Research on Chenopodium in ancient Southwest China

Abstract

Located in the southwest hinterland of China, southwest China has a diversity landform consists of plains, mountains, intermountain basins, plateaus. Since the late Neolithic, people living in southwest China have created diverse cultures. As for the basic subsistence strategies, agriculture facilitated the long-term occupation of settlements. While compared to central China, the ecological environment and geomorgraphy in southwest China seem more tough. According to the archaeological evidence, the Chenopodium has been used in most of the archaeological sites. Chenopodium has been cultivated and domesticated in northeast America since Neolithic until nowadays, it is still used in most areas of the world. Wheather it was domesticated in ancient China is still not clear, the archaeobotanical evidence indicates that since the late Neolithic period, the genus of Chenopodium has been exploited by ancestors in southwest China, which provides the most direct evidence for the utilization of Chenopodium. The utilization of weeds such as Chenopodium in ancient southwest China suggests the diversity acquirement methods for ecological resources, which is of great significance to understand the early civilization process in ancient southwest China.