title: Earliest tea as evidence for one branch of the Silk Road across the Tibetan Plateau.
abstract: Phytoliths and biomolecular components extracted from ancient plant remains from Chang'an (Xi'an, the city where the Silk Road begins) and Ngari (Ali) in western Tibet, China, show that the tea was grown 2100 years ago to cater for the drinking habits of the Western Han Dynasty (207BCE-9CE), and then carried toward central Asia by ca.200CE, several hundred years earlier than previously recorded. The earliest physical evidence of tea from both the Chang'an and Ngari regions suggests that a branch of the Silk Road across the Tibetan Plateau, was established by the second to third century CE.
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Cenozoic Geology and Environment, 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
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Cenozoic Geology and Environment, 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: Jianping
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China.
authors.forename: Yimin
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.affiliation: Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China.
authors.forename: Xiaoyan
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.affiliation: Center for Excellence in Tibetan Plateau Earth Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China.|Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China.
authors.forename: Baiqing
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.affiliation: Shaanxi Provincial Institute of Archaeology, Xi'an 710001, China.
authors.forename: Wuzhan
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.affiliation: Institute of Archaeology, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Beijing 100710, China.
authors.forename: Tao
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Tong
authors.affiliation: Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, Beijing 100804, China.
authors.forename: Shubo
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Jin
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Plateau Lake Ecology and Global Change, Yunnan Normal University, Kunming 650092, China.
authors.forename: Caiming
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Shen
authors.affiliation: University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China.
authors.forename: Huiyun
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Rao
authors.affiliation: Ali district culture bureau of Tibet, Ali 859000, China.
authors.forename: Xingguo
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Center for Tibetan Studies of Sichuan University, Chengdu 610064, China.
authors.forename: Hongliang
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Lu
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: Key Laboratory of Cenozoic Geology and Environment, Institute of Geology and Geophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100029, China.
authors.forename: Luo
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Cenozoic Geology and Environment, Institute of Geology and Geophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100029, China.
authors.forename: Can
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Cenozoic Geology and Environment, 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: Deke
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Cenozoic Geology and Environment, 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: Naiqin
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Wu
mesh_terms: D002048:Burial; D002110:Caffeine / Q000737:chemistry / Q000302:isolation & purification; D002118:Calcium / Q000737:chemistry / Q000302:isolation & purification; D028241:Camellia sinensis / Q000737:chemistry*; D005971:Glutamates / Q000737:chemistry / Q000302:isolation & purification; D063426:Human Migration; D006801:Humans; D013662:Tea; D018609:Tibet
chemical_list: D005971:Glutamates; D013662:Tea; D002110:Caffeine; C026166:theanine; D002118:Calcium