title: Barnyard grasses were processed with rice around 10000 years ago.
abstract: Rice (Oryza sativa) is regarded as the only grass that was selected for cultivation and eventual domestication in the Yangtze basin of China. Although both macro-fossils and micro-fossils of rice have been recovered from the Early Neolithic site of Shangshan, dating to more than 10,000 years before present (BP), we report evidence of phytolith and starch microfossils taken from stone tools, both for grinding and cutting, and cultural layers, that indicating barnyard grass (Echinochloa spp.) was a major subsistence resource, alongside smaller quantities of acorn starches (Lithocarpus/Quercus sensu lato) and water chestnuts (Trapa). This evidence suggests that early managed wetland environments were initially harvested for multiple grain species including barnyard grasses as well as rice, and indicate that the emergence of rice as the favoured cultivated grass and ultimately the key domesticate of the Yangtze basin was a protracted process.
authors.affiliation: Key Lab. of Land Surface Pattern and Simulation, Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China.
authors.forename: Xiaoyan
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.affiliation: Institute of Archaeology, University College London, 31-34 Gordon Square, London WC1H 0PY, U.K.
authors.forename: Dorian Q
authors.initials: DQ
authors.lastname: Fuller
authors.affiliation: Institute of Geology and Geophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100029, China.|University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China.
authors.forename: Xiujia
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Huan
authors.affiliation: The Foundation for Archaeobotanical Research in Microfossils, PO Box 37, Fairfax, VA, 22038, U.S.A.|Department of Geography and Geoinformation Science, Center for Earth Observing and Space Research, George Mason University, Fairfax, VA, 22030, U.S.A.
authors.forename: Linda
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Perry
authors.affiliation: Key Lab. of Land Surface Pattern and Simulation, Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China.
authors.forename: Quan
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Key Lab. of Land Surface Pattern and Simulation, Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China.|University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China.
authors.forename: Zhao
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Institute of Geology and Geophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100029, China.
authors.forename: Jianping
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Key Lab. of Land Surface Pattern and Simulation, Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China.|University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China.
authors.forename: Zhikun
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Ma
authors.affiliation: Institute of Archaeology, University College London, 31-34 Gordon Square, London WC1H 0PY, U.K.
authors.forename: Yijie
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Zhuang
authors.affiliation: Zhejiang Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology, Hangzhou 310014, China.
authors.forename: Leping
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Jiang
authors.affiliation: Institute of Geology and Geophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100029, China.
authors.forename: Yong
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Ge
authors.affiliation: Institute of Geology and Geophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100029, China.|Center for Excellence in Tibetan Plateau Earth Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China.
authors.forename: Houyuan
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Lu
mesh_terms: D000383:Agriculture / Q000379:methods; D001106:Archaeology / Q000379:methods; D002681:China; D031747:Echinochloa / Q000254:growth & development; D012275:Oryza / Q000254:growth & development; D006109:Poaceae / Q000254:growth & development; D053833:Wetlands; D029561:Lythraceae