Analysis Of The Carbonized Plant Remains From The Chenzhuang Site, Gaoqing, Shandong Province

Based on the analysis of carbonized plant remains from Chenzhuang site, the agricultural and related issues was discussed in this paper.Crop was a major source of plant food for population, including foxtail millet, common millet, wheat, rice and soybean. This multi-crop planting system was an important symbol of agriculture's development level, whose significance not only rested with improving the overall productivity of agriculture, but also with reducing the risk factor of grain cultivation. From unearthed amount and probability of different crop types, Chenzhuang settlement developed the typical dry farming in the Western Zhou Dynasty, for dryland crops were overwhelming, such as common millet, glutinous millet, wheat and soybean, and, so for, it has been not possible to make sure that a small number of rice is dryland cultivation or paddy cultivation. In the dryland crops, the unearthed amount and probabilly of common millet and glutinous millet were the highest. However, if we considered the difference between grain weight of different types of crops and the possibility of crops were thrown off and kept at last in the ruins, four kinds of crops' yields and their status in the agriculture might be close to each other, or common millet's status would be slightly higher.A comprehensive analysis of animal and plant remains showed that collection, fishing and hunting activities might be the supplement of the agricultural economy. Most of the ruins, where had unearthed crops remains, found the clamshells and terrestrial animal bones. Although edible plants like grape genus had a small number, they were found every period.The results of plant remains analysis also revealed changes of human activities, such as agriculture, which dated from the early to the late stage of Western Zhou Dynasty. This change had some correspondence with the one of the settlement function and status that archaeological excavations revealed, which shows that Archaeobotany research is so important in a comprehensive understanding of village social life. Chenzhuang settlement relics, such as pits, dating from later stage of mid-Western Zhou Dynasty, broke the early walls, which might indicate that the function and political status of settlement had changed, and this change might directly affect agricultural production of the settlement. Because the plant remains analysis showed that not only crop species reduced at the earlier stages of mid-Western Zhou Dynasty, but the number of weeds in farmland and their unearthed probability were significantly higher. The later stage of mid-Western Zhou Dynasty, may be stable after the period of turbulence, when the development of agriculture had reached the pinnacle of the settlement, such as the type of crops increased, the number of excavated amount and unearthed probability were significantly higher than the non-crops, weeds in farmland reduced, all of which might imply the development of agricultural production, especially of cultivating and weeding technology.