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Is there a centre of early agriculture and plant domestication in southern China?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 October 2018

Tim Denham ,
Yekun Zhang  and
Aleese Barron
Tim Denham*
Affiliation:
School of Archaeology and Anthropology, AD Hope Building, Australian National University, Canberra ACT 2601, Australia
Yekun Zhang
Affiliation:
School of Archaeology and Anthropology, AD Hope Building, Australian National University, Canberra ACT 2601, Australia
Aleese Barron
Affiliation:
School of Archaeology and Anthropology, AD Hope Building, Australian National University, Canberra ACT 2601, Australia
*
*Author for correspondence (Email: tim.denham@anu.edu.au)
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Abstract

The archaeobotanical evidence for a putative third centre of early agriculture and plant domestication in southern subtropical China, based primarily on use-wear and residue analyses of artefacts from the sites of Zengpiyan, Niulandong and Xincun, is here reviewed. The available data are not diagnostic of early cultivation or plant domestication based on vegetative propagation in this region. The uncertainties raised by this review are not unique to southern China, and reveal a bias against the identification of early cultivation of vegetatively propagated plants in other regions of the world. The authors suggest that by embracing new integrated analytical approaches, including underused methods such as the study of parenchymatous tissue, the investigation of early domestication and cultivation in this region can make significant advances.

Keywords

southern ChinaEarly Holoceneplant domesticationarchaeobotanyvegetative propagation
Type
Research
Information
Antiquity , Volume 92 , Issue 365 , October 2018 , pp. 1165 - 1179
Copyright
© Antiquity Publications Ltd, 2018 

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