Mainland Southeast Asia experienced a long, sustained period of foraging economy before rice and millet farming spread into this area prior to 4,000 years BP. Although hundreds of individuals from dense cemeteries are found in several hunter-gatherer sites in Guangxi, Southern China, and Northern Vietnam, dating from the early to middle Holocene (ca. 9,000–4,500 years BP), so far, little has been known about food sources in these pre-farming contexts. In particular, plant food resources have been unclear, although they likely were crucial to supporting rather large populations of hunter-gatherers in this region. To investigate this issue, micro plant remains, including starches and phytoliths, were recovered from stone tools excavated at the Cai Beo site in Ha Long Bay of coastal Northeastern Vietnam, and those findings revealed new understanding of the ancient diet. Examinations of those residues indicated that the hunter-gatherers at Cai Beo as early as 7,000–6,000 years BP exploited a broad spectrum of plants, such as taros, yams, acorns, palms, and more. This study exemplifies how maritime hunter-gatherers interfaced with the local plants and generated population growth from about 7,000 to 4,500 years BP. The results help us to conceptualize the early exploitation, management, and potential cultivation of subtropical and tropical plants over the broad geography of Asia and the Pacific before the arrival of rice and millet farming. In particular, the result validates the significance of roots and tubers in the ancient subsistence economy of Southeast Asia. Moreover, from the archaeological context of 4,500 to 4,000 years BP, the rice discovered in this study represents one of the earliest known in Mainland Southeast Asia.

The emergence of complex societies represents one of the major developments of human prehistory. Diverse agricultural strategies were implemented to produce the increased grain surplus necessary to allow the development of complex societies across the world. Little is known, however, about the millet–pig system that developed in Neolithic North China and ultimately underpinned the more complex societies, such as cities and states, in this region. Our data from studies of phytoliths and starches from pig dental residues and stable isotopes of millet grains excavated from the Dadiwan site demonstrate that an intensive crop–livestock system was in practice by at least 5,500 years ago. This novel system, characterized by the feeding of millet crop residues to pigs and the fertilization of millet fields with pig and/or human dung, enabled sustainable intensification in agriculture and fed the early complex societies in North China.

Research has generally outlined that the Neolithic East Asian farmers expanded into Southeast Asia, leading to substantial social and cultural transformations. However, the associated archaeobotanical evidence until now has been insufficient to clarify the exact timing, dispersal route, and farming package of the emergence of agriculture in Mainland Southeast Asia. To clarify these issues, the micro-plant remains of phytolith and starch from three Neolithic sites in Ha Long Bay were extracted and analyzed. This study validates the earliest evidence of co-cropping in northern Vietnam, involving the cultivation of rice together with foxtail millet at 4000 years BP or slightly earlier. Moreover, the results indicate that at least two patterns of subsistence strategy were practiced simultaneously during the initial farming phase in the region. The Trang Kenh people, a regional variant of the Phung Nguyen cultural group often have been seen as the first farmers in northern Vietnam, and they mainly practiced a cereal-based subsistence strategy with more vital cultural characteristics of southern China origin. Meanwhile, the Ha Long people, mainly composed of indigenous hunter-gatherer descendants, continued to utilize a wide range of their preferred plant resources such as taros, yams, and acorns, while they absorbed and incorporated new elements such as millet and rice into their food system. This study provides solid information to understand the diverse economic systems among different cultural groups in Vietnam.

A review of ethnological and archaeobotanical evidence shows the potential for a range of starch-rich woody plants, beyond tuberous plants, to have been important foods in prehistoric south subtropical China. In this paper we review the size and shape characteristics of starch granules non-tuberous woody plants (Palms, Cycads and Acorns) that our research has identified as important sources of carbohydrates for prehistoric communities. The study sample consists of 34 modern starch reference samples across eight genera (Palms: Arenga, Caryota,; Cycads:Cycas; and, Acorns: Castanopsis, Fagus, Lithocarpus, Quercus, and Quercus section Cyclobalanopsis). Our descriptive criteria are developed granule descriptors standard in the literature and then assessed for their utility using multiple correspondence analysis. The results demonstrate that both morphometric characteristics and the maximum size of granules are valuable for distinguishing starch granules at various taxonomic levels. Of the five morphometric characteristics recorded in this study sample, granule shape is the most effective variable for granule identification.

采用淀粉粒和植硅体分析方法对甘肃大地湾遗址二期文化(6500-5900 aBP)同一灰坑内出土的8件蚌刀进行植物微体遗存分析,发现了粟黍、小麦族、食用豆类、橡子以及包括百合属、贝母属在内的多种块根块茎类植物的淀粉粒,同时发现了黍稃壳中的η型植硅体,显示出蚌刀使用功能的多样性,既用于切割加工块根块茎类食物,亦可能具有刮取谷穗收获植物籽粒的功能.此外,丰富的淀粉粒种类揭示仰韶早期社会对植物资源利用的多样性,在粟作农业发展的同时,采集经济在当时的生业模式中占有一定的比例.

现代淀粉粒形态数据是鉴定古代淀粉粒的基础.为完善块根块茎植物形态数据库及建立相关鉴定标准,我们采集了17科33属52种现代块根块茎类植物样品进行淀粉粒形态对比和分析.实验结果显示,块根块茎类植物淀粉粒形态多样,在平面上呈现多边形、半圆形、椭圆形、三角形;在三维空间里呈现碎球形、球形、椭球形、钟形等多种形态;黄独(Dioscorea bulbifera)、地涌金莲(Musella lasiocarpa)等具有特殊形态特征的植物类型可以鉴定到种;包含多种淀粉粒形态的植物如栝楼(Trichosanthes kirilowii)则需要通过多种形态特征的组合规律进行鉴定.通过比较发现,文中所涉及块根块茎类植物与已知其他类型植物的淀粉粒在形态上具有较为明显的差异,能够进行区分.此研究对提升古代淀粉粒鉴定的精度,加深对古人类植物利用情况的了解具有重要意义.

The process of rice domestication has been studied for decades based on changing morphological characteristics in assemblages of both macroremains, such as charred seeds and spikelet bases, and microremains, such as phytoliths, esp. bulliform and double-peaked phytoliths. The applicability of these indicators in determining if a specific assemblage is wild or domesticated, however, is rarely discussed. To understand the significance of these indicators in the determination of domestication, we collected 38 archaeological samples from eight Neolithic sites, dating from 10-2ka BP, in the lower Yangtze River region to analyze and compare the changes of these different indicators over eight thousand years. The data demonstrate that the comprehensive analysis of multiple indicators may be the best method to study the process of rice domestication developed thus far. An assemblage of rice remains can be identified as domesticated forms if they meet the following criteria simultaneously: 1) the proportion of domesticated-type bulliform phytoliths is more than 73%; and 2) the proportion of domesticated-type rice spikelet bases is higher than 75%. Furthermore, we found that each indicator tends to change steadily and gradually over time, and each stabilized at a different time, suggesting that the characteristics of domesticated rice developed slowly and successively. Changes of multiple indicators during the period between 10,000-2,000 yr BP indicate that the process of rice domestication in the lower Yangtze River region lasted as long as ca. 6,000 years during the Neolithic, and can be divided into three stages with the turning points in the middle Hemudu-late Majiabang culture (6,500-5,800yr BP) and the late Liangzhu culture (4,600-4,300yr BP).

While the possibility of indigenous rice cultivation cannot be entirely ruled out, there is increasing evidence suggesting that rice farming was introduced to South China during the late-Holocene. However, determination of the exact timing of the spread of rice farming to South China is fraught with the lack of reliable radiocarbon dates. In this article, we present 15 new AMS 14C dates of charred plant remains recovered from late-Holocene sites of Shixia and Guye in Guangdong Province of South China. Our new AMS 14C dates suggest a later arrival of rice farming in the Pearl River Delta than previously thought. These new AMS 14C dates will shed new lights to an improved understanding of the environmental background and ecology of the southward spread of rice farming.

Recent studies have shown that the proportion of rice bulliform phytoliths with >= 9 fish-scale decorations can be used as a criterion to differentiate wild rice from its domesticated counterpart. The analysis of rice bulliform phytoliths recovered from 38 samples collected from eight archaeological sites dated to around 10,000-2200 BP suggests that the process of rice domestication in the Lower Yangtze River region lasted for around 6000 years and can be divided into three stages. Stage I was from around 10,000 to 6500 BP. The process of domestication was very slow, and even went backwards. Stage II was between 6500 and 5600 BP, when the process was accelerated. During stage III, from 4500 to 2200 BP, the domestication process eventually resulted in the breed of the modern rice. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd and INQUA. All rights reserved.