Research Highlights

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  • Ecology & evolution

Published online: 5 May 2010 | doi:10.1038/nchina.2010.64

Human evolution: Ancient diet

Felix Cheung

Introduction

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Starch grain analysis — the study of microscopic starch crystals found in plant remains — could provide a wealth of information regarding ancient human civilizations. Xiaoyan Yang at the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing and Leping Zhang at the Zhejiang Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology in Hangzhou¹ have now used this technique to dissect the diet of ancient Chinese people.

The researchers found fragments of cooking utensils, including pots, jars, steamers and cups, during recent excavations at the Kuahuqiao site in Zhejiang Province. They extracted charred residues from the fragments for analysis and recovered 42 different kinds of starch grains, including those of wild rice, millet, acorn, chestnut, yam, red bean and lotus root. Every residue sample contained at least five different kinds of starch grains.

The range of starch grains found suggests that ancient Chinese people who lived at the Kuahuqiao site 7,000 to 8,000 years ago ate a diversity of carbohydrates. The researchers also found softwood fibres in the charred residues, indicating that the ancient Chinese people might process the grains with wooden tools.

The authors of this work are from:
Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China; Zhejiang Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology, Hangzhou, China.

Reference

1. Yang, X. Y. & Jiang, L. P. Starch grain analysis reveals ancient diet at Kuahuqiao site, Zhejiang Province. Chinese Sci. Bull. 55, 1150–1156 (2010). | Article | OpenURL | | ChemPort |