshao periods. Microfossil remains from Peiligang artefacts included both starch and phytolith residues from grinding implements and denticulate stone sickles. The first macrobotanical evidence for the use of millet tribe grasses in North China was presented, with these occurring at the Shizitan site during the Late Palaeolithic period. Millet tribe grasses were subsequently domesticated during the Peiligang period and occur in the study region in the form of small numbers of foxtail and broomcorn millet grains. Domesticated cereal seeds accounted for less than 30 percent of seed taxa in the Peiligang period and less than 12 percent of seed taxa in the Yangshao period. During the Late Palaeolithic and Peiligang periods evidence for experimentation with other grasses was present in the form of panicoid and pooid (cf. Triticeae) starch remains on grinding implements. Residues recovered from Peiligang grinding implements suggest that acorns were an important aspect of subsistence. Macrobotanical evidence for acorns is recorded in the study region at sites such as Jiahu. Macrobotanical evidence for acorns was not present at Tieshenggou, where many of the analysed grinding implements were recovered. In addition to both Lithocarpus sp. and Quercus sp. acorns, Peiligang grinding implements preserved underground storage organ starch from the Cucurbitaceae or Dioscoreaceae families. Starch similar to that from the Phaseoloeae tribe of the bean family was also recovered. Denticulate stone sickles preserved evidence of both grass and eudicotyledonous residues from both the Shigu site and the Jiahu site. These residues do not rule out the possibility that these sickles were used to harvest grasses including millets (Shigu) and rice (Jiahu) but further evidence is needed to support this. The agricultural transition occurred later than expected in the study region, with domesticated cereals only accounting for a small proportion of seed-based subsistence in both the Peiligang and Yangshao periods. This is consistent with ‘middle ground’ subsistence (Smith, B. D., 2001) located between the two extremes of agriculture and hunting-gathering communities on a food production continuum scale

What did grinding stones grind? New light on early Neolithic subsistence economy in the Middle Yellow River Valley, China

Grinding stones have provided a convenient proxy for the arrival of agriculture in Neolithic China. Not any more. Thanks to high-precision analyses of use-wear and starch residue, the authors show that early Neolithic people were mainly using these stones to process acorns. This defines a new stage in the long transition of food production from hunter-gatherer to farmer

Stone tool-use experiments to determine the function of grinding stones and denticulate sickles

Within a broader study of early Chinese agriculture, stone tool-use experiments were undertaken to document usewear on sandstone and tuff implements used to process Quercus acorns, Avena oats and Setaria millet. In other experiments, we examined usewear on denticulate slate sickles used to harvest Quercus acorns, Poaceae grass and Typha reeds. Results support other studies that indicate different patterns of abrasive smoothing, striation formation and polish development together provide a basis for distinguishing some of these tasks. This research is aimed to establish a database for functional analysis of grinding stones and sickles from the early Neolithic Peiligang culture. Controlled experiments are required to identify critical variables (e.g. silica in husks) that affect usewear patterns