Sago-type palms were an important plant food prior to rice in southern subtropical China.

Xiaoyan Yang,Huw J Barton,Jun Wei,Quan Li,Mingqi Li,Zhikun Ma,Dan Zhang,Zhiwei Wan

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0063148

Abstract

Poor preservation of plant macroremains in the acid soils of southern subtropical China has hampered understanding of prehistoric diets in the region and of the spread of domesticated rice southwards from the Yangtze River region. According to records in ancient books and archaeological discoveries from historical sites, it is presumed that roots and tubers were the staple plant foods in this region before rice agriculture was widely practiced. But no direct evidences provided to test the hypothesis. Here we present evidence from starch and phytolith analyses of samples obtained during systematic excavations at the site of Xincun on the southern coast of China, demonstrating that during 3,350–2,470 aBC humans exploited sago palms, bananas, freshwater roots and tubers, fern roots, acorns, Job's-tears as well as wild rice. A dominance of starches and phytoliths from palms suggest that the sago-type palms were an important plant food prior to the rice in south subtropical China. We also believe that because of their reliance on a wide range of starch-rich plant foods, the transition towards labour intensive rice agriculture was a slow process.

Highlights

The orthodox view of the spread of agriculture in southernAsia
As a result archaeologists have been forced to rely on data from historic sites and written records to infer the nature of subsistence in this region [3]
The starch assemblage recovered from the Xincun site incorporated a wide range of edible plants such as sago palms, banana, water chestnuts, lotus roots, arrowheads, ferns, Job’stears, acorns

Summary

Introduction

The orthodox view of the spread of agriculture in southernAsia. In doing so, they are argued to have spread a cultural package of domesticated rice, pigs, forms of pottery, along withAustronesian languages. The orthodox view of the spread of agriculture in southern. In doing so, they are argued to have spread a cultural package of domesticated rice, pigs, forms of pottery, along with. According to the historic records it is generally presumed that roots and tubers were the likely staple plant foods during the prehistoric period [6,7,8]. This view has been supported by limited archaeological evidence of charred roots and tubers, unidentified to species recovered from Zengpiyan cave, an early

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