Among archaeological micro-remains, starches can be used as a tool for reconstructing past environments, diets, and trade patterns through the identification of the plants collected and consumed by... Show moreAmong archaeological micro-remains, starches can be used as a tool for reconstructing past environments, diets, and trade patterns through the identification of the plants collected and consumed by ancient populations. Starch grains preserved in dental calculus and on stone tools have been recovered from archaeological material from sites around the world. However, the ability to identify archaeological starch grains relies on having a broad (i.e., many taxa) and deep (i.e., many individuals from the same taxon) reference collection from modern plants. Only a small handful of such reference collections have been published, and thus far none have been created for taxa from the Eastern Mediterranean. This region is rich in plants that have been used for their starch-rich seeds and roots since prehistory, and many of the wild taxa are the progenitors of domesticated species that were cultivated in the Neolithic and remain economically important today. To help document the history of human interactions with these plant taxa, we present here a reference collection based on the analysis of 220 individual plant parts (e.g., seeds, tubers) from 188 modern Levantine plant species (both wild and domestic), and three non-native plants that are frequently found as modern contamination. Of the examined plant samples, 110 from 106 taxa (species and subspecies) contained starches. We also provide a key based on this collection to aid in the identification of archaeological starch remains. Show less
The founding processes of the first state of ancient China with a known written record, the Shang dynasty (3600-3046 cal BP), have been poorly understood. Recent discoveries of a host of... Show moreThe founding processes of the first state of ancient China with a known written record, the Shang dynasty (3600-3046 cal BP), have been poorly understood. Recent discoveries of a host of archaeological sites dating to the proto-Shang culture (4000-3600 cal BP) have helped elucidate the transition to the Shang culture. Nevertheless, there are few investigations about the mode of subsistence and economy of the proto-Shang culture, and how this might have shaped the transition to statehood. In this present study, we analyzed the starch grains preserved in dental calculus and teeth surfaces from 16 samples from the site of Nancheng in order to gain a better understanding of the subsistence strategy and plant consumption of proto-Shang people. We also performed experiments to test how different cooking methods may lead to size changes in the starches of four Poaceae plants, in order to identify the processing methods used by the proto-Shang people. The results indicate that Triticum aestivum, Coix lacryma-jobi, Setaria italica and some yet-unidentified roots and tubers were consumed by these individuals. These data indicate a broader spectrum of plant consumption than that seen by previous archaeobotanical and stable isotope analyses. Such a broad spectrum of plant consumption provided a substantial economic base for proto-Shang people and might be one of the factors supporting the subsequent development of the Shang state culture. Show less
