People and plant interaction at the Houli Culture Yuezhuang site in Shandong Province,China

Abstract

Palaeoethnobotanical research at the Yuezhuang site, a Houli Culture settlement in Jinan, Shandong Province, China, dating to 8000–7700 cal. BP, documents human–environment interaction and the local subsistence economy soon after the initiation of food production in the region. This economy supported a sizeable community that occupied a kilometer stretch of floodplain along the Nandasha River. The research explores plant domestication, the extent to which the Yuezhuang population had developed a food production niche, and, to a lesser extent, the development of agriculture in the lower Yellow River valley. In order to do so, charred seeds from a variety of plant taxa were recovered by flotation of sediment from pits and cultural strata. Just over 30% of the seed assemblage is rice (Oryza sativa), broomcorn/common millet (Panicum miliaceum), and foxtail millet (Setaria italica subsp. italica). The status of several other plants such as soybean (Glycine max subsp. max or G. max subsp. soja), perilla (Perilla sp.), and chenopod (Chenopodium sp.) that are also cultivated in East Asia is also assessed. Most of the plant taxa are from open, sunlit, and anthropogenic, disrupted habitats. Diverse grasses similar to those found at later sites indicate that the farming niche documented at the late Neolithic Longshan Culture in Shandong Province was being established by 8000–7700 cal. BP. The plant remains assemblage is compared with three assemblages, two belonging to the Houli Culture and one from the late Neolithic Longshan Culture. Anthropogenic habitats and their formation, maintenance and use, wetland exploitation, cultivation, hunting–gathering–fishing, and animal management characterize the mature (late) Houli Culture niche.