Ancient plant use and palaeoenvironmental analysis at the Gumugou Cemetery, Xinjiang, China: implication from desiccated plant remains

Abstract

The Gumugou Cemetery is located in the Lop Nor region of the Tarim Basin in Xinjiang, northwest China. Radiocarbon dating found the site to be 3800 years BP. Due to the exceptionally arid conditions, most of the plant remains are well-preserved. Morphological and anatomical studies suggest that the plant remains consist of: Triticum cf. aestivum, Phragmites australis, Populus euphratica, Ephedra sp., as well as Typha sp. These ancient plants imply that the indigenous people lived in oases surrounded by extensive desert. Caryopses of T. cf. aestivum might have been used as funeral objects of the mummies as well as a subsidiary food source of the inhabitants, while the wild plants were used in other aspects of daily life.

Phylogenetic and population structural inference from genomic ancestry maintained in present‐day common wheat Chinese landraces

“…According to the radiocarbon dating data, these ancient wheat seeds excavated at Xiaohe and Gumugou cemetery sites were estimated to be from approximately 3800–3200 years BP (Yang et al ., ; Zhang et al ., ). However, to demonstrate the authenticity of the ancient wheat DNA with no contamination from modern DNA, we examined the empirical sequence characteristics of these ancient DNA samples, which included short‐length sequenced DNA fragments in ancient samples and abundant damage patterns (reflected as deamination‐derived C‐to‐T and G‐to‐A nucleotide mismatches) at both the 5ʹ‐ and 3ʹ‐ends of the sequenced DNA fragments.…”

“…As noted above, common wheat was introduced to China approximately 4500 years ago, as supported by the hitherto oldest common wheat remnants uncovered at the ‘Donghuishan’ site in Gansu Province (dated to 4605 ± 150 and 4260 ± 80 BP) (Li and Mo, ; Flad et al ., ). Our ancient wheat samples with an estimated age of 3800–3200 BP are likely to constitute an ancient wheat population representing the status of ancient wheat after its initial introduction to China (Betts et al ., ; Yang et al ., ; Zhang et al ., ). Given that present‐day common wheat is widely grown in China in 10 agroecological zones (Figure ), we investigated whether the ancestry of the foregoing ancient wheat population had been maintained in any of the modern wheat landraces grown in China (He, ).…”

“…The wheat seeds used in this study were obtained from three tombs in Xiaohe cemetery (designated as M13, M17, and M29) and two tombs in Gumugou cemetery (designated as M1 and M3). The ancient samples excavated from Xiaohe and Gumugou cemeteries were 14 C radiocarbon dated with a direct accelerator mass spectrometer (AMS) to approximately 3800–3200 BP (Yang et al ., ; Zhang et al ., ).…”

Human Dietary Complexity in Tianshan Region and the Influence of Climate on Human Paleodiet

“…Domesticated wheat and barley were first found in western Asia, and millet was first cultivated in northern China around 10,000 BP (Zeder 2008;Lu et al 2009;Zhao 2011;Riehl et al 2013). Western Asian crops did not arrive in Xinjiang until the early third millennium BC, evidenced by wheat and barley in the Xiaohe (Yang et al 2014a), Gumugou (Zhang et al 2017) and Xintala sites (Zhao et al 2012) and more recently at the Tongtiandong site with a date of nearly 3000 BC (Yu 2018). On the other hand, east Asian millet was introduced into Xinjiang from the Hexi Corridor around 3800 yr BP or even earlier, with the westward expansion of east Asian people, including the Siba culture (Li 2009).…”

Confusing a Pollen Grain with a Parasite Egg: an Appraisal of “Paleoparasitological Evidence of Pinworm (Enterobius Vermicularis) Infection in a Female Adolescent Residing in Ancient Tehran”

“…In arid regions, analyses of archaeological sites proves that pollen and macrofossils Ephedra can be encountered [16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25] (Fig. 4).…”