Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2013 Apr 2;110(14):5380-5.
doi: 10.1073/pnas.1217864110. Epub 2013 Mar 18.

Paleolithic human exploitation of plant foods during the last glacial maximum in North China

Li Liu  1 , Sheahan Bestel, Jinming Shi, Yanhua Song, Xingcan Chen
Affiliations

Paleolithic human exploitation of plant foods during the last glacial maximum in North China

Li Liu et al. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. .

Abstract

Three grinding stones from Shizitan Locality 14 (ca. 23,000-19,500 calendar years before present) in the middle Yellow River region were subjected to usewear and residue analyses to investigate human adaptation during the last glacial maximum (LGM) period, when resources were generally scarce and plant foods may have become increasingly important in the human diet. The results show that these tools were used to process various plants, including Triticeae and Paniceae grasses, Vigna beans, Dioscorea opposita yam, and Trichosanthes kirilowii snakegourd roots. Tubers were important food resources for Paleolithic hunter-gatherers, and Paniceae grasses were exploited about 12,000 y before their domestication. The long tradition of intensive exploitation of certain types of flora helped Paleolithic people understand the properties of these plants, including their medicinal uses, and eventually led to the plants' domestication. This study sheds light on the deep history of the broad spectrum subsistence strategy characteristic of late Pleistocene north China before the origins of agriculture in this region.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Fig. 1.
Fig. 1.
Site location and artifacts analyzed. (A) Major localities of the Shizitan site cluster in Jixian, Shanxi. (B) Grinding stones analyzed and sampling locations on the tools.
Fig. 2.
Fig. 2.
Usewear patterns from S14 grinding stones. (Magnification: 200×) (1 and 2) GS1, fine striations running diagonally and a polished crystal surface, resembling tuber processing. (3) GS2, small pitting (right), short furrows (lower left), and very fine and faint striations running vertically (upper left), likely related to pounding small, hard objects, abrading stone objects, and processing plants, respectively. (4) GS3-P1, a medium level polished area, similar to tuber processing. (5) GS3-P2, sleeks running vertically, similar to dry bean or large seed processing. (6) Uneven surface of natural crystals on an unused sandstone, for comparison with used tools.
Fig. 3.
Fig. 3.
Starch grains uncovered from Shizitan S14, compared with tuber starch grains from Shizitan S9, Shigu, and Egou (under DIC and polarized filters). (1–4) Type I starch (Triticeae), showing damages (3 and 4). (5–8) Type II starch (Vigna sp.), showing damages (7 and 8). (9–14) Type III starch (Paniceae), showing damages. (15–18) Type IV starch (D. opposita). (19–21) Type V starch (T. kirilowii). (22 and 23) Type VI starch (T. kirilowii). (24 and 25) Type VI starch from Shizitan S9. (26–28) Types V and VI starch from Peiligang culture sites at Shigu (26) and Egou (27 and 28). Panels 26–28 are reproduced with permission from ref. . (Scales bars: 9–14 and 19–28, 10 µm; others, 20 µm.)
Fig. 4.
Fig. 4.
Modern starch references (under DIC and polarized filters). (1) Leymus secalinus (ground). (2) A. cristatum (ground). (3 and 4) A. desertorum (ground). (5 and 6) V. radiata. (7 and 8) V. unguiculata (ground). (9) S. italica ssp. viridis, showing undamaged granules. (10) P. miliaceum (wild), showing undamaged granules. (11 and 12) S. italica ssp. viridis (ground), showing pronounced fissures. (13) S. italica ssp. viridis (ground), showing central depression with a protrusion. (14) E. crusgalli (ground), showing central depressions on most granules. (15 and 16) D. opposita (wild). (17–20) T. kirilowii. (Scale bars: 9–14, 10 µm; others: 20 µm.)
Fig. 5.
Fig. 5.
Ancient starch types I–VI compared with modern references after grinding (all reference samples are wild forms unless indicated as domesticated).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

References

    1. Flannery KV. Origins and ecological effects of early domestication in Iran and the Near East. In: Ucko PJ, Dimbleby GW, editors. The Domestication and Exploitation of Plants and Animals. London: Duckworth; 1969. pp. 73–100.
    1. Weiss E, Wetterstrom W, Nadel D, Bar-Yosef O. The broad spectrum revisited: Evidence from plant remains. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA. 2004;101(26):9551–9555. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Piperno DR, Weiss E, Holst I, Nadel D. Processing of wild cereal grains in the Upper Palaeolithic revealed by starch grain analysis. Nature. 2004;430(7000):670–673. - PubMed
    1. Revedin A, et al. Thirty thousand-year-old evidence of plant food processing. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA. 2010;107(44):18815–18819. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Fullagar R, Field J. Pleistocene seed grinding implements from the Pleistocene Australian arid zone. Antiquity. 1997;71(272):300–307.

Publication types

LinkOut - more resources