Early Neolithic human exploitation and processing of plant foods in the Lower Yangtze River, China

The Xiaohuangshan site is an early Neolithic settlement in the lower Yangzi River dating to 9000-7000 BP. In this paper, starch grains extracted from the surfaces of 9 pottery sherds and 6 grinding slabs unearthed from the early Xiaohuangshan phase (9000-8500 cal. BP) are identified from Oryza, Triticeae Tribe, Coix lacryma-jobi, Nelumbo sp., Dioscorea opposita Trunb, Vigna and Quercus spp. Based on the statistical analysis of percentage presence and the minimum numbers of plants identified by starch grains on the grinding slabs and potteries, it can be found that rice has become one of the major staple foods together with Triticeae grasses, Job's tears and acorns, which indicates rice should have been cultivated intentionally at Xiaohuangshan. The results also suggest that grinding slabs from Xiaohuangshan were used mainly for processing wild plants other than rice, and plant residues extracted from their surfaces cannot be utilized independently to explore human's subsistence strategies in that time. In addition, acorns probably were cooked whole in the pottery vessels before they were shelled or ground on the grinding slabs in the Xiaohuangshan site. This paper provides new evidence for the beginning of rice cultivation during the early Neolithic in the Lower Yangtze River.