Early Millet Cultivation, Subsistence Diversity, and Wild Plant Use at Neolithic Anle, Lower Yangtze of China

Summary

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

This study examines the macrobotanical assemblage of Anle, a middle Neolithic site in the Lower Yangtze region of China. The Lower Yangtze is thought to be the origin of domesticated rice and most studies of this region to date have focused on rice domestication and cultivation within its paleoenvironmental setting. In contrast, we highlight here diverse uses of non-rice plant resources. In addition to large quantities of rice remains (carbonized grains and spikelet bases), we identify both foxtail and broomcorn millet, both AMS radiocarbon dated earlier than 5750 cal BP, demonstrating the dispersal of millet cultivation to the Lower Yangtze in the middle Neolithic, earlier than previously documented. While most wild species identified in macrobotanical assemblages are traditionally categorized as weeds, many can be exploited for food and medicinal purposes. By analyzing the ecological and functional implications of identified plants, we infer ecological niches of cultivation, gathering, and possible propagation of wild plants as food and medicine. Analyses of diversity and seasonality of plant resources identified show that Anle residents created a complex seasonal sequence of temporally compatible crops, constructing niches for two crops (rice and millet) and actively structuring opportunities to exploit available wild plant resources in their immediate environment.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts   •
• Society for American Archaeology 88th Annual Meeting, Portland, OR (2023)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 35973.0