Humans around the world have shown a remarkable propensity to ferment available sugar sources into alcoholic beverages. These drinks have significantly contributed to cultural innovation and development, including agr...Humans around the world have shown a remarkable propensity to ferment available sugar sources into alcoholic beverages. These drinks have significantly contributed to cultural innovation and development, including agricultural and horticultural skills to harness natural resources, technologies to produce beverages and to make special vessels to serve, drink and present them ceremonially, and their incorporation into feasting and other activities. Molecular archaeological analyses of a range of pottery forms from the Liangchengzhen site, China, illustrate how contemporaneous chemical data, in conjunction with intensive archaeological and botanical recovery methods, enable the reconstruction of prehistoric beverages and their cultural significance. During the middle Longshan period (ca. 2400 2200 BC),a mixed fermented beverage of rice, honey and fruit (probably hawthorn fruit or grape) was presented as grave offerings and consumed by residents in the regional center.展开更多
Hunter-gatherer populations in greater northeast Asia experienced dramatic range expansions during the early Upper Paleolithic (45—22 ka) and the late Upper Paleolithic (18—10 ka), both of which led to intensive occ...Hunter-gatherer populations in greater northeast Asia experienced dramatic range expansions during the early Upper Paleolithic (45—22 ka) and the late Upper Paleolithic (18—10 ka), both of which led to intensive occupations of cold desert environments including the Mongolian Gobi and northwest China. Range contractions under the cold, arid extremes of the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM, 22—18 ka) may have entailed widespread population extirpations. The high elevation Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau is significantly more extreme in both climate and environment than either the Gobi or the Siberian taiga forests, and provides an ideal setting to test fundamental models of human biogeog- raphy in the context of regional population fluctuations. The area is presently occupied primarily by nomadic pastoralists, but it is clear that these complex middle Holocene (<6 ka) economic adaptations were not a necessary prerequisite for successful colonization of the high elevation Plateau. Exploratory field-work in 2000—2001 has established that Upper Paleolithic hunter-gatherers were present on the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau by at least 12 ka and possibly much earlier. A speculative model for the colonization process is developed and preliminary archaeological data in support of the model are presented.展开更多
The area along the eastern and southeastern margins of the Tengger Desert, NW China, which is sensitive to the summer monsoon variations, was selectedfor studying the environmental conditions surrounding the transitio...The area along the eastern and southeastern margins of the Tengger Desert, NW China, which is sensitive to the summer monsoon variations, was selectedfor studying the environmental conditions surrounding the transition between Paleolithic foragers and Neolithic farmer/pastoral- ists. Short cores were obtained from four lake basins in the southwestern Tengger using a hand-driven piston coring device. Proxies from these cores were supplemented by ra- diocarbon ages obtained from lake sediment cores, shoreline features and spring mound deposits. Together these records provide evidence of millennial-scale climate change events from the Pleistocene-Holocene transition to the present. Lake/wetland events, representing periods of more intensive summer monsoon, occur in the records at ～12.7-11.6, ～10.1, ～9.3, ～8.0, ～5.4, ～1.5, and ～0.8 ka BP. They do suggest that century- to millennial-scale climatic cycles are characteristic of the Holocene in the southeastern Tengger Desert although the chronology must be considered extremely tentative.展开更多
Rich paleoanthropological materials were unearthed in primary context from the Xinglongdong Cave in Fengjie County, Chongqing, South China, including a human tooth, numerous mammalian fossils, some stone artifacts and...Rich paleoanthropological materials were unearthed in primary context from the Xinglongdong Cave in Fengjie County, Chongqing, South China, including a human tooth, numerous mammalian fossils, some stone artifacts and a Stegodon tusk exhibiting intentional engravings.Based on biostratigraphic data and uranium series dating,the cave was utilized as a human shelter about 120000-150000 years ago. It is the first time that an archaic Homo sapiens fossil has been unearthed from the Three Gorges Region. Engravings on the Stegodon tusk appear in groups,making up simple and abstract images. It is the earliest known engravings created by human beings; it exhibits great potential for the study of the origin of art and the development of ancient cultures in south China and bears important implications for the origin of modern humans in East Asia.展开更多
基金亨利·鲁斯基金会(Henry Luce Foundation)和美国国家科学基金会(NSF)对两城镇遗址2000～2001年发掘项 目提供了资助
文摘Humans around the world have shown a remarkable propensity to ferment available sugar sources into alcoholic beverages. These drinks have significantly contributed to cultural innovation and development, including agricultural and horticultural skills to harness natural resources, technologies to produce beverages and to make special vessels to serve, drink and present them ceremonially, and their incorporation into feasting and other activities. Molecular archaeological analyses of a range of pottery forms from the Liangchengzhen site, China, illustrate how contemporaneous chemical data, in conjunction with intensive archaeological and botanical recovery methods, enable the reconstruction of prehistoric beverages and their cultural significance. During the middle Longshan period (ca. 2400 2200 BC),a mixed fermented beverage of rice, honey and fruit (probably hawthorn fruit or grape) was presented as grave offerings and consumed by residents in the regional center.
文摘Hunter-gatherer populations in greater northeast Asia experienced dramatic range expansions during the early Upper Paleolithic (45—22 ka) and the late Upper Paleolithic (18—10 ka), both of which led to intensive occupations of cold desert environments including the Mongolian Gobi and northwest China. Range contractions under the cold, arid extremes of the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM, 22—18 ka) may have entailed widespread population extirpations. The high elevation Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau is significantly more extreme in both climate and environment than either the Gobi or the Siberian taiga forests, and provides an ideal setting to test fundamental models of human biogeog- raphy in the context of regional population fluctuations. The area is presently occupied primarily by nomadic pastoralists, but it is clear that these complex middle Holocene (<6 ka) economic adaptations were not a necessary prerequisite for successful colonization of the high elevation Plateau. Exploratory field-work in 2000—2001 has established that Upper Paleolithic hunter-gatherers were present on the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau by at least 12 ka and possibly much earlier. A speculative model for the colonization process is developed and preliminary archaeological data in support of the model are presented.
基金supported by US NSF(Grant Nos.9410923 and 9729929)National Natural Science Foundation of China(Grant No.40125001).
文摘The area along the eastern and southeastern margins of the Tengger Desert, NW China, which is sensitive to the summer monsoon variations, was selectedfor studying the environmental conditions surrounding the transition between Paleolithic foragers and Neolithic farmer/pastoral- ists. Short cores were obtained from four lake basins in the southwestern Tengger using a hand-driven piston coring device. Proxies from these cores were supplemented by ra- diocarbon ages obtained from lake sediment cores, shoreline features and spring mound deposits. Together these records provide evidence of millennial-scale climate change events from the Pleistocene-Holocene transition to the present. Lake/wetland events, representing periods of more intensive summer monsoon, occur in the records at ～12.7-11.6, ～10.1, ～9.3, ～8.0, ～5.4, ～1.5, and ～0.8 ka BP. They do suggest that century- to millennial-scale climatic cycles are characteristic of the Holocene in the southeastern Tengger Desert although the chronology must be considered extremely tentative.
文摘Rich paleoanthropological materials were unearthed in primary context from the Xinglongdong Cave in Fengjie County, Chongqing, South China, including a human tooth, numerous mammalian fossils, some stone artifacts and a Stegodon tusk exhibiting intentional engravings.Based on biostratigraphic data and uranium series dating,the cave was utilized as a human shelter about 120000-150000 years ago. It is the first time that an archaic Homo sapiens fossil has been unearthed from the Three Gorges Region. Engravings on the Stegodon tusk appear in groups,making up simple and abstract images. It is the earliest known engravings created by human beings; it exhibits great potential for the study of the origin of art and the development of ancient cultures in south China and bears important implications for the origin of modern humans in East Asia.
