Investigation of plant food sources at Peiligang Site based on starch grain analysis of human dental calculus
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(Department of Archaeology, Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou 450001, China)

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    Abstract:

    Starch grain analysis of human dental calculus offers a direct link to consumption of plant foodstuffs by ancient peoples. The Peiligang Site is an important middle-Neolithic archaeological site in central China. Five teeth from two adult skeletons excavated from graves M2 and M5 in 1977 were examined. Thirty-eight starch grains were extracted from the dental calculus of these teeth. Four of those starch grains could not be identified because of damage. The others were classified into six groups. More than half of the grains were from acorns (Quercus sp.), beans, roots or tubers, Triticeae Dumort and Coix spp., and some were probably from common millet (Panicum miliaceum L) and foxtail millet (Setaria italica L. Beauv.). Starch grains from the human dental calculus at Peiligang Site indicate that ancient human foodstuffs might have been sourced primarily from gathered wild plants. In light of this investigation as well as archaeobotanical research on other Peiligang Cultural-related sites, it could be inferred that a wide-spectrum subsistence economy might have existed 8000 years ago in central China.

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History
  • Received:July 13,2016
  • Revised:June 04,2017
  • Adopted:
  • Online: April 24,2018
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