Wang Weiwei, Nguyen Kim Dung, Le Hai Dang, Zhao Chunguang, Carson Mike T, Yang Xiaoyan, Hung Hsiao-Chun
Department of Archaeology and Natural History, The Australian National University, Canberra, ACT, Australia.
Vietnam Association of Archaeology, Hanoi, Vietnam.
Front Plant Sci. 2022 Nov 2;13:976138. doi: 10.3389/fpls.2022.976138. eCollection 2022.
Research has generally outlined that the Neolithic East Asian farmers expanded into Southeast Asia, leading to substantial social and cultural transformations. However, the associated archaeobotanical evidence until now has been insufficient to clarify the exact timing, dispersal route, and farming package of the emergence of agriculture in Mainland Southeast Asia. To clarify these issues, the micro-plant remains of phytolith and starch from three Neolithic sites in Ha Long Bay were extracted and analyzed. This study validates the earliest evidence of co-cropping in northern Vietnam, involving the cultivation of rice together with foxtail millet at 4000 years BP or slightly earlier. Moreover, the results indicate that at least two patterns of subsistence strategy were practiced simultaneously during the initial farming phase in the region. The Trang Kenh people, a regional variant of the Phung Nguyen cultural group often have been seen as the first farmers in northern Vietnam, and they mainly practiced a cereal-based subsistence strategy with more vital cultural characteristics of southern China origin. Meanwhile, the Ha Long people, mainly composed of indigenous hunter-gatherer descendants, continued to utilize a wide range of their preferred plant resources such as taros, yams, and acorns, while they absorbed and incorporated new elements such as millet and rice into their food system. This study provides solid information to understand the diverse economic systems among different cultural groups in Vietnam.
研究普遍指出，新石器时代的东亚农民向东南亚扩张，导致了重大的社会和文化变革。然而，迄今为止，相关的考古植物学证据尚不足以阐明东南亚大陆农业出现的确切时间、传播路线和种植组合。为了厘清这些问题，对下龙湾三个新石器时代遗址的微植物遗存植硅体和淀粉进行了提取和分析。这项研究证实了越南北部最早的混合作物种植证据，即公元前4000年或稍早的时候水稻与粟一起种植。此外，研究结果表明，在该地区最初的农业阶段，至少同时实行了两种生存策略模式。常被视为越南北部最早农民的冯原文化群体的区域变体——长垦人，主要实行以谷物为基础的生存策略，具有更多源自中国南方的重要文化特征。与此同时，主要由本土狩猎采集者后代组成的下龙人，继续利用芋头、山药和橡子等多种他们喜爱的植物资源，同时将小米和水稻等新元素吸收并融入他们的食物体系。这项研究为了解越南不同文化群体间多样的经济系统提供了确凿信息。
