Anthracological analysis from the Bronze Age site of Erlitou (Henan province, China)

Abstract

Erlitou (Henan province, China) is a Bronze Age site which occupies a prominent position in the study of early state and civilization of China. 359 charcoal fragments >4 mm and 40 charred fruit stones unearthed during the 2010 and 2011 excavation seasons at Erlitou have been analysed. Wood charcoals belong to 18 taxa: Platycladus, Pinus, Picea, Prunus armeniaca, Prunus persica, Quercus (deciduous oaks), Celtis, Zelkova, Broussonetia, Ziziphus, Salix, Toona, Koelreuteria, Sophora, Melia, Bambusoideae and 2 unidentified broadleaved species. In addition, 39 Prunus persica stones and 1 Ziziphus stone have been identified. The anthracological results indicate that the main types of woodland vegetation were Quercus broadleaved forest, and coniferous and broadleaved forest during the Erlitou Culture period (1750-1520 BC) including Platycladus orientalis coniferous forest and deciduous vegetation composed of oak, Zelkova, Salix, Toona and some fruit trees such as apricot, peach and Chinese date. Our study indicates a vegetation adapted to a warmer and more humid climate in phases 2 and 3 of the Erlitou Culture period (1680-1560 BC) becoming drier in phase 4 (1560-1520 BC). By the late Erligang period (1400-1300 BC) climate becomes again warmer and more humid. It also suggests that oak played an important role as firewood and possibly for wooden artefacts and as a food source. The appearance of charcoals of apricot, peach and Chinese date also suggests that fruits were consumed, while Chinese hackberries could have been used either as food or fodder.

Introduction

Charcoal analysis (anthracology) originated in Europe (Chabal et al., 1999; Figueiral and Mosbrugger, 2000; Asouti and Austin, 2005; Kabukcu, 2018) and is now well-established as a sub-discipline of environmental archaeology all over the world, including China. Researchers have used anthracology to reconstruct past woodland vegetation, to explore woodland exploitation practices, and to infer human impacts on the landscape in order to study the relationship of humans with the palaeoenvironment (Scheel-Ybert, 2001; Cui et al., 2002; Li et al., 2012, 2017; Kabukcu, 2018; Wang et al., 2014a, Wang et al., 2014b; Asouti and Kabukcu, 2014; Motuzaite-Matuzeviciute et al., 2017).

The study of archaeological charcoal remains in China began in the 1980s (Jing et al., 1980). However, its uptake in archaeological investigations was slow, gaining pace in the early 2000s when charcoal remains started being regularly collected from archaeological sites (Wang et al., 2002; Wang, 2003). The establishment of the xylon-archaeology lab, directed by Shuzhi Wang, at the Archaeological Institute of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS) in Beijing spearheaded anthracological research focusing on the reconstruction of past vegetation and climate by integrating anthracology with pollen analysis (Cui et al., 2002; Zhang et al., 2006) and on understanding ancient uses of tree resources (Wang et al., 2011).

Erlitou has been identified as the capital of the eponymous Bronze Age Erlitou culture, dated to ~1750-1530 BC. The site has been very important in the study of the history and archaeology of the Xia and Shang Era, and is especially significant for the study of early state formation and civilization in China (Yan, 1987; Wang, 2004; Zhao, 2006; Xu, 2015; Zhao et al., 2019). Although archaeobotanical macro-remains from the Erlitou cultural period have been extensively studied (Zhang et al., 2014; Wu et al., 2014; Yang and Yuan, 2017; Zhao and Liu, 2019) to date anthracological remains have received little attention. Even in the Henan province, charcoals from only two sites from different cultural periods have been studied (Wang et al., 2013; Wang et al., 2014). The main objective of this project presented in this paper is to reconstruct the vegetation, palaeoenvironments, and wood exploitation at Erlitou from 1750-1530 BC through anthracological analysis.