Exploring Ancient Foodways: Starch Grain Analysis of Ceramic Residue in Wansan, Yilan County, Taiwan

Summary

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

This research examines starch residues on food related pottery vessels in order to investigate the utilization of various plant foods in the late Neolithic Wansan society. Based upon preliminary identifications, most of the residue starch belongs to Panicoideae, with definite identification of foxtail millet and Job’s tears. No taro or yam have been identified; despite arguably being an important part of early Austronesian horticulture as supported by linguistic reconstructions. The absence of rice starch from Wansan is also perplexing as it has been broadly reported in Taiwanese neolithic sites in various periods and regions. However, more lines of evidence need to be gathered before the lack of rice, taro or yam can be interpreted; their absence in the archaeological record may reflect a real pattern of activity in the past, or could result from either differential preservation, or these species being subjected to alternative ways of processing, cooking or consumption that differ from other plant foods.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts   •
• Society for American Archaeology 89th Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA (2024)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 38720.0