Correction: Journey to the east: Diverse routes and variable flowering times for wheat and barley en route to prehistoric China

The Domestication of the Seasons: The Exploitation of Variations in Crop Seasonality Responses by Later Prehistoric Farmers

Discussions of domestication and its associated genetic traits has focused upon dispersal mechanisms, for example in the rachis structure of cereals. Here we consider another trait of importance to domesticated crops – their seasonality response. We particularly consider flowering response to changing daylength, and how that relates to domesticated species that are carried by farmers considerable distances from their regions of origin. We consider the implications of cultivating crops in regions whose seasonality patterns contrast with those of the crop’s region of origin, and consider the consequent genetic changes. Reference is made to the particular case of barley, and a discussion of archaeogenetic research into its photoperiod response mechanism is provided.

Brewing and Serving Alcoholic Beverages to Erlitou Elites of Prehistoric China: Residue Analysis of Ceramic Vessels

The Bronze Age in China is characterized by the appearance of bronze ritual vessels, such as gui and he pitchers and jue cups, which were symbols of high social status and likely used in ritual feasting events. Their forms imitate similar ceramic vessels made of white clay. This transformation of such ceramic vessels into their bronze counterparts took place at the Erlitou site in the Yiluo basin, North China (ca. 1,800–1,500 BC). Such white pottery types are commonly regarded as alcohol-related vessels, but there is a lack of scientific analysis of organic remains on vessels’ interior surfaces to understand their functions. In this study, we analyzed microfossil remains on 16 ceramic vessels unearthed from Erlitou and discovered direct evidence of the production and consumption of fermented beverages that were prepared using qu starter as a saccharification agent. Dakouzun wide-orifice vats may have been used for fermentation, likely in semi-solid-state fermentation conditions; narrow-orifice jars zun for storage; gui and he pitchers for heating and/or pouring the beverages; and jue cups for drinking. Monascus mold and herbs were probably used to make qu starter. Fermentation ingredients were primarily rice and wheat, sometimes mixed with broomcorn millet, Job’s tears, roots of snake gourd, among other plants. Rice and wheat were minor crops in the region, probably cultivated for special uses and received by the Erlitou elites as tributary items for making alcoholic beverages. This research demonstrates that Erlitou feasting activities involved serving luxury drinks with prestige utensils in socially exclusive spaces, which emphasized social status, wealth, and power. The development of such drinking materiality and social values coincided with increased social differentiation at the time of early state formation.

New evidence for supplementary crop production, foddering and fuel use by Bronze Age transhumant pastoralists in the Tianshan Mountains

The nature of economies and the movement of agricultural crops across Eurasia in the Bronze Age have been the subject of significant research interest in recent years. This study presents and discusses new results of flotation, radiocarbon and carbon stable isotope analyses from the seed assemblage at the Adunqiaolu site (northwestern Xinjiang), in combination with archaeological evidence. Archaeobotanical evidence, including carbonized foxtail millet, broomcorn millet, and naked barley, documents the diversity of local cereal consumption during the mid-second millennium BC. Our results suggest that crops were not grown locally, however, but in the lower Boertala Valley, supporting the argument that Adunqiaolu was a winter camp. These new sets of data constitute an important contribution to the discussion on cereal dispersal across the Tianshan Mountains in the Bronze Age.