New evidence for Neolithic rice cultivation and Holocene environmental change in the Fuzhou Basin, southeast China

Abstract

A stratified profile of the Zhuangbianshan (ZBS) archaeological site (Fuzhou Basin, Fujian) was studied to investigate Neolithic era anthropogenic influence and associated environmental changes. Analysis of the archaeological sediments focused on phytoliths, palynomorphs and microcharcoal. Until now, a lack of direct evidence for agriculture has made it difficult to know if Neolithic cultures of this area relied on the exploitation of wild plants such as nuts and sago palm, or a combination of farming and foraging. Three types of rice phytoliths were found in ZBS archaeological deposits, providing robust evidence for rice farming as part of a broad-spectrum Neolithic subsistence economy centered on fishing and hunting. Chronologies based on AMS 14 C dates and artifact typology place the earliest rice during the Tanshishan (TSS) Period (5,000-4,300 cal BP) followed by a shift to economic dependency on rice in the Huangguashan (HGS) Period (4,300-3,500 cal BP). The ZBS phytolith assemblage contains high frequencies of rice husk (peaked-shape glume cells) phytoliths, with far fewer leaf and stem types. This indicates late stage processing activities such as dehusking, implying a focus on consumption rather than rice production. High concentrations of charcoal in the Neolithic ZBS deposits indicate local human settlement and peaks in fire use. The ZBS pollen record also reflects human settlement and peaks in local forest clearance during the Neolithic. Forest cover was renewed when the site was temporarily abandoned following the Neolithic. Rapid formation of the Min River floodplain began *2,000 cal BP in association with retreating sea level and intensifying anthropogenic influence. Prior to that, rice farming in the Fuzhou Basin was limited by the scarcity of wetlands suitable for agriculture.

Optically stimulated luminescence ages of the Hengyu site and their implications for anthropogenic activities in the Fuzhou Basin, South China

“…The phytoliths, palynomorphs and microcharcoal evidence from the Zhuangbianshan archaeological site (Fig. ) also validated this inference (Ma et al , ). In addition, the site is located on a low platform, which is different from those found on high platforms or on hills, such as the Tanshishan, Zhuangbianshan and Baitoushan sites (Fig.…”

“…5. We argue that the site δ 13 C results reflect the influence of soil types or anthropogenic influence (Ma et al, 2016b), and we conclude that the depositional environment, with its yellow and brown colours produced by iron oxide accumulation, was terrestrial. The sedimentary facies of the core of the Fuzhou Basin, reflected in sporopollen (Ma et al, 2016b) and element characteristics (Zhang et al, 2016), also support the above conclusion.…”

“…Prehistoric civilisation on the South China coastland is closely related to marine culture (Jin et al , ; Ma et al , ; Rolett et al , ; Zong et al , ). Of the world's population, more than 60% resides in coastal regions (Wang, ).…”

“…Yue et al (2015) see this time as the onset of a marine regression followed by evidence for an intensely human-impacted environment, characterised by sharp rises in pioneer plants such as Poaceae and Dicranopteris after 2000 a cal BP. This transition coincides with a rapid retreat of the coastline and the emergence of the Fuzhou Basin floodplain (Ma et al, 2016b;Yue et al, 2015). The mode of production changed from marine collection to both rice farming and marine collection.…”

“…Studies have shown that the archaeological culture sequence along the northeast coast of Fujian in Fig. 5 (Lin, 2011;Ma et al, 2016b) is still far from perfect (Huang, 2018). There are still many problems to address in a thread connecting the Neolithic and Bronze Age archaeology cultures.…”