Wild plant use and multi-cropping at the early Neolithic Zhuzhai site in the middle Yellow River region,China

Abstract

Sediments from ash pits and cultural layers at the Peiligang and Yangshao period site of Zhuzhai, near Zhengzhou on the Yellow River, were floated to recover charred macrobotanical remains. In addition to cereals including domesticated broomcorn and foxtail millet and rice, charred nutshells, tubers, and fruits were recovered, presenting a full picture of subsistence during the initial stages of plant domestication in north China. Charcoal fragments and seeds from the samples were directly dated to the middle Peiligang period (c. 7924 ± 41 to 7640 ± 45 cal. BP), making these among the oldest domesticated broomcorn and foxtail millet seeds in the world. Artifact similarities between Zhuzhai and Jiahu and the presence of only wild Setaria sp. seeds at Jiahu but domesticated Setaria italica seeds at Zhuzhai indicate that the central plains region of China during the middle Peiligang (8000–7500 cal. BP) is likely the time and region where foxtail millet (Setaria italica) was first domesticated. Charred nutshell fragments from the Peiligang period at Zhuzhai weighed approximately 8 g, while charred seeds totaled only 1.9 g, suggesting nuts were more important than seeds and domesticated cereals in middle Peiligang subsistence and indicating a slow uptake of cereal crop domestication. The presence of charred fruit fragments (0.08 g) and tubers (0.09 g) denotes the use of wild resources in early agricultural society. By the late Yangshao period (c. 5169 ± 89 cal. BP), wood charcoal fragments in the samples weighed 1.3 g, nutshell fragments weighed 0.7 g, and seeds weighed 0.1 g, indicating that even after cereal domestication the use of wild and gathered resources such as nuts was still important. The Zhuzhai site places early cereal domestication in context and provides a well-rounded picture of plant-based subsistence at this formative period.