闽江下游白头山遗址稻旱混作农业的植硅体证据

稻作和旱作农业的起源与传播一直是植物考古和农业考古研究中的热点,闽江下游地区农业开始的时间及其发展过程对农业向南及向台湾传播的路径和时间研究至关重要,然而由于缺少详细的植物考古学工作,迄今为止关于该地区稻作和旱作农业开始的时间仍然是不清楚的。文章对闽江下游新发掘的闽侯县荆溪镇白头山遗址进行了系统的采样,通过考古学研究和14C测定确立了年代框架,对遗址进行了详细的植硅体分析。研究结果表明,白头山遗址主要包含闽江下游地区新石器时代晚期到末期的遗存(约5000~3000 cal.a B.P.),该遗址中植硅体类型丰富,自昙石山下层文化时期至黄瓜山文化时期,均发现有水稻特征型植硅体,黍子稃壳植硅体首次出现于昙石山文化层,说明在距今5000年左右稻作农业已经传播到了闽江下游,距今4700年左右的昙石山文化时期地层中黍子的出现则说明旱作农业的传入,形成了稻旱混作的原始农业格局。结合闽江流域及台湾地区其他的植物考古学工作,认为闽江是稻旱农业向台湾及东南亚地区传播的重要通道,研究结果为深入了解闽江流域新石器时代农业的发生、发展及其结构特征提供新的认识,为稻旱混作农业南传的时间及路径提供了新的证据。

THE MIXED RICE AND MILLET AGRICULTURE IN NEOLITHIC AGE LOWER MINJIANG RIVER:PHYTOLITH EVIDENCE FROM THE BAITOUSHAN SITE

The origin and spread of rice and millet has been a debated issue in recent years. The origin and development of agriculture in the lower reaches of the Minjiang River is very important to the origin civilization of the Austronesian. But questions about its origin and spread in this region remain unclear. Baitoushan site(26°07'50.67"N, 119°09'16.36"E) is located at the lower reaches of the Minjiang River, Fujian Province, and it was excavated in 2018. The deposits at Baitoushan site were divided into 13 layers. Layer 1 is modern cultivated soil zone. Layer 2 is the disturbance layer during historical period. Layer 3 belong to the Bronze Age and Layer 4 belongs to Huangguashan culture(4300~3500 cal.a B.P.). Layer 5~10 belongs to Tanshishan culture(5000~4300 cal.a B.P.), and Layer 11~13 represent artifacts and features of the early Tanshishan culture(5500~5000 cal.a B.P.). We collected 17 soil samples from the different cultural layers of the Baitoushan site. On the basis of two radiocarbon dates and typological sequence, we established the chronological model of the site. We recovered rice phytoliths(double-peaked phytoliths, rice bulliform and parallel-bilobate) from the Early Tanshishan culture to Huangguashan culture, and we found several common millet husk phytoliths at Tanshishan culture. The results showed that rice had been cultivated around 5000 cal.a B.P. Millet was cultivated together with rice at the Baitoushan site in the Lower reaches of Minjiang River around 4700 cal.a B.P. It is the first time that the millet was recovered at Tanshishan culture. And the millet phytoliths found at the Baitoushan site is the earliest evidence in the Lower reaches of Minjiang River, indicating that the mixed rice and millet agriculture had been established here ca. 4700 years ago. Minjiang River valley is one of the important corridors for the spread of agriculture. This study provides new evidence for the spread of rice and millet to the southeast coastal areas of China, as well as sheds lights on the early cultural communications between Taiwan and the mainland of China in the Neolithic Age.