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Starch grains from human teeth reveal the plant consumption of proto-Shang people (c. 2000–1600 BC) from Nancheng site, Hebei, China

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Abstract

The founding processes of the first state of ancient China with a known written record, the Shang dynasty (3600–3046 cal BP), have been poorly understood. Recent discoveries of a host of archaeological sites dating to the proto-Shang culture (4000–3600 cal BP) have helped elucidate the transition to the Shang culture. Nevertheless, there are few investigations about the mode of subsistence and economy of the proto-Shang culture, and how this might have shaped the transition to statehood. In this present study, we analyzed the starch grains preserved in dental calculus and teeth surfaces from 16 samples from the site of Nancheng in order to gain a better understanding of the subsistence strategy and plant consumption of proto-Shang people. We also performed experiments to test how different cooking methods may lead to size changes in the starches of four Poaceae plants, in order to identify the processing methods used by the proto-Shang people. The results indicate that Triticum aestivum, Coix lacryma-jobi, Setaria italica and some yet-unidentified roots and tubers were consumed by these individuals. These data indicate a broader spectrum of plant consumption than that seen by previous archaeobotanical and stable isotope analyses. Such a broad spectrum of plant consumption provided a substantial economic base for proto-Shang people and might be one of the factors supporting the subsequent development of the Shang state culture.

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Acknowledgements

We would like to thank Antje Hutschenreuther, Jörg Watzke, Robert Power, Domingo Salazar-Garcia, Chelsea Leonard, Cynthianne Spiteri and Stephanie Schnorr for comments and support. We also thank the two anonymous reviewers for their valuable suggestions of the paper.

Funding

This study was funded by the Max Planck Society and National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 41672171 and 41877427).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Archaeology, School of History and Culture, Shanxi University, Taiyuan, 030006, China

    Tao Chen & Liangliang Hou

  2. Department of Archaeology and Anthropology, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China

    Hongen Jiang

  3. Key Laboratory of Vertebrate Evolution and Human Origins, Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100044, China

    Yan Wu

  4. CAS Center for Excellence in Life and Paleoenvironment, Beijing, 100044, China

    Yan Wu

  5. Department of Archaeological Sciences, Faculty of Archaeology, Leiden University, Einsteinweg 2, 2333CC, Leiden, The Netherlands

    Amanda G. Henry

  6. Department of Human Evolution, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Deutscher Platz 6, 04103, Leipzig, Germany

    Amanda G. Henry

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  1. Tao Chen
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  2. Liangliang Hou
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Correspondence to Tao Chen.

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Chen, T., Hou, L., Jiang, H. et al. Starch grains from human teeth reveal the plant consumption of proto-Shang people (c. 2000–1600 BC) from Nancheng site, Hebei, China. Archaeol Anthropol Sci 13, 153 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12520-021-01416-y

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