Linda Perry

Early millet use in northern China

It is generally understood that foxtail millet and broomcorn millet were initially domesticated in Northern China where they eventually became the dominant plant food crops. The rarity of older archaeological sites and archaeobotanical work in the region, however, renders both the origins of these plants and their processes of domestication poorly understood. Here we present ancient starch grain assemblages recovered from cultural deposits, including carbonized residues adhering to an early pottery sherd as well as grinding stone tools excavated from the sites of Nanzhuangtou (11.5–11.0 cal kyBP) and Donghulin (11.0–9.5 cal kyBP) in the North China Plain. Our data extend the record of millet use in China by nearly 1,000 y, and the record of foxtail millet in the region by at least two millennia. The patterning of starch residues within the samples allow for the formulation of the hypothesis that foxtail millets were cultivated for an extended period of two millennia, during which this crop plant appears to have been undergoing domestication. Future research in the region will help clarify the processes in place.

Barnyard grasses were processed with rice around 10000 years ago

Rice (Oryza sativa) is regarded as the only grass that was selected for cultivation and eventual domestication in the Yangtze basin of China. Although both macro-fossils and micro-fossils of rice have been recovered from the Early Neolithic site of Shangshan, dating to more than 10,000 years before present (BP), we report evidence of phytolith and starch microfossils taken from stone tools, both for grinding and cutting, and cultural layers, that indicating barnyard grass (Echinochloa spp.) was a major subsistence resource, alongside smaller quantities of acorn starches (Lithocarpus/Quercus sensu lato) and water chestnuts (Trapa). This evidence suggests that early managed wetland environments were initially harvested for multiple grain species including barnyard grasses as well as rice, and indicate that the emergence of rice as the favoured cultivated grass and ultimately the key domesticate of the Yangtze basin was a protracted process.

Starch Remains and Stone Boiling in the Texas Panhandle Part II: Identifying Wildrye (Elymus spp.)

Abstract While the exploitation of grass seeds for food is a global phenomenon of great antiquity, there is little direct evidence for the consumption of wild grasses in the Plains. Recent investigations in the Texas panhandle have led to the discovery of the starchy remains of wildrye (Elymus spp.) grass seeds on both grinding and boiling stones from three sites inhabited by hunter/gatherers. Here we present a step-by-step narrative explaining how wildrye was identified in these securely food-related contexts. We hope that this discussion will augment the record of grass seed exploitation in the Plains by spurring more archaeobotanical work in the field of microfossil analysis.

Starch Remains and Stone Boiling in the Texas Panhandle Part I: The Pipeline, Corral, and Pavilion Sites

Abstract The ubiquity of burned rock features in Plains archaeological sites is a testament to their importance in understanding subsistence throughout the region prior to the Plains Village period. Starch residue analysis of a suite of artifacts at three sites on the Landis property in the Texas panhandle has yielded information that not only aids in the understanding of the function of these features, but also serves as a test study for the utility of this method in Plains sites. Starch studies from various burned rock features that include both intact heating elements and discard piles indicate that stone boiling was used to cook wildrye (Elymus spp.), and that this practice occurred over a period of at least 2400 years.