title: Early millet use in northern China.
abstract: It is generally understood that foxtail millet and broomcorn millet were initially domesticated in Northern China where they eventually became the dominant plant food crops. The rarity of older archaeological sites and archaeobotanical work in the region, however, renders both the origins of these plants and their processes of domestication poorly understood. Here we present ancient starch grain assemblages recovered from cultural deposits, including carbonized residues adhering to an early pottery sherd as well as grinding stone tools excavated from the sites of Nanzhuangtou (11.5-11.0 cal kyBP) and Donghulin (11.0-9.5 cal kyBP) in the North China Plain. Our data extend the record of millet use in China by nearly 1,000 y, and the record of foxtail millet in the region by at least two millennia. The patterning of starch residues within the samples allow for the formulation of the hypothesis that foxtail millets were cultivated for an extended period of two millennia, during which this crop plant appears to have been undergoing domestication. Future research in the region will help clarify the processes in place.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China. yangxy@igsnrr.ac.cn
authors.forename: Xiaoyan
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.forename: Zhiwei
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Wan
authors.forename: Linda
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Perry
authors.forename: Houyuan
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Lu
authors.forename: Qiang
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Chaohong
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Zhao
authors.forename: Jun
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Fei
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Xie
authors.forename: Jincheng
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Yu
authors.forename: Tianxing
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Cui
authors.forename: Tao
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Mingqi
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Quansheng
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Ge
mesh_terms: D000383:Agriculture / Q000266:history* / Q000379:methods; D001106:Archaeology / Q000379:methods; D002244:Carbon / Q000737:chemistry; D002681:China; D018556:Crops, Agricultural; D005843:Geography; D049690:History, Ancient; D006801:Humans; D008897:Panicum / Q000378:metabolism*; D006109:Poaceae; D012639:Seeds / Q000502:physiology; D013213:Starch / Q000737:chemistry
chemical_list: D002244:Carbon; D013213:Starch