Molecular and isotopic evidence for the processing of starchy plants in Early Neolithic pottery from China

Shinya Shoda,Yastami Nishida,Alexandre Lucquin,Joon-Ho Son,Chi Ian Sou,Oliver E Craig,Guoping Sun,Hiroshi Kitano,Shinichi Nakamura

doi:10.1038/s41598-018-35227-4

Abstract

Organic residue analysis of ancient ceramic vessels enables the investigation of natural resources that were used in daily cooking practices in different part of the world. Despite many methodological advances, the utilization of plants in pottery has been difficult to demonstrate chemically, hindering the study of their role in ancient society, a topic that is especially important to understanding early agricultural practices at the start of the Neolithic period. Here, we present the first lipid residue study on the Chinese Neolithic pottery dated to 5.0 k - 4.7 k cal BC from the Tianluoshan site, Zhejiang province, a key site with early evidence for rice domestication. Through the identification of novel molecular biomarkers and extensive stable isotope analysis, we suggest that the pottery in Tianluoshan were largely used for processing starchy plant foods. These results not only highlight the significance of starchy plants in Neolithic southern China but also show a clear difference with other contemporary sites in northern Eurasia, where pottery is clearly orientated to aquatic resource exploitation. These differences may be linked with the early development of rice agriculture in China compared to its much later adoption in adjacent northerly regions.

Highlights

Plants have played an important role in shaping human history that extends back well beyond their domestication to our more distant forager ancestors[1,2]
Carbon and nitrogen isotopes were measured in foodcrusts to broadly distinguish marine/freshwater/terrestrial sources[28]. Lipids extracted from both foodcrusts and from the ceramic matrices of the vessels were analysed by gas chromatography mass spectrometry to identify their likely source
Carbon and nitrogen stable isotope ratio was measured by elemental analysis isotope ratio mass spectrometry (EA-IRMS)

Summary

Introduction

Plants have played an important role in shaping human history that extends back well beyond their domestication to our more distant forager ancestors[1,2]. It is unclear whether extensive processing of wild starchy plants such as acorns or chestnuts would be detectable in pottery residues, diagnostic compounds have been identified in charred deposits associated with storage pits from Japanese hunter-gatherer contexts[19].

Results

Conclusion