Development of Ancestors' Cultivation Revealed In

http://www.paper.edu.cn REPORTS Chinese Science Bulletin 2003 Vol. 48 No.3 287— 290 plored the relics. The two-year excavation, by which we found the ancient remains distribution in the range of Development of ancestors’ more than 100000 m2, enlarged broadly the knowledge to cultivation revealed in the relics range of the 1960s of the last century. There are three-period culture remains in Guangfulin relics, includ- phytolith assemblages from ing Liangzhu culture, Guangfulin remains and Dong- zhou-Han Dynasty remains, among them, Guangfulin Guangfulin relics remains was newly found in this execution. Although its origin in the local place cannot be found, there are still ZHANG Yulan1,2, ZHANG Minbin1 & SONG Jian3 some similarities to the Nandang culture relics and Wa n- gyoufang type from East Henan Province. The discovery 1. Key Laboratory of Marine Geology of the Ministry of Education, Tongji University, Shanghai 200092, China; of Guangfulin relics raises a point of the research for cul- 2. State Key Laboratory of Estuarine and Coastal Research, East China ture pedigree and processing around Taihu Lake, describ- Normal University, Shanghai 200062, China; ing that culture communication between north and south 3. Shanghai Museum, Shanghai 200003, China began in the end of Liangzhu culture. Because it is first Abstract Shanghai Museum has got great achievements found around Taihu Lake, we call it “Guangfulin relics”. 14 in re-excavating Guangfulin relics. It is the first time that the Its time is (3770±60) aBP (Laboratory No. 20003) by C cultural remains of Wangyoufang type is found above the dating, however, there is no systemic research into the Liangzhu cultural remains which comes from East Henan farming, developing environment and the time of our an- Province, providing previous materials for researching cul- cestors’ farming. In this note, phytoliths and diatom fos- ture evolution around Taihu Lake. Samples were taken from sils in the relics section were analyzed in detail, and new the immature soil layer and cultural layers of Guangfulin evidence for the environmental and archaeological re- relics for phytolith analysis. According to the systemic research for the archaeological remains and phytolith fossil, search of this relics was provided. the phytoliths in Guangfulin relics can be divided into four 2 Location and description of section lithology zones. The development of rice agriculture and living condition of Guangfulin ancestors was discussed based on the ex- Guangfulin relics were re-excavated in 1999, located isting rice fan-shaped phytolith, rice shell phytolith, diatom 6 km far from northwest of Songjiang City (31°3′52.2″N, fossil and archaeology evidence in the same layer. The 121°11′5″E) (Fig. 1). This region is under the eastern Guangfulin relics has gradually developed since a high sea subtropical monsoon climate and influenced by the level 5000 years ago, and the broad rice agriculture has si- East-Asian monsoon, so it represents significant oceanic multaneously developed. The newly re-excavated relics pro- characteristics. In summer the warm-wet air mass from vides valuable materials for the research of ancestors and the Pacific carries abundant rain, the climate is hot and ancient culture in Shanghai. moist; while in winter the weather is temperate and dry Keywords: Guangfulin relics, phytolith, ancestor, cultivate. because of the cold air mass. The annual average tem- perature is approximately 15.5℃ with average tempera- 1 Survey ture reaching 3.7℃ in January and 27.8℃ in July. The The Changjiang Delta Region is one of the cradles of annual volume of rain is about 1145 mm, and the frost- free period is around 288 days. All these provide a better the national culture. 300 cultural sites of Neolithic, which [9] separately belong to 4 archaeology cultural styles, includ- condition for the plant growing . ing Majiabang culture (7— 6 kaBP), Songze culture (6— 5 The modern vegetation in Shanghai belongs to the kaBP), Liangzhu culture (5— 4 kaBP) and Maqiao culture type of northern middle subtropics. About 1582 species of (4— 3 kaBP), were excavated and represent the develop- spermatophyte, including 169 families 863 genus, distrib- ing steps of continuous ancient culture[1]. After 1949 the uted in some low hills such as Dajinshan Hill, Sheshan archaeologists in Shanghai have been doing a great deal of Hill, Tianmashan Hill, which are covered with evergreen excavation to ancient relics, and explored successively broad-leaved forest of middle subtropics and evergreen Songze[2,3], Guangfulin[4], Maqiao[5,6], Fuquanshan[7] and trees of north subtropics (Cyclobalanopsis glaca, Cas- Guoyuancun[8]. Guangfulin relics lies in Guangfulin Vil- tanopsis sclerophylla, Cinnamomm camphora, Machilus lage, Sheshan County, Songjiang District of southwestern thanbergii, Ilex, Schima superba, Pinus massoniana, etc.), Shanghai, on the north and west, surrounded by many deciduous trees (Platycarya strobilacea, Quercus fabri, hills, such as Sheshan Hill, Chenshan Hill and Feng- Aphananthe aspera, Celtis sinensis, Zelkova schneideri- huangshan Hill. Its neighboring hypsography is plain with ana, Ulmus pumila, Melia azedarach, Robinia pseu- low altitude (commonly 2— 3 m). It was found in 1959 doacacia, etc.) and cultivated economic forest (Cunning- and first excavated in 1961. From the fall of 1999— 2001, hamia lanceolata, Vernicia fordii, phyllostachys pubes- the Archaeology Department of Shanghai Museum ex- cens, Carya, Camellia sinensis, Morus alba, etc.). Psam- Chinese Science Bulletin Vol. 48 No. 3 February 2003 287 转载中国科技论文在线 http://www.paper.edu.cn REPORTS mophytes (Artemisia schrenkiana, Suaeda glauca, Cype- scratch design and decoration of triangle with concave rus, etc.) and hydrophytes (Juncus, Phragimtes communis, edge and jabbed design. The figures include sand pottery Nelumbo, Trapa bispinosa, Sagittaria sagittaefolia, Po- food vessel Ding, clay kettle, food vessel Dou, basin and tamogeton, etc.) are widely distributed[10]. so on. It corresponds to the transitional period of Songze culture to Liangzhu culture in the time. Nos. 8— 9 are green-gray clay with much rust, unearthed relics mainly are kinds of shard, the designs in the surface are a string pattern and scratch design, the figures are sand pottery food vessel Ding with fin-shaped legs, clay kettle, food vessel Dou and basin. It corresponds to Liangzhu culture in the time. Nos. 10— 11 are green-gray clay with much rust, part looks yellow, the relics are kinds of shard, the decoration is a string pattern and scratch design, the main figures still are food vessel Ding, kettle, food vessel Dou and basin. It corresponds to Liangzhu culture in the time. Nos. 12— 13 are green-gray clay with much rust, relics are shards. Besides the sand-shard and clay-shard, there are clay-rigidity shard and original porcelain. Part of decoration in the surface is popular, such as trellis pattern, fine trellis pattern, ‘米’ pattern, sieve pattern, linen textile impression and string pattern. The most figures are food vessel Ding, kettle, food vessel Dou, basin, porcelain bowl and food vessel Zhong. It corresponds to Dong- Fig. 1. Location of Guangfulin relics. ▲, Location of Guangfulin zhou-Han Dynasty in the time. relics; △, location of cultural relics studied previously. It is worth paying attention to the buried jade, including jade hop, jade cone-shaped pipe and jade pipe, in some tombs in Guangfulin. It is the first time to find the jade of Liangzhu culture. During the excavation we find that people who lived in Liangzhu culture time took the stones as the tomb symbol. Some put the stones on the grave door to distinguish the tomb location and avoid de- stroying the fore-buried tomb by the later-buried. It is more important for the convenience of sacrifice before ancestors’ graves. The stone sign on the tomb maybe is the rudiment of the present grave. 3 Development of ancestors’ cultivation revealed in phytolith assemblages The 13 phytolith samples collected from Guangfulin relics were disposed with H2O2 and HCl (15%, hot), then floated by heavy liquid made of potassium iodide and Fig. 2. Rectangular unit T0639 of Guangfulin relics. cadmium iodide to separate the phytolith in the samples, lastly made into fixed slices using the Canada gum. Phy- Dozens of rectangular units were excavated in tolith were identified under a microscope and its counts of Guangfulin relics, with an area of 546 m2. 13 phytolith more than 400 grains were achieved in each sample. samples were collected from the west wall in rectangular After identifying, we find the following types of unit T0639 (Fig. 2) and the depth is 1.5 m, and its lithol- phytolith: fern, gymnosperm, broad-leaved type (broad- ogy and culture relics from bottom to top are: caked, broad-cudgel, broad-patch), dumbbell shape, Nos. 1— 3 are immature soil layer, lithology is natu- tall-saddle, short-saddle, trapezoid, rondel, fan-shape, rice fan-shape, square, tall-square, thorn cudgel, smooth ral cumuli of gray-yellow clay with little rust, no remains. cudgel, long-point, short-point, ladder, sedge, pipe, rice Nos. 4— 7 are green-gray clay with little rust. Un- shell, shell shape and air hole shape. According to the earthed relics include kinds of shard, its nature differenti- changes of these types in section, the phytolith in Guang- ates sand-shard and clay-shard, surface is mainly plain fulin relics can be divided into four assemblages as fol- with 66%, and the decoration includes string pattern, lows (Fig. 3): 288 Chinese Science Bulletin Vol. 48 No. 3 February 2003 中国科技论文在线 http://www.paper.edu.cn REPORTS Fig. 3. Percentage of phytolith and diatom in Guangfulin relics. 150— 130 cm (Nos. 1— 3) is an immature soil layer: cudgel shapes were comparatively abundant. Sedge phy- the phytolith assemblages are mostly fan-shape and square tolith obviously decreased and the content of rice shape (up to 40%), short-saddle, tall-saddle, rondel and fan-shape reached more than 5%.

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