河南安阳殷墟孝民屯遗址出土家养黄牛的DNA研究

作为晚商的都城和当时最大都市的殷墟(1300~1046 BCE),家养黄牛是最重要的大型家养动物之一.殷墟的家养黄牛可以肉食、可以役用,骨料可做骨器,是最主要的祭牲,其肩胛骨还可以用于占卜、可以记载甲骨文.本文对安阳殷墟孝民屯遗址普通灰坑和祭祀坑出土的15例牛骨线粒体DNA控制区285 bp的片段进行分析研究,其中有13例获取了所需的DNA序列.DNA分析表明12例属于家养普通牛(Bos taurus),1例属于野生原始牛(Bos primigenius).殷墟孝民屯家养普通牛的单倍型类群分布频率为以T3为主约占58.3%,T4次之约占33.3%,T2最少约占8.3%,该遗传多样性在当时已经达到或保持在可能的最高水平了.推测作为都城和大都市的殷墟聚集了中国早期各个地区的黄牛.孝民屯祭祀坑和普通灰坑出土牛骨线粒体DNA单倍型类群没有明显的差异,表明孝民屯用于祭祀的黄牛没有经过特殊的"母系"筛选,但不排除有对核DNA控制的特殊体质、生理或行为等性状进行有意识地筛选,以示祭祀的神圣性和特殊性.本文有限的DNA数据显示普通灰坑出土牛骨的DNA保存相对较差,暗示着普通灰坑的牛骨作为食余废弃物可能经历了更多炊煮活动中的高温处理,坑内埋藏环境不同也可能使普通灰坑的牛骨保存状况不如祭祀坑内的牛骨,普通灰坑牛骨样本DNA降解和破坏得更厉害.

ANCIENT DNA ANALYSIS OF DOMESTICATED CATTLE FROM XIAOMINTUN SITE AT YINXU,ANYANG,CHINA

As one of the largest domesticated animal species in ancient China,cattle must have played significant roles in the Late Shang China as an important protein source,a sacrificial animal and a raw material(due to the animaFs large and flat scapulae)for oracle bones.As the ruin of the Late Shang China(1300~1046 BCE)in Anyang,China,Yinxu(36°N,114.5°E)represented the capital of Late Shang China,and it was also then the largest urban center in China.This research applied ancient DNA analysis to 15 cattle remains recovered from both ash/refuse pits and sacrificial pits from Xiaomintun site at Yinxu.Through overlapping sequencings,a 285 bp D-loop mitochondrial DNA(mtDNA)fragment was obtained for 13 samples,revealing three haplogroups,T3(58.3%),T4(33.3%)and T2(8.3%)for 12 Bos taurus while one sample belonged to Bos primigenius.Although this same distribution pattern of Bos taurus is already observed from those earlier archaeological sites in Central China(and even modern China),it is evident that Yinxu cattle have already included all possible kinds of cattle Bos taurus available back then in China,which matches the expectation of Yinxu as the capital and as the largest urban center.No significant difference of mtDNA haplogroups was observed for cattle remains from the sacrificial pits and from the refuse pits,as well as other Chinese archaeological sites outside Yinxu,indicating that no maternal lineage was selected for sacrificial cattle.However,the observation cannot exclude the possibility that selection was intentionally focused on those physical or behaviour traits which are essentially controlled by nuclear DNA(not mtDNA used in the study).It is also interesting to notice a lower successful rate of DNA recovery for cattle remains from refuse pits in this study,which may indicate some cooking processes involved with high temperatures may have adverse impacts on the cattle bones and more damaging effects on DNA preservation in the cattle remains.