Making Plant Foods in the Early Neolithic: Microbotanical Evidence from Shangshan Pottery

Summary

The Lower Yangtze Valley of China is renowned for the origin of rice agriculture. Previous research based on archaeobotanical analysis and genetic data indicates that the evolution from wild rice to domestic rice was a continuous process that occurred between 11,000 - 6,000 BP. The Shangshan culture (11,400 BP – 86,00) has revealed the earliest evidence of rice cultivation in the region and abundant pottery vessels. These vessels are diverse in form but their functions still remain unclear. By applying starch analysis on different types of Shangshan pottery, this presentation explores how plant foods were made and their associated social activities. By integrating plants into the social organization of human life, this study aims to develop an explanatory model to better understand the transition to agriculture in the Lower Yangtze.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 83rd Annual Meeting, Washington, DC (2018)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 20769