Google Groups no longer supports new Usenet posts or subscriptions. Historical content remains viewable.
Dismiss
Agriculture in China Predates Domesticated Rice: Discovery of Ancient
10 views
Skip to first unread message
Thrinaxodon
May 17, 2013, 12:38:22 PM5/17/13
to
May 17, 2013 � Archaeologists have made a discovery in southern
subtropical China which could revolutionise thinking about how ancient
humans lived in the region. They have uncovered evidence for the first
time that people living in Xincun 5,000 years ago may have practised
agriculture -- before the arrival of domesticated rice in the region.
Share This:
14
Current archaeological thinking is that it was the advent of rice
cultivation along the Lower Yangtze River that marked the beginning of
agriculture in southern China. Poor organic preservation in the study
region, as in many others, means that traditional archaeobotany
techniques are not possible.
Now, thanks to a new method of analysis on ancient grinding stones,
the archaeologists have uncovered evidence that agriculture could
predate the advent of rice in the region.
The research was the result of a two-year collaboration between Dr Huw
Barton, from the School of Archaeology and Ancient History at the
University of Leicester, and Dr Xiaoyan Yang, Institute of
Geographical Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy
of
Sciences, in Beijing.
Funded by a Royal Society UK-China NSFC International Joint Project,
and other grants held by Yang in China, the research is published in
PLOS ONE.
Dr Barton, Senior Lecturer in Bioarchaeology at the University of
Leicester, described the find as 'hitting the jackpot': "Our discovery
is totally unexpected and very exciting.
"We have used a relatively new method known as ancient starch analysis
to analyse ancient human diet. This technique can tell us things about
human diet in the past that no other method can.
"From a sample of grinding stones we extracted very small quantities
of adhering sediment trapped in pits and cracks on the tool surface.
From this material, preserved starch granules were extracted with our
Chinese colleagues in the starch laboratory in Beijing. These samples
were analysed in China and also here at Leicester in the Starch and
Residue Laboratory, School of Archaeology and Ancient History.
"Our research shows us that there was something much more interesting
going on in the subtropical south of China 5,000 years ago than we had
first thought. The survival of organic material is really dependent on
the particular chemical properties of the soil, so you never know what
you will get until you sample. At Xincun we really hit the jackpot.
Starch was well-preserved and there was plenty of it. While some of
the starch granules we found were species we might expect to find on
grinding and pounding stones, ie. some seeds and tuberous plants such
as freshwater chestnuts, lotus root and the fern root, the addition of
starch from palms was totally unexpected and very exciting."
Several types of tropical palms store prodigious quantities of starch.
This starch can be literally bashed and washed out of the trunk pith,
dried as flour, and of course eaten. It is non-toxic, not particularly
tasty, but it is reliable and can be processed all year round. Many
communities in the tropics today, particularly in Borneo and
Indonesia, but also in eastern India, still rely on flour derived from
palms.
Dr Barton said: "The presence of at least two, possibly three species
of starch producing palms, bananas, and various roots, raises the
intriguing possibility that these plants may have been planted nearby
the settlement.
"Today groups that rely on palms growing in the wild are highly
mobile, moving from one palm stand to another as they exhaust the
clump. Sedentary groups that utilise palms for their starch today,
plant suckers nearby the village, thus maintaining continuous supply.
If they were planted at Xincun, this implies that 'agriculture' did
not arrive here with the arrival of domesticated rice, as
archaeologists currently think, but that an indigenous system of plant
cultivation may have been in place by the mid Holocene.
"The adoption of domesticated rice was slow and gradual in this
region; it was not a rapid transformation as in other places. Our
findings may indicate why this was the case. People may have been busy
with other types of cultivation, ignoring rice, which may have been in
the landscape, but as a minor plant for a long time before it too
became a food staple.
"Future work will focus on grinding stones from nearby sites to see if
this pattern is repeated along the coast."
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/05/130517085734.htm
--
Thrinaxodon
A cynodont in a kitchen.
biol...@gmail.com
subtropical China which could revolutionise thinking about how ancient
humans lived in the region. They have uncovered evidence for the first
time that people living in Xincun 5,000 years ago may have practised
agriculture -- before the arrival of domesticated rice in the region.
Share This:
14
Current archaeological thinking is that it was the advent of rice
cultivation along the Lower Yangtze River that marked the beginning of
agriculture in southern China. Poor organic preservation in the study
region, as in many others, means that traditional archaeobotany
techniques are not possible.
Now, thanks to a new method of analysis on ancient grinding stones,
the archaeologists have uncovered evidence that agriculture could
predate the advent of rice in the region.
The research was the result of a two-year collaboration between Dr Huw
Barton, from the School of Archaeology and Ancient History at the
University of Leicester, and Dr Xiaoyan Yang, Institute of
Geographical Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy
of
Sciences, in Beijing.
Funded by a Royal Society UK-China NSFC International Joint Project,
and other grants held by Yang in China, the research is published in
PLOS ONE.
Dr Barton, Senior Lecturer in Bioarchaeology at the University of
Leicester, described the find as 'hitting the jackpot': "Our discovery
is totally unexpected and very exciting.
"We have used a relatively new method known as ancient starch analysis
to analyse ancient human diet. This technique can tell us things about
human diet in the past that no other method can.
"From a sample of grinding stones we extracted very small quantities
of adhering sediment trapped in pits and cracks on the tool surface.
From this material, preserved starch granules were extracted with our
Chinese colleagues in the starch laboratory in Beijing. These samples
were analysed in China and also here at Leicester in the Starch and
Residue Laboratory, School of Archaeology and Ancient History.
"Our research shows us that there was something much more interesting
going on in the subtropical south of China 5,000 years ago than we had
first thought. The survival of organic material is really dependent on
the particular chemical properties of the soil, so you never know what
you will get until you sample. At Xincun we really hit the jackpot.
Starch was well-preserved and there was plenty of it. While some of
the starch granules we found were species we might expect to find on
grinding and pounding stones, ie. some seeds and tuberous plants such
as freshwater chestnuts, lotus root and the fern root, the addition of
starch from palms was totally unexpected and very exciting."
Several types of tropical palms store prodigious quantities of starch.
This starch can be literally bashed and washed out of the trunk pith,
dried as flour, and of course eaten. It is non-toxic, not particularly
tasty, but it is reliable and can be processed all year round. Many
communities in the tropics today, particularly in Borneo and
Indonesia, but also in eastern India, still rely on flour derived from
palms.
Dr Barton said: "The presence of at least two, possibly three species
of starch producing palms, bananas, and various roots, raises the
intriguing possibility that these plants may have been planted nearby
the settlement.
"Today groups that rely on palms growing in the wild are highly
mobile, moving from one palm stand to another as they exhaust the
clump. Sedentary groups that utilise palms for their starch today,
plant suckers nearby the village, thus maintaining continuous supply.
If they were planted at Xincun, this implies that 'agriculture' did
not arrive here with the arrival of domesticated rice, as
archaeologists currently think, but that an indigenous system of plant
cultivation may have been in place by the mid Holocene.
"The adoption of domesticated rice was slow and gradual in this
region; it was not a rapid transformation as in other places. Our
findings may indicate why this was the case. People may have been busy
with other types of cultivation, ignoring rice, which may have been in
the landscape, but as a minor plant for a long time before it too
became a food staple.
"Future work will focus on grinding stones from nearby sites to see if
this pattern is repeated along the coast."
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/05/130517085734.htm
--
Thrinaxodon
A cynodont in a kitchen.
biol...@gmail.com
Mark Isaak
May 17, 2013, 2:07:54 PM5/17/13
to
for food is quite a different thing from domesticating them. Is
ScienceDaily doing the journalistic idiocy of claiming that speculation
is the same as evidence?
--
Mark Isaak eciton (at) curioustaxonomy (dot) net
"It is certain, from experience, that the smallest grain of natural
honesty and benevolence has more effect on men's conduct, than the most
pompous views suggested by theological theories and systems." - D. Hume
Thrinaxodon
May 17, 2013, 2:31:08 PM5/17/13
to
> for food is quite a different thing from domesticating them. �Is
> ScienceDaily doing the journalistic idiocy of claiming that speculation
> is the same as evidence?
>
> --
> Mark Isaak � � � � �eciton (at) curioustaxonomy (dot) net
> is the same as evidence?
>
> --
> "It is certain, from experience, that the smallest grain of natural
> � honesty and benevolence has more effect on men's conduct, than the most
> � pompous views suggested by theological theories and systems." - D. Hume
Probable.
malcolm...@btinternet.com
May 20, 2013, 3:33:09 PM5/20/13
to
with structures, which means it's unlikely they were transported by
nomads in daily use. If one of the plants processed was palm, and
we can show that naturally occurring palm stands would soon have
been depleted, then it follows that they were using anthropogenically
planted trees.
However by definition agriculture preceded the development of
domesticated strains of rice. So whilst the finding are interesting,
they're more of local interest for the prehistory of China than
in telling us about human development.
0 new messages