Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-v9fdk Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-18T19:26:48.155Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Is there a centre of early agriculture and plant domestication in southern China?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 October 2018

Tim Denham ,
Yekun Zhang  and
Aleese Barron
Tim Denham*
Affiliation:
School of Archaeology and Anthropology, AD Hope Building, Australian National University, Canberra ACT 2601, Australia
Yekun Zhang
Affiliation:
School of Archaeology and Anthropology, AD Hope Building, Australian National University, Canberra ACT 2601, Australia
Aleese Barron
Affiliation:
School of Archaeology and Anthropology, AD Hope Building, Australian National University, Canberra ACT 2601, Australia
*
*Author for correspondence (Email: [email protected])
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The archaeobotanical evidence for a putative third centre of early agriculture and plant domestication in southern subtropical China, based primarily on use-wear and residue analyses of artefacts from the sites of Zengpiyan, Niulandong and Xincun, is here reviewed. The available data are not diagnostic of early cultivation or plant domestication based on vegetative propagation in this region. The uncertainties raised by this review are not unique to southern China, and reveal a bias against the identification of early cultivation of vegetatively propagated plants in other regions of the world. The authors suggest that by embracing new integrated analytical approaches, including underused methods such as the study of parenchymatous tissue, the investigation of early domestication and cultivation in this region can make significant advances.

Keywords

southern ChinaEarly Holoceneplant domesticationarchaeobotanyvegetative propagation
Type
Research
Information
Antiquity , Volume 92 , Issue 365 , October 2018 , pp. 1165 - 1179
Copyright
© Antiquity Publications Ltd, 2018 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Barton, H. & Denham, T.P.. 2011. Prehistoric vegeculture and social life in Island Southeast Asia and Melanesia, in G. Barker & M. Janowski (ed.) Why cultivate? Anthropological and archaeological approaches to foraging-farming transitions in Southeast Asia: 17–25. Cambridge: McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research.Google Scholar
Barton, H. & Denham, T.P. 2017. Vegecultures and the social-biological transformations of plants and people. Quaternary International 489: 17–25. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.quaint.2016.06.031 Google Scholar
Barton, H. & Paz, V.. 2007. Subterranean diets in the tropical rain forests of Sarawak, Malaysia, in T.P. Denham, J. Iriarte & L. Vrydaghs (ed.) Rethinking agriculture: archaeological and ethnoarchaeological perspectives: 50–77. Walnut Creek (CA): Left Coast.Google Scholar
Barton, H. & White, J.P.. 1993. Use of stone and shell artefacts at Balof 2, New Ireland, Papua New Guinea. Asian Perspectives 32: 169–181. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quaint.2016.06.031 Google Scholar
Bettinger, R.L., Barton, L. & Morgan, C.. 2010. The origins of food production in north China: a different kind of agricultural revolution. Evolutionary Anthropology: Issues, News, and Reviews 19: 9–21.Google Scholar
Blench, R. 2013. Was there once a zone of vegeculture linking Melanesia with northeast India? University of Otago Studies in Archaeology 25: 1–17.Google Scholar
Castillo, C.C., Fuller, D.Q., Piper, P.J., Bellwood, P. & Oxenham, M.. 2017. Hunter-gatherer specialization in the Late Neolithic of southern Vietnam—the case of Rach Nui. Quaternary International 489: 63–79. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.quaint.2016.11.034 Google Scholar
Chen, H. 2011. The subsistence strategy and evolutionary process in the Middle Xijiang River Cultural Region. Huaxia Archaeology 13: 88–98 (in Chinese).Google Scholar
Chen, W. & Li, F.. 2013. Study of tooth wear and caries of teeth unearthed from the Liyudun site. Acta Anthropologica Sinica 32: 45–51 (in Chinese).Google Scholar
Clement, C.R., de Cristo-Araújo, M., D’Eeckenbrugge, G.C., Pereira, A.A. & Picanço-Rodridgues, D.. 2010. Origins and domestication of Native Amazonian crops. Diversity 2: 72–106. https://doi.org/10.3390/d2010072 Google Scholar
Crowther, A. 2005. Starch residues on undecorated Lapita pottery from Anir, New Ireland. Archaeology in Oceania 41: 62–66. https://doi.org/10.1002/j.1834-4453.2005.tb00586.x Google Scholar
Deng, Z., Ling, Q., Hua, G., Welsskopi, A.R., Zhang, C. & Fuller, D.Q.. 2015. From early domesticated rice of the Middle Yangtze Basin to millet, rice and wheat agriculture: archaeobotanical macro-remains from Baligang, Nanyang Basin, Central China (6700–500 BC). PLoS One 10: e0139885. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0139885 Google Scholar
Denham, T.P. 2008. Traditional forms of plant exploitation in Australia and New Guinea: the search for common ground. Vegetation History and Archaeobotany 17: 245–248. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00334-007-0105-y Google Scholar
Denham, T.P. 2013. Early farming in Island Southeast Asia: an alternative hypothesis. Antiquity 87: 250–257. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0003598X00048766 Google Scholar
Denham, T.P. & Barton, H.. 2006. The emergence of agriculture in New Guinea: continuity from pre-existing foraging practices, in D.J. Kennett & B. Winterhalder (ed.) Behavioral ecology and the transition to agriculture: 237–264. Berkeley & Los Angeles: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Denham, T.P., Haberle, S.G., Lentfer, C., Fullagar, R., Field, J., Therin, M., Porch, N. & Winsborough, B.. 2003. Origins of agriculture at Kuk Swamp in the Highlands of New Guinea. Science 301: 189–193. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1085255 Google Scholar
Denham, T.P., Iriarte, J. & Vrydaghs, L. (ed.). 2007. Rethinking agriculture: archaeological and ethnoarchaeological perspectives. Walnut Creek (CA): Left Coast.Google Scholar
Denham, T.P., Donohue, M. & Booth, S.. 2009c. Revisiting an old hypothesis: horticultural experimentation in Northern Australia. Antiquity 83: 634–648. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0003598X00098884 Google Scholar
Denham, T.P., Fullagar, R. & Head, L.. 2009a. Plant exploitation on Sahul: from colonisation to the emergence of regional specialisation during the Holocene. Quaternary International 202: 29–40. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quaint.2008.06.018 Google Scholar
Denham, T.P., Haberle, S.G. & Pierret, A.. 2009b. A multi-disciplinary method for the investigation of early agriculture: learning lessons from Kuk, in A. Fairbairn, S. O’Connor & B. Marwick (ed.) New directions in archaeological science (Terra Australis 28): 139–154. Canberra: ANU E Press.Google Scholar
Fullagar, R., Field, J., Denham, T.P. & Lentfer, C.. 2006. Early and Mid Holocene processing of taro (Colocasia esculenta) and yam (Dioscorea sp.) at Kuk Swamp in the Highlands of Papua New Guinea. Journal of Archaeological Science 33: 595–614. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jas.2005.07.020 Google Scholar
Fuller, D.Q. 2011 Pathways to Asian civilizations: tracing the origins and spread of rice and rice cultures. Rice 4: 78–92. http://doi:10.1007/s12284-011-9078-7 Google Scholar
Fuller, D.Q., Harvey, E. & Qin, L.. 2007. Presumed domestication? Evidence for wild rice cultivation and domestication in the fifth millennium BC of the Lower Yangtze region. Antiquity 81: 316–331. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0003598X0009520X Google Scholar
Fuller, D.Q., Qin, L., Zheng, Y., Zhao, Z., Chen, X., Hosoya, L.A. & Sun, G.. 2009. The domestication process and domestication rate in rice: spikelet bases from the Lower Yangtze. Science 323: 1607–1610. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1166605 Google Scholar
Fuller, D.Q., Denham, T.P., Arroyo-Kalin, M., Lucas, L., Stevens, C., Qin, L., Allaby, R.G. & Purugganan, M.D. . 2014. Convergent evolution and parallelism in plant domestication revealed by an expanding archaeological record. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA 111: 6147–6152. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1308937110 Google Scholar
Golson, J., Denham, T.P., Hughes, P.J., Swadling, P. & Muke, J. (ed.). 2017. Ten thousand years of cultivation at Kuk Swamp in the highlands of Papua New Guinea (Terra Australis 46). Canberra: ANU E Press. https://doi.org/10.22459/TA46.07.2017 Google Scholar
Gott, B. 1983. Murnong—Microseris scapigera: a study of a staple food of Victorian Aborigines. Australian Aboriginal Studies 1983: 2–17.Google Scholar
Guedes, J. d’Alpiom, Jian, M., He, K., Wu, X. & Jiang, Z.. 2013. Site of Baodun yields earliest evidence for the spread of rice and foxtail millet agriculture to south-west China. Antiquity 87: 758–771.https://doi.org/10.1017/S0003598X00049449 Google Scholar
Harris, D.R. 1972. The origins of agriculture in the tropics. American Scientist 60: 180–193.Google Scholar
Harris, D.R. 1990. Vavilov’s concept of centres of origin of cultivated plants: its genesis and its influence on the study of agricultural origins. Biological Journal of the Linnean Society 39: 7–16. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1095-8312.1990.tb01608.x Google Scholar
Harris, D.R. 2007. Agriculture, cultivation and domestication: exploring the conceptual framework of early food production, in T.P. Denham, J. Iriarte & L. Vrydaghs (ed.) Rethinking agriculture: archaeological and ethnoarchaeological perspectives: 16–35. Walnut Creek (CA): Left Coast.Google Scholar
Hather, J. (ed.). 1994. Tropical archaeobotany: applications and new developments. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Hather, J. 2000. Archaeological parenchyma. London: Archetype.Google Scholar
Hather, J.G. & Kirch, P.V.. 1991. Prehistorical sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas) from Mangaia Island, Central Polynesia. Antiquity 65: 887–893. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0003598X00080613 Google Scholar
He, A., Peng, C., Liu, Z., Ning, Y., Jiang, T., Peng, S., Liang, X., Yang, Q., Chen, W., Fu, Z. & Dang, C. (Archaeological Team of Guangxi Province & Agency of Historical Relics Preservations in Ziyuan County). 2004. Brief report of Xiaojin Neolithic site in Ziyuan County, in Guangxi Museum & Institute of Archaeology of Guangxi Province (ed.) Guangxi Archaeology Anthology: 101–53. Beijing: Wenwu (in Chinese).Google Scholar
Hildbebrand, E.A. 2007. A tale of two tuber crops: how attributes of enset and yams may have shaped prehistoric human-plant interactions in southwest Ethiopia, in T. Denham, J. Iriarte & L. Vrydaghs (ed.) Rethinking agriculture: archaeological and ethnoarchaeological perspectives: 273–298. Walnut Creek (CA): Left Coast.Google Scholar
Hynes, R.A. & Chase, A.K.. 1982. Sites and domiculture: Aboriginal influence upon plant communities in Cape York Peninsula. Archaeology in Oceania 17: 38–50. https://doi.org/10.1002/j.1834-4453.1982.tb00037.x Google Scholar
Institute of Archaeology Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS), Archaeological Team of Guangxi Province, Guilin Zengpiyan Site Museum & Archaeological Team of Guilin City (ed.). 2003. Guilin Zengpiyan. Beijing: Wenwu (in Chinese).Google Scholar
Jin, Z., Zhang, Z., Ou, J., Yu, X., Kuang, M., Yi, Z., Wu, J., Chen, G. & Mo, T.. 1998. Brief report on trial excavations at Niulandong site, Yunling, Yingde. Jianghan Kaogu 1: 14–20 (in Chinese).Google Scholar
Jones, R. & Meehan, B. . 1989. Plant foods of the Gidjingal: ethnographic and archaeological perspectives from Northern Australia on tuber and seed exploitation, in D.R. Harris & G.C. Hillman (ed.) Foraging and farming: the evolution of plant exploitation: 120–135. London: Unwin Hyman.Google Scholar
Ladizinsky, G. 1998. Plant evolution under domestication. Dordrecht: Kluwer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-4429-2 Google Scholar
Larson, G., Piperno, D.R., Allaby, R.G., Purugganan, M.D., Andersson, L., Arroyo-Kalin, M., Barton, L., Climer Vigueira, C., Denham, T.P., Dobney, K., Doust, A.N., Gepts, P., Gilbert, M.T., Gremillion, K.J., Lucas, L., Lukens, L., Marshall, F.B., Olsen, K.M., Pires, J.C., Richerson, P., Rubio de Casas, R., Sanjur, O.I., Thomas, M.G. & Fuller, D.Q.. 2014. Current perspectives and the future of domestication studies. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA 111: 6139–6146. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1323964111 Google Scholar
Limaye, A. 2012. Drishti: a volume exploration and presentation tool. Proceedings of the Society of Photographic Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE), Developments in X-Ray Tomography VIII: 8506. https://doi.org/10.1117/12.935640 Google Scholar
Li, H.-L. 1970. The origin of cultivated plants in Southeast Asia. Economic Botany 24: 3–19. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02860628 Google Scholar
Liu, Z. 2003. The origin of Chinese agriculture based on the comparative analysis of Yuchanyan and Niulandong. Nongye Archaeology 13: 76–88 (in Chinese).Google Scholar
Liu, L., Lee, G., Jiang, L. & Zhang, J.. 2007. Evidence for the early beginning (c. 9000 cal BP) of rice domestication in China: a response. The Holocene 17: 1059–1068. https://doi.org/10.1177/0959683607085121 Google Scholar
Loy, T., Spriggs, M. & Wickler, S.. 1992. Direct evidence for human use of plants 28,000 years ago: starch residues on stone artefacts from northern Solomon Islands. Antiquity 66: 898–912. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0003598X00044811 Google Scholar
Lu, T.L. 2003. The preliminary analysis of residues from surface of unearthed lithic artefacts at Zengpiyan, in Institute of Archaeology Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS), Archaeological Team of Guangxi Province, Guilin Zengpiyan Site Museum & Archaeological Team of Guilin City (ed.) Guilin Zengpiyan: 646–51. Beijing: Wenwu (in Chinese).Google Scholar
Oliveira, N.V. 2012. Recovering, analysing and identifying Colocasia esculenta and Dioscorea spp. from archaeological contexts in Timor-Leste. Senri Ethnological Studies 78: 265–284.Google Scholar
Paz, V. 2001. Archaeobotany and cultural transformation: patterns of early plant utilisation in northern Wallacea. Unpublished PhD dissertation, University of Cambridge.Google Scholar
Pearsall, D.M. 2000. Paleoethnobotany: a handbook of procedures (2nd edition). London: Academic.Google Scholar
Piperno, D.R. 2006. Phytoliths: a comprehensive guide for archaeologists and paleoecologists. Lanham (MD): AltaMira.Google Scholar
Piperno, D.R. & Pearsall, D.M.. 1998. The origins of agriculture in the lowland neotropics. San Diego (CA): Academic.Google Scholar
Sauer, C.O. 1952. Agricultural origins and dispersals: the domestication of animals and foodstuffs. Cambridge (MA): MIT Press.Google Scholar
Smith, B.D. 2001. Low-level food production. Journal of Archaeological Research 9: 1–43. https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1009436110049 Google Scholar
Summerhayes, G.R., Leavesley, M., Fairbairn, A., Mandui, H., Field, J., Ford, A. & Fullagar, R.. 2010. Human adaptation and plant use in highland New Guinea 49,000 to 44,000 years ago. Science 330: 78–81. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1193130 Google Scholar
Torrence, R. & Barton, H. (ed.). 2006. Ancient starch research. Walnut Creek (CA): Left Coast.Google Scholar
Ugent, D., Pozorski, S. & Pozorski, T. . 1981. Prehistoric remains of the sweet potato from the Casma Valley of Peru. Phytologia 49: 401–415.Google Scholar
Varslot, T., Kingston, A., Myers, G. & Sheppard, A. . 2011. High-resolution helical conebeam micro-CT with theoretically-exact reconstruction from experimental data. Medical Physics 38: 5459–5476. https://doi.org/10.1118/1.3633900 Google Scholar
Wan, Z. 2012. Plant utilization in southern China during the Holocene and human adaptation to climate change. Unpublished PhD dissertation, Graduate University of Chinese Academy of Sciences (in Chinese).Google Scholar
Wang, J. 2007. New archaeological discoveries in the southern region during 2006. Relics from South 4: 19–87 (in Chinese).Google Scholar
Yang, X., Barton, H., Wan, Z., Li, Q., Ma, Z., Li, M., Zhang, D. & Wei, J.. 2013. Sago-type palms were an important plant food prior to rice in southern subtropical China. PLoS One 8: e63148. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0063148 Google Scholar
Yang, X., Wang, W., Zhuang, Y., Li, Z., Ma, Z., Ma, Y., Cui, Y., Wei, J. & Fuller, D.Q.. 2016. New radiocarbon evidence on early rice consumption and farming in south China. The Holocene 27: 1045–1051.https://doi.org/10.1177/0959683616678465 Google Scholar
Yen, D.E. 1990. Environment, agriculture and the colonisation of the Pacific, in D.E. Yen & J.M.J. Mummery (ed.) Pacific production systems: approaches to economic prehistory: 258–277. Canberra: Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies, Australian National University.Google Scholar
Zhao, Z. 2004. Flotation results from the Xinglonggou site and the origin of dryland agriculture in north China, in Department of Cultural Relics and Museology of Nanjing Normal University (ed.) Antiquities of East Asia (A): 188–99. Beijing: Cultural Relics (in Chinese).Google Scholar
Zhao, Z. 2006. Recognition of the primitive agriculture in southern China, in Institute of Archaeology Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (ed.) The prehistoric archaeology of southern China and Southeast Asia: 145–56. Beijing: Wenwu (in Chinese).Google Scholar
Zhao, Z. 2011. New archaeobotanical data for the study of the origins of agriculture in China. Current Anthropology 52: S295–2306. https://doi.org/10.1086/659308 Google Scholar
Zhao, Z. 2014. The process of origin of agriculture in China: archaeological evidence from flotation results. Quaternary Science 34: 74–84 (in Chinese).Google Scholar
Zhao, Z., Lu, T.L. & Fu, X.. 2005. The analysis and study of phytoliths from Dingsishan in Yongning County of Guangxi Province. Kaogu 11: 76–85 (in Chinese).Google Scholar