Analyses Of Micro-botanical Residues From Stone Knives Of Huadizui Site,Gongyi City,Henan

Huadizui site is located in North Yaowan Village,Zhanjie Town,Gongyi City,Henan province,where a group of cultural remains of Xinzhai period was recovered,which is between the late Longshan Culture in Henan and the early Erlitou Culture.Comparing with Xinzhai site,there are few researches have been done on the remains of Xinzhai period of Huadizui site.In this paper,we produced residue analyses on 48 stone knives to investigate the utilization of plant resources,the situation of agriculture,as well as the function of stone knives.The analyses show that various kinds of micro-botanical remains were found,including a great quantity of starch granules and a number of phytoliths.After comparing with modern specimens,the starch granules were identified as from the wheat tribe(Triticeae tribe),foxtail millet(Setaria italica),broomcorn mille(Panicum miliaceum),Jobs tears(Coix lacryma-jobi),cowpea(Vigna sp.),acorn(Quercus sp.)and yam(Dioscorea opposita).The phytoliths were mostly from the stems of subfamily panicum(Panicoideae).The variety of starch remains indicates the diversity of starchy plants that have been used by human beings at that time and the phytoliths suggest that the stone knives may have been used for harvesting grains.Combined with the research results of archaeobotany in Xinzhai site and Dongzhao site,we can understand the agriculture form of Xinzhai Period,which should mainly contain dry-land farming of millets,with minor rice agriculture.These findings of micro-botanical remains would shed light on the research on the function of stone knives and help to understand the plant use of Xinzhai Period.