The Analysis Of Charred Plant Remains At Hebosuo Site And Yubeidi Site In Yunnan Province

Hebosuo site is the central settlement of Shizhaishan culture (Dian culture). Yubeidi site is the first discovered site of the Bronze Age belonging to watershed of Jinsha River. The discovery of plants remains at those two sites is very important to the study of ancient agriculture in Yunnan region. By using the Paleoethnobotanical method, we executed systematical sampling and flotation at the Bronze Age site of Hebosuo and Yubeidi. Abundant plant remains were obtained at these two sites by flotation. At Hebosuo site, we found five kinds of crop remains and other remains like rice spike-stalks. We also found thirty kinds of wild seeds and other remains. Crops remains include wheat seeds, rice seeds, foxtail millet, broomcorn millet and soybean seeds. The wild seeds include Chenopodiaceae, Labiatae, Solanaceae, Leguminosae, Gramineae, Polygonaceae, Cyperaceae and Malvaceae, etc. At Yubeidi site, the flotation results are also composed of crops, wild seeds, fruit seeds and other plant remains like unknown nutlet, etc. Crops include rice seeds, foxtail millet, soybean seeds, wheat seeds and other crop remains such as the rice spike-stalks and rice husks. More than ten species of wild seeds from nine families include Chenopodiaceae, Cyperaceae, Polygonaceae, Rutaceae, Leguminosae, Potamogetonaceae, Gramineae, Euphorbiaceae and Boraginaceae.Based on the analysis of plant remains from these two sites, we can learn that the inhabitants of Hebosuo site lived on an agricultural pattern that rice, wheat and foxtail millet were simultaneously planted. Among these three crops, rice was the dominant crop at all time, and the proportion of rice was decreased markedly from the early to the late period while the proportion of wheat was increased. Except for the basic farming, the usage of wild animal and plant resources was a momentous supply to the local agricultural economy. Yubeidi site, a possible metal-smelting-related site, we insist that the crops were produced locally and the agricultural form was dominated by rice plantation, combining a small amount of dry-land crops like, foxtail millet, soybean and wheat to adapted to the local environment. Except for crops, some wild plants were also used as food, medicine and forage.From plants remains of those sites such as Dadunzi site, Haimenkou site, Xueshan site, Hebosuo site and Yubeidi site where flotation were excuted, we can get a few points about agriculture of the Bronze Age in Yunnan region. At that time, crops like rice, wheat, barley, foxtail millet, broomcorn millet, soybean and hemp were widely planted, and rice was the main kind of crops all the time except Xueshan site, whose main crop was wheat. The planting pattern changed from the single pattern of rice and foxtail millet mixed cropping in the Neolithic Period to rice, foxtail millet and wheat mixed cropping, which revealed a great advance. In addition, we can observe some distinguishable characteristics about the agriculture pattern of the Bronze Age in Yunnan region from time sequencing perspective. Firstly, contributed to the development in the Neolithic Age, rice was the main crop during the whole Bronze Age, but the proportion was decreased from the early to the late period. Secondly, wheat, probably an exotic species, was a new kind of crops appeared in early Bronze Age, and its proportion was increased in late Bronze Age. Thirdly, the proportion of foxtail millet was smaller than rice and wheat, and decreased from early to late period. Lastly, the proportion of broomcorn millet, soybean, hemp and buckwheat was also low. We are sure that soybean appeared in Bronze Age. Hemp and buckwheat were only found at few sites which could be regional crops acclimated to some special needs.According to the discovery of tools and other materials related to agricultural activities, we make sure that the agricultural economy of the Bronze Age kept a high level of development in Yunnan region. Besides, the diachronic change of agricultural tools as well as the emergence of irrigation, the planning of farmland and the application of ox farming in the late Bronze Age were consistent with the result observed from crops’ diachronic change. In brief, agriculture in Yunnan region had developed in the early Bronze Age and improved gradually from the early to the late period.