Organic residue analysis of ancient ceramic vessels enables the investigation of natural resources that were used in daily cooking practices in different part of the world. Despite many methodological advances, the utilization of plants in pottery has been difficult to demonstrate chemically, hindering the study of their role in ancient society, a topic that is especially important to understanding early agricultural practices at the start of the Neolithic period. Here, we present the first lipid residue study on the Chinese Neolithic pottery dated to 5.0 k - 4.7 k cal BC from the Tianluoshan site, Zhejiang province, a key site with early evidence for rice domestication. Through the identification of novel molecular biomarkers and extensive stable isotope analysis, we suggest that the pottery in Tianluoshan were largely used for processing starchy plant foods. These results not only highlight the significance of starchy plants in Neolithic southern China but also show a clear difference with other contemporary sites in northern Eurasia, where pottery is clearly orientated to aquatic resource exploitation. These differences may be linked with the early development of rice agriculture in China compared to its much later adoption in adjacent northerly regions.
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机译：对古代陶瓷器皿的有机残留物进行分析，可以研究世界各地日常烹饪实践中使用的自然资源。尽管方法学方面取得了许多进步，但陶器中植物的利用一直很难通过化学方法进行展示，从而阻碍了对它们在古代社会中的作用的研究，这一主题对于理解新石器时代初期的早期农业实践尤为重要。在这里，我们提出了中国新石器时代陶器的第一个脂质残渣研究，其年代为公元前5.0 -k-4.7 k cal，来自浙江省天螺山遗址，这是水稻驯化的早期证据。通过鉴定新的分子生物标记物和广泛的稳定同位素分析，我们认为天螺山的陶器主要用于加工淀粉类植物性食品。这些结果不仅突显了新石器时代中国南部地区淀粉植物的重要性，而且与欧亚大陆北部的其他当代遗址明显不同，那里的陶器显然是针对水生资源开发的。这些差异可能与中国稻米农业的早期发展相比，而后者在邻近的北方地区则更晚采用。
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