Explore the vast range of titles available.

Archaeological dental calculus has emerged as a rich source of ancient biomolecules, including proteins. Previous analyses of proteins extracted from ancient dental calculus revealed the presence of the dietary milk protein β-lactoglobulin, providing direct evidence of dairy consumption in the archaeological record. However, the potential for calculus to preserve other food-related proteins has not yet been systematically explored. Here we analyse shotgun metaproteomic data from 100 archaeological dental calculus samples ranging from the Iron Age to the post-medieval period (eighth century BC to nineteenth century AD) in England, as well as 14 dental calculus samples from contemporary dental patients and recently deceased individuals, to characterize the range and extent of dietary proteins preserved in dental calculus. In addition to milk proteins, we detect proteomic evidence of foodstuffs such as cereals and plant products, as well as the digestive enzyme salivary amylase. We discuss the importance of optimized protein extraction methods, data analysis approaches and authentication strategies in the identification of dietary proteins from archaeological dental calculus. This study demonstrates that proteomic approaches can robustly identify foodstuffs in the archaeological record that are typically under-represented due to their poor macroscopic preservation.

The Shunshanji Culture is the earliest known Neolithic culture in the mid-lower Huai River. In recent years, with new discoveries and deeper studies of the Shunshanji Culture, the concept of the Shunshanji cultural site group has gradually formed. Among them, various types of rice remains have been unearthed in large quantities, which provide key materials for discussing rice farming, rice cultivation and domestication, and related issues in the Huai River Basin. Previous studies have conducted reconstruction of local vegetation landscape and analysis of subsistence strategies on some systematically excavated Shunshanji cultural sites and obtained some new understandings. Integrative research, however, is lacking. In this review, we combine the construction of the local environmental landscape with the settlement landform within the Shunshanji cultural site group and then incorporate it into the regional environmental evolution of the mid-lower Huai River. The consistency and difference in their subsistence were also summarized. In particular, we focus on the relevant clues of the early paddy field cultivation system in the region and perform comparative studies.

Through the analysis of macro- and micro-plant remains, food residues and the rice-field like features from the mid-Neolithic site of Hanjing in the Huai River region, we propose an early beginning of rice cultivation at Hanjing. The presence of non-shattering rice spikelet bases and the increasing percentages of rice phytoliths confirm the appearance of domesticated rice in the Hanjing archaeobotanical assemblage. However, as indicated by the different prediction rates of rice domestication shown by morphometric of the double-peaked Oryza -type glum cells and fish-scale decorations on the Oryza -type bulliform cells from different cultural phases before 7,000 a BP, rice cultivation was at an early stage of development. Our findings provide new and significant evidence towards the establishment of the Huai River as another important center for early rice cultivation and domestication in prehistoric China.

The bronze mou was an important artifact commonly used in the Ba-Shu region (now in Chongqing and Sichuan Province) during the Spring and Autumn Period and the Han Dynasty. Although extensive archaeological study of the bronze mou has been conducted, scientific analysis of the bronze mou has been limited, and no organic residue analysis has been performed on the bronze mou. In this study, four bronze mous dated to the Han dynasty (206 BC–220 AD) with organic residues unearthed in three archaeological sites in Wushan, Chongqing, were selected for analysis by portable X-ray fluorescent spectrometer (P-XRF) and liquid chromatograph-tandem mass spectrometry (LC/MS/MS). The results of the alloy composition indicated that all the samples are copper-tin-lead ternary alloys. The proteomic analysis results confirmed that the bronze mou had been used as cooking utensils or containers. At the Tuchengpo Cemetery, soybeans were found in both bronze mou M32:27 and M38:39, and vigna was discovered in M32:27. No useful protein was discovered in the bronze mou from the Shennvmiao Cemetery. Proteins of ginkgo and chicken were found in M16:12 at the Gaotangguan Cemetery. The discovery indicated that residents in Wushan, Chongqing, had access to a diverse range of food sources around 2000 years ago. Furthermore, this study demonstrates that proteomic analysis is highly effective in studying archaeological organic residues.

As the crossroads of prehistoric cultures, the Beijing region is an important area for studying the exchange of prehistoric culture and the spread of millet agriculture. Although millet remains have been found in the Donghulin site during the Early Neolithic Age, there is little millet remains during the Middle and Late Neolithic Age, so there is a gap of approximately 2,000 years since the time of the Donghulin site. The Shangzhai site is located in the Pinggu Basin in eastern Beijing, and it has a large time span with sequential strata; however, there are few large animals and plant remains found at this site, thus the subsistence strategy of ancient people remains unclear. In this study, the absorbed lipids of pottery sherds unearthed in the Neolithic cultural layer of the Shangzhai site were extracted and analysed. The results show that these potteries were used to process millet, the meat of terrestrial non-ruminants and wild ruminants, and dairy of wild ruminants, providing new insights for the subsistence strategy and the development of millet agriculture in the Middle and Late Neolithic Age of Beijing. In addition, the food processing in pottery may be an internal heating method, such as stone boiling.

The spotted hyena ( Crocuta crocuta ) is the only extant species of the genus Crocuta , which once occupied a much wider range during the Pliocene and Pleistocene. However, its origin and evolutionary history is somewhat contentious due to discordances between morphological, nuclear, and mitochondrial data. Due to the limited molecular data from east Asian Crocuta, also known as cave hyena, and the difficulty of extracting ancient DNA from this area, here we present proteomic analysis of cave hyenas from three locations in northern China. This marks the first proteomic data generated from cave hyenas, adding new molecular data to the east Asian populations. Phylogenetic analysis based on these protein sequences reveals two different groups of cave hyenas in east Asia, one of which could not be distinguished from modern spotted hyenas from northern Africa, tentatively the result of previously suggested gene flow between these lineages. With developments of instrumentation and analytical methods, proteomics holds promising potential for molecular phylogenetic reconstructions of ancient fauna previously thought to be unreachable using ancient DNA.

For a long time, the academic community has known very little about hunter-gatherers in the steppe area of northern China in the mid-Holocene. This article reports on the Ula Usu West site in Siziwangqi Banner, Inner Mongolia, including basic information about the site, animal bones, lithic artifacts and the environmental background. The age of the site is 4.8–4.4 cal. kyr BP, placing it in the Late Neolithic period. Considering integrated evidence from flotation, zooarchaeology, ZooMS analysis and lithic artifacts, the preliminary inference is that the population lived in a hunting-gathering economy. They used lithic tools represented by arrowheads to hunt mainly Antilopinae animals (e.g., Procapra gutturosa ). Pollen analysis suggests that the climate was relatively humid, providing advantageous living conditions for the population. The climate evidence is consistent with a warm event at approximately 4.7 kyr BP. A dry-cold event (4.5–4.0 kyr BP) and the gradual expansion of agriculture and breeding might have resulted in the final decline of the population. This article provides new materials for research on the “last” hunter-gatherers in the steppe area of northern China.

The use of birch tar has a long history, and its remains are found worldwide, especially in Europe, but few remains are found in Asia. Common characterization methods include gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC/MS), direct exposure electron ionization mass spectrometry (DE-MS) and pyrolysis-gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (Py-GC/MS). Py-GC/MS requires no solvent extraction, less sample than GC/MS, and no statistical analysis compared to DE-MS. However, Py-GC/MS has been rarely applied to identify birch tar because some critical characteristic molecules of birch tar were not identified. In this study, we first reported some biomarkers of birch tar that could be identified by Py-GC/MS in terms of analyzing modern birch tar. Then, the analysis criteria were used to analyze archaeological samples adhered to stone artifacts from a late Neolithic site (about 4000 BP) in northeast China. The results provide the earliest evidence of the exploitation of birch tar in northeast Asia up to date.

Birch bark tar is one of the oldest man-made organic materials, which was most commonly served as adhesives in ancient Eurasia, but little is known about its usage in personal ornaments. In this study, we present the earliest direct evidence for the specific use of birch bark tar in the production of ornaments through chemical investigation (including FTIR, GC/MS, and Py-GC/MS) and imaging examination (including SEM and micro-CT). The chemical and microscopic analyses indicate that some beads and bracelets unearthed from a public cemetery (the Dayuanzi site) of an ancient state or tribe ( Xinan Yi ) on the eastern Yunnan plateau in southwest China dated to approximately 475 BCE–8 CE were exclusively made with birch bark tar. These ornaments represent a unique cultural phenomenon among ethnic groups in this region, which may contribute to a better understanding of plant exploitation and the related birch bark culture among different cultural groups and their interrelationships in the past.

Phytoliths and biomolecular components extracted from ancient plant remains from Chang’an (Xi’an, the city where the Silk Road begins) and Ngari (Ali) in western Tibet, China, show that the tea was grown 2100 years ago to cater for the drinking habits of the Western Han Dynasty (207BCE-9CE) and then carried toward central Asia by ca.200CE, several hundred years earlier than previously recorded. The earliest physical evidence of tea from both the Chang’an and Ngari regions suggests that a branch of the Silk Road across the Tibetan Plateau, was established by the second to third century CE.