Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures, Stanford Archaeology Center, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305, USA.
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2013 Apr 2;110(14):5380-5. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1217864110. Epub 2013 Mar 18.
Three grinding stones from Shizitan Locality 14 (ca. 23,000-19,500 calendar years before present) in the middle Yellow River region were subjected to usewear and residue analyses to investigate human adaptation during the last glacial maximum (LGM) period, when resources were generally scarce and plant foods may have become increasingly important in the human diet. The results show that these tools were used to process various plants, including Triticeae and Paniceae grasses, Vigna beans, Dioscorea opposita yam, and Trichosanthes kirilowii snakegourd roots. Tubers were important food resources for Paleolithic hunter-gatherers, and Paniceae grasses were exploited about 12,000 y before their domestication. The long tradition of intensive exploitation of certain types of flora helped Paleolithic people understand the properties of these plants, including their medicinal uses, and eventually led to the plants' domestication. This study sheds light on the deep history of the broad spectrum subsistence strategy characteristic of late Pleistocene north China before the origins of agriculture in this region.
对黄河中游地区师赵村 14 地点（约 23000-19500 年前）的 3 件研磨石器进行了使用痕迹和残留物分析，以研究末次冰盛期（LGM）期间人类的适应情况，当时资源普遍匮乏，植物性食物可能在人类饮食中变得越来越重要。结果表明，这些工具被用于加工各种植物，包括小麦属和黍属草、菜豆、薯蓣、绞股蓝根。块茎是旧石器时代狩猎采集者的重要食物资源，黍属草在大约 12000 年前被驯化之前就被利用了。对某些特定类型植物的长期密集开发传统帮助旧石器时代的人类了解了这些植物的特性，包括它们的药用用途，并最终导致了这些植物的驯化。本研究揭示了在该地区农业起源之前，末次冰期晚期华北地区广泛存在的广谱生存策略的深远历史。
