木材分子考古研究进展

Molecular Archaeology of Wood:Progress and Prospect

木材考古学研究是推动木质文物自然和历史信息挖掘、保护和修复的重要基础。近年来,随着古DNA捕获和测序技术的快速发展,从木质遗存中可获取古DNA信息,在木材解剖学基础上,创新开展以古DNA为核心的木材分子考古研究已成为木材考古学的前沿热点。本文首先对木材分子考古研究进行概述,从古DNA的保存和降解、获取以及数据处理和序列分析3方面归纳木材古DNA的研究进展,并指出古DNA因高度降解、含量极低和化学损伤特征导致其难于提取和信息解译的难题。然后总结木材分子考古在解读先民认知与利用森林资源方式、复原历史时期地域性森林植被类型和物种多样性以及重建古代树木应对气候和生境变化的微进化反应等方面的主要应用。最后提出该研究领域未来应优先开展的工作:1)建立考古木材标本库及其DNA信息数据库;2)研究不同时空维度下木材古DNA损伤及变化规律;3)构建稳定高效的木材古DNA提取及序列信息解译技术体系。通过进一步加强木材分子考古等多学科交叉研究,推动新理论、新方法、新技术在木材学和考古学领域的应用,为木质文物的用材树种识别、保护利用以及重建历史时期森林植被、环境气候与人类活动的耦合关系提供重要科学依据。

Wood archaeology research is an important basis to promote the natural and historical information mining,protection and restoration of wood relics.In recent years,with the rapid development of ancient DNA hybridization capture and sequencing technologies,it has become possible to obtain sequence information of highly degraded DNA fragments from woody remains.On the basis of wood anatomy,the innovative research on wood molecular archaeology with ancient DNA as the core has gradually become the focus and frontier of attention in wood archaeology.Therefore,this paper firstly reviews the research of the wood molecular archaeology,and then summarizes the research progress and problems of wood ancient DNA from three aspects:preservation and degradation,acquisition,data processing and sequence analysis.It also points out that the high degradation,low concentration,and chemical damage of ancient DNA make it difficult to extract and analyze.Then it summarizes the main applications of wood molecular archaeology in interpreting the ways of ancient people’s cognition and utilization of forest resources,restoring regional forest vegetation types and species diversity in historical periods,and reconstructing the microevolutionary responses of ancient trees to climate and habitat changes.Finally,we proposed three research topics which should be given priority in future:1)establishment of the specimen collections of archeological woods and the corresponding DNA database.2)Studying the laws of wood ancient DNA damage and its changes in different spatial and temporal dimensions.3)Development of the stable and efficient technical system for extracting and analyzing wood ancient DNA.By further strengthening the interdisciplinary research of wood molecular archaeology,the application of new theories,methods and technologies in the field of wood science and archaeology is promoted,so as to provide scientific basis for the species identification,protection and utilization of wood cultural relics,and the reconstruction of the coupling relationship between forest vegetation,environmental climate and human activities in the historical period.