Ancient Starch Remains Reveal the Vegetal Diet of the Neolithic Late Dawenkou Culture in Jiangsu, East China

Xi Zhang,Zhenyu Zhou,John W Olsen,Ying Guan,Yingfang Hu,Xiaoting Zhu

doi:10.3389/fevo.2021.722103

Abstract

The Liangwangcheng site, located in Pizhou County, Xuzhou City, northern Jiangsu Province, is one of the most important Neolithic Dawenkou Culture archeological sites in the Haidai area of China’s eastern seaboard. In recent years, archaeobotanical studies in the Haidai area, mainly focusing on Shandong Province, have yielded fruitful results, while relatively few such studies have been undertaken in northern Jiangsu Province. Here, we report the results of dental residue analysis conducted on 31 individual human skulls unearthed from the Late Dawenkou Culture Liangwangcheng site. The starch granules extracted from these residue samples indicate that foxtail and broomcorn millet, rice, roots and tubers, and legumes comprised the vegetal diet of Liangwangcheng’s occupants. Evidence suggests that mixed rice–millet agriculture played a definite role, with the coexistence of gathering as an economic element. According to archaeobotanical evidence from surrounding cotemporaneous sites, the Late Neolithic human groups that lived in the lower Huang-Huai River drainage shared similar subsistence patterns. Our results provide new evidence for a more comprehensive understanding of plant resource utilization and agricultural development in northern Jiangsu during the Dawenkou period.

Highlights

The Haidai Cultural Region refers to prehistoric cultural groups that include a continuous and rich sequence of Neolithic and Bronze Age archeological cultures, covering Shandong, northern Jiangsu and Anhui, eastern Henan, and the southern Liaodong Peninsula in eastern China (Gao and Shao, 1984; Luan, 1997; Figure 1)
Dawenkou and Longshan cultural remains in the Haidai area provide key evidence for understanding the evolution of social behavior and subsistence transformations during the Middle and Late Neolithic
Plant starch and phytolith residues indicate that the Neolithic inhabitants of the Liangwangcheng site cultivated millet and rice as the primary source of their vegetal food and simultaneously exploited a variety of edible wild plants including legumes, the fruit of aquatic plants, and underground storage organs

Summary

Introduction

The Haidai Cultural Region (abbreviated Haidai) refers to prehistoric cultural groups that include a continuous and rich sequence of Neolithic and Bronze Age archeological cultures, covering Shandong, northern Jiangsu and Anhui, eastern Henan, and the southern Liaodong Peninsula in eastern China (Gao and Shao, 1984; Luan, 1997; Figure 1). This region plays a significant role in the Neolithic archeology of China by providing a long, continuous cultural sequence, exhibiting regional characteristics that distinguish it from other parts of China, and by preserving extensive deposits of ancient human occupations. It is necessary to pursue a comprehensive study of Haidai Culture, especially during the Dawenkou stage, when prehistoric populations expanded over a much more extensive geographical range in comparison with the preceding Houli (ca. 6500–5500 BCE) and Beixin (ca. 5300–4100 BCE) periods

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