A Consideration of the Involucre Remains of Coix Lacryma-Jobi L

Journal of Archaeological Science 35 (2008) 1311e1316 http://www.elsevier.com/locate/jas

A consideration of the involucre remains of Coix lacryma-jobi L. (Poaceae) in the Sampula Cemetery (2000 years BP), Xinjiang, China

Hong-En Jiang a,b, Bo Wang c, Xiao Li b, En-Guo Lu¨ d, Cheng-Sen Li a,e,*

a State Key Laboratory of Systematic and Evolutionary Botany, Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100093, China b Academia Turfanica of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, Turpan 838000, China c Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region Museum, Urumchi 830006, China d Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology, Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, Urumchi 830011, China e Beijing Museum of Natural History, Beijing 100050, China Received 18 May 2007; received in revised form 20 September 2007; accepted 21 September 2007

Abstract

Three clusters of necklaces made of involucres of Job’s tears and glazed beads were found in the Sampula Cemetery (nearly 2000 years old) of Xinjiang, northwest China. A package of fruits including Panicum miliaceum, Hordeum vulgare var. nudum, and involucres of Job’s tears have also been unearthed from the same cemetery. These are the most convincing evidence of Job’s tears used as beads in earlier times. Moreover, the necklaces made of Job’s tears are considered to have a connection with the Buddhist culture. There is also the possibility that plants of Job’s tears have been cultivated and utilized by the indigenous people due to their commercial or religious importance. Ó 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Keywords: Archaeobotany; Botanical jewellery; Coix; Decoration; Palaeoethnobotany

1. Introduction for ornamental purpose, such as for making rosaries, necklaces, bracelets, portieres, and other jewellery items. Coix lacryma-jobi L. is an annual, erect, monoecious herb, C. lacryma-jobi var. ma-yuen (adlay), another variety, is gener- which belongs to the tribe Andropogoneae, of the family Poa- ally selected as a minor cereal in modern times (Arora, 1977). ceae. It is considered to be indigenous to southern and eastern Its caryopses are rich in starch, while its leaves, stems, and Asia (van den Bergh and Iamsupasit, 1996). The involucre, roots have medicinal uses in China and the circumjacent also known as the utricle, cupule, pseudocarp or spatheole, countries, such as India, Thailand, Korea, and Japan (Ochiai, is usually interpreted as a modified leaf sheath. Two of its 2002). varieties, namely C. lacryma-jobi var. lacryma-jobi L. and Because of the hardness of the involucres, plant remains of C. lacryma-jobi var. ma-yuen (Romanet du Caillaud) Stapf, Coix have been unearthed from several archaeological sites, are the most valuable (Nesbitt, 2005). C. lacryma-jobi var. especially in East Asia and the Indian subcontinent. Some of lacryma-jobi (Job’s tears) is the most widespread one. It has them are considered to be used for ornamental purposes in an- hard, shiny, ovoid involucres, which are mainly used as beads cient India. So far, there is still no evidence of Job’s tears used for such purposes in the archaeological sites of China. In the present study, we report new finds of Job’s tears from the * Corresponding author: State Key Laboratory of Systematic and Evolution- 2000-year-old Sampula Cemetery. The detailed study of well ary Botany, Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, No. 20, Nan- xincun, Xiangshan, Beijing 100093, China. Tel.: þ86 10 62836436; fax: þ86 preserved involucres of Job’s tears has helped us to trace their 10 62593385. palaeoethnobotanical significance in ancient Sampula, north- E-mail address: [email protected] (C.-S. Li). western China.

Fig. 1. (a) Map showing the location of the Sampula Cemetery, Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, Northwest China. (b) Enlarged map showing the detailed location of the Sampula Cemetery (the triangle area) (after XUARM and XIA, 2001).

2. Site description The Sampula Cemetery shows a close relationship with the ancient Khotan civilization, which was famous 2000 years ago Luofu Country lies in the Hetian (Khotan) Oasis, which is be- for its developed agriculture and stockbreeding (Wang, 2007). tween the south edge of the Taklimakan Desert and the north The ancient Khotan kingdom was also the first place where piedmont of the Kunlun Mountains. Sampula Cemetery is lo- Buddhism spread from ancient India to ancient China cated at the southwest part of the country seat of Luofu (Wang, 2007). According to the remains of farm implements (Fig. 1a,b). The cemetery lies in the Gobi desert, and the ground and cereals, Sampula Cemetery should be associated with is covered with small stones. Mixed with the stones, there are fine a permanent settlement. Kernel remains such as Prunus sands and some loess. Drought tolerant plants usually grow persica Batsch., Armeniaca vulgaris Lam., and Juglans regia sparsely during the year. However, a blade of grass can never L. suggested horticultural activities; bones of goats, horses, grow anywhere around during the year without rainfall. Vegeta- and cattle indicated animal husbandries; arrows, bows, stone tion tends to be homogenous around the cemetery. It consists of balls and so on indicated that traditional hunting also played drought-adapted arbores, shrubs and thinly distributed grasses. an important role in the daily life of the ancient Sampula Dominant arbores include Populus euphratica Oliv., while dom- people. inant shrubs include Alhagi pseudalhagi (Bieb.) Desv (camel thorn). Other shrubs are Haloxylon ammodendron (C.A. Mey.) 3. Materials and methods Bunge, Hippophae rhamnoides L., Tamarix karelinii Bunge, Elaeagnus angustifolia L. and Sophora alopecuroides L., etc. Plant remains of Job’s tears were excavated mainly in three Based on their locations, Sampula Cemetery was divided rooms of Group No. 1. Four finds of Coix were made: into two groups, namely No. 1 and No. 2. Group No. 1 was excavated during 1983 and 1984 by a work group from the (1) In room number 84LS I M49, a package containing cary- Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region Museum (XUARM and opses of Panicum miliaceum (common millet), Hordeum XIA, 2001). With the analysis of the antiques excavated, the vulgare var. nudum (naked barley) and 78 involucres of age of Group No. 1 was considered to be between 100 BC Job’s tears (inventory number 84LS I M49:82). 14 and 400 AD. The C data showed that room 84LS I M01 (2) In the same room, a necklace (inventory number 84LS I (Group No. 1) was 2105 65 years in age, while that of M49:39) made of 28 involucres of Job’s tears (Fig. 2). 84LS I M49 (Group No. 1) was 2040 59 to 2089 74 years The necklace was still on the neck of the mummy. in age (Table 1). The data from different samples are similar, (3) In room number 84LS I M23 there was an incomplete and are able to reflect the real age of the relative tombs. necklace (inventory number 84LS I M23:2) made of 22

Table 1 Radiocarbon data of the plant remains in the relative tombs Provenience Plant sample 14C years BP Cal. years BP Analytic lab number Laboratory 84LS I M01 Phragmites australis 2105 65 2085 80 WB84-14 CGCS 84LS I M49 Typha sp. 2040 59 1986e1868 XZ-422 XIDPR 84LS I M49 Wood (unidentiﬁed) 2089 74 2055e1822 XZ-423 XIDPR CCGS, China Culture Graduate School; XIDPR, Xinjiang Institute of Disaster Prevention and Relief. H.-E. Jiang et al. / Journal of Archaeological Science 35 (2008) 1311e1316 1313

Fig. 4. The necklace made up of 21 involucres of Job’s tears and 1 glazed bead (arrow) (inventory number 84LS I M01:C107) (completely rearranged because of the decayed thread). Scale bar ¼ 2 cm.

Plant nomenclature of Coix follows the revised Flora of China (Chen and Phillips, 2006). The botanical terms used in the description of Coix are from the following references: Winton and Winton, 1950; van den Bergh and Iamsupasit, 1996; Chen and Phillips, 2006; Clayton et al., 2007.

Fig. 2. The necklace made of 28 involucres of Job’s tears (inventory number 4. Results 84LS I M49:39) (completely rearranged because of the decayed thread). Scale bar ¼ 2 cm. 4.1. Description

involucres of Job’s tears and 10 brown-colored glazed All the specimens are well preserved, without distortion or beads (Fig. 3). carbonization. Enclosed involucres are bony and hard, uniform (4) The third necklace (inventory number 84LS I M01:C107) in appearance, ovoid, plump on one side and flattened on the was unearthed in the room numbered 84LS I M01, and other side (Fig. 5a). Involucres are 7.0e9.4 mm long (x ¼ was also made of 21 involucres of Job’s tears. There is 7:9mm, N ¼ 30) and 5.9e7.6 mm thick in the middle (x ¼ a glazed bead in the middle of the necklace (Fig. 4). 6:6mm, N ¼ 30). The outer surface is lustrous, porcelain- like, light brown or grey in color but marked with inconspic- All the specimens are deposited in the Xinjiang Uygur uous black streaks. The attachment scar is a disk-like annulus, Autonomous Region Museum. A transverse section of the in- leaving a hole in the middle (Fig. 5b). Another hole exists on volucre was cut by a vice. Morphological and anatomical the tip of the involucre, through which the pedicel of the male characters of the Job’s tears were observed under a stereo- raceme exserts. microscope. For comparative studies, different types of C. la- The cross section of the involucre shows smaller and larger cryma-jobi were obtained and photographed from the PE spots. Under the stereomicroscope, the smaller spots are Herbarium, Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences. marked with the presence of fibro-vascular bundles, while the larger ones are of fibrous bundles (Fig. 5c, arrows). The fe- male raceme is totally enclosed by the involucre. The raceme is consisted of a sessile spikelet and two barren pedicels. Glumes are membranous, dissimilar, reaching the apex of florets. The lower glume infolds the fertile spikelet and is orbic- ular with a cartilaginous beak; the upper glume is narrower, and has a beaked apex. The spikelet comprises of two florets, but usually only one of them is fertile. The palea of the sterile floret is not significant, while the lemma is membranous, hyaline, ovate, cuspidate, and 7-veined. The lemma of the fertile floret is also membranous, hyaline, ovate, but beaked. The palea is hyaline. Caryopsis (kernel) is light yellow in color and fragmented.

4.2. Identiﬁcation Fig. 3. The necklace made of 22 involucres of Job’s tears and 10 brown-colored glazed beads (inventory number 84LS I M23:2) (part of the brown thread Among the genus Coix, only C. aquatica Roxburgh and was replaced by the white one). Scale bar ¼ 2 cm. C. lacryma-jobi L. are naturally distributed in Eurasia 1314 H.-E. Jiang et al. / Journal of Archaeological Science 35 (2008) 1311e1316

Fig. 5. Morphological and anatomical characters of the involucre. (a) Shape of the involucre. Scale bar ¼ 2 mm. (b) The involucre is constricted at the base into a disk-like annulus. Scale bar ¼ 1 mm. (c) Transverse section showing the ﬁberous bundles (arrows). Scale bar ¼ 0.2 mm.

(Clayton et al., 2007). Our specimen is different from C. aquatica ovoid, bony, glossy and non beaked involucres. Accordingly, whose apex of involucre often extends into a blade. Moreover, C. we identiﬁed our specimen to be of C. lacryma-jobi var. la- aquatica has no natural distribution in temperate zones. Our cryma-jobi L. specimens are more akin to C. lacryma-jobi. There are four varieties under this species. They are C. lacryma-jobi var. lacryma- 5. Discussion jobi L. (Fig. 6a), C. lacryma-jobi var. stenocarpa (Oliver) Stapf, C. lacryma-jobi var. ma-yuen (Romanet du Caillaud) Stapf, and The most important value of Job’s tears lies in its ornamen- C. lacryma-jobi var. puellarum (Balansa) A. Camus. Var. steno- tal utility (Jain and Banerjee, 1974). When ripe, the involucres carpa is a wild variety though sometimes cultivated for beads, are uniform, hard, in the shape of a tear drop, and with a por- but its involucre is cylindrical or bottle-shaped (Fig. 6b); var. celain-like surface. The color varies from black, white, grey, ma-yuen has a longitudinally striated and easily broken involu- brown, etc. It is interesting that there are two oriﬁces lying cre, which also has a constricted apical beak (Fig. 6c); var. puel- at the top and the bottom of the involucre, respectively. It is larum is a wild variety native to moist valley forests in more convenient to connect some involucres together, and southeastern Asia. Its involucre is globose, and very small make them into different craftworks, such as rosaries, neck- (only 4e5 mm in diameter) (Fig. 6d). Our specimens are more laces, and bracelets (Koul, 1974). But, when and where were similar to var. lacryma-jobi due to bigger (7e9 mm in length), the involucres of Job’s tears used for ornamental purpose in

Fig. 6. Illustrations showing involucres of the four varieties of C. lacryma-jobi. (a) var. lacryma-jobi; (b) var. stenocarpa; (c) var. ma-yuen; (d) var. puellarum. The four illustrations are at the same magnification. Scale bar ¼ 2 mm. H.-E. Jiang et al. / Journal of Archaeological Science 35 (2008) 1311e1316 1315 ancient times? The earliest involucres of Coix were unearthed adored by the indigenous people especially the Buddhists, from the cultural phrase I (5000e4500 BC) of the Hemudu and were used for ornamental purpose. Also the beads might Site, Zhejiang, China, and were considered to be collected be credited as having magic-medicinal properties as believed for cereal purpose (ZPICRA, 2003). A single, pierced involu- by today’s primitive tribes (Pastron and Clewlow, 1974). There cre of Coix was unearthed from the levels predating 3000 BC was a possibility that plants of Job’s tears were cultivated in in ancient Timor, but its utility was unclear (Glover, 1979). In- the ancient Sampula. As referred, among the funereal objects, volucres of Job’s tears unearthed from the levels dated be- 78 involucres of Job’s tears and caryopses of Panicum milia- tween ca. 200e100 BC in the site of Ahichchhatra, U.P., ceum and Hordeum vulgare var. nudum were packed together. ancient India, were considered to have been used as beads Since the small caryopses of Job’s tears are not rich in starch (Dikshit, 1952). However, no detailed information was given and not easily separated from the hard involucres, they might in the original paper. The involucres unearthed from the site have been buried as a gift of seeds for mass cultivation in the of Anuradhapura of ancient Ceylon, dated about 200 BC to after life rather than as cereals when the deceased were laid to 200 AD, were ‘‘possible . used as beads, as at Ahichchatra’’ rest in the tomb. It means that after the introduction by com- (Deraniyagala, 1972). The four pierced fruits of Job’s tears un- mercial or religious activities, plants of Job’s tears were recog- earthed in Roman Berenike of Egypt were possibly used as nized and generally utilized by the indigenous people for beads (Cappers, 2006). However, no sign of connecting mate- a long time. rials were collected in the above two case, and more evidence is needed to support the hypothesis of bead use. A string of presumed rosary beads made of Job’s tears was excavated Acknowledgments from the West Ridge-Gibraltar Site of Michigan, USA (Ford and Jones, 1974). This evidence was more convincing, but The authors are greatly indebted to Prof. Ying-Yi Jia (Xin- the time was quite late (around 600 AD). In this case, we jiang Uygur Autonomous Region Museum, PRC) as without would like to argue that we have found the most convincing her this study would not have been possible. Thanks are also evidence of Job’s tears used as beads in the earlier times. due to Dr Mark Nesbitt (Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, UK) Some of the involucres were carefully assembled into strings and Dr Rakesh C. Mehrotra (Birbal Sahni Institute of Palaeo- of necklaces, which were still around the necks across the bod- botany, India) for their critical revision of an earlier version of ies before they were collected. the manuscript. Drs Liang-Ren Zhang (University of Califor- Bead remains were major components excavated in the nia, Los Angeles, USA), Walter Roder (International Potato Sampula Cemetery (XUARM and XIA, 2001). More than Research Center, Bhutan), Ping-Fang Yang (Institute of Bot- 1800 different types of beads were discovered. The beads any, Chinese Academy of Sciences, PRC), Bin-Xing Li were made of bone (4), stone (31), glazed materials (1370), (Utah University, USA), Yukino Ochiai (The Kagoshima seashell (5), trumpet shell (1), coral (3), Job’s tears (103), University Museum, Japan), Ai-De Wang (Hirosaki Univer- and kernel of Elaeaguns angustifolia L. (66), etc. Faced with sity, Japan), Ms Ruby Ghosh (University of Calcutta, India) so many beads, one cannot help thinking about their source. and Lan-Lan Ding (Bureau of Cultural Relics of Turpan Pre- The Kothan kingdom was located in the hinterland of the Asian fecture, PRC) are also acknowledged as without their help continent, where there was no sea in the vicinity, indicating the the paper would not be finished. This study was supported absence of seashell, trumpet shell, or coral, etc. Moreover, by a grant (No. 20070411167) from the 41st Postdoctoral there was no natural distribution of Job’s tears around the Ko- Foundation of the first author (H.-E. Jiang). than kingdom. It was apparent that at least some of the beads were transported from other countries adjacent to the sea. Around the ancient Kothan kingdom, there were only two ad- References vanced countries: ancient China and ancient India. A sentence referred to by Francis (2003) would give us a best interpreta- Arora, R.K., 1977. Job’s tears (Coix lacryma-jobi), a minor food and fodder e tion: ‘‘It is no surprise that it (India) is a leading source of beads crop of northeastern India. Economic Botany 31, 358 366. Cappers, R.T.J., 2006. Roman Foodprints at Berenike: Archaeobotanical Evi- in both ancient and modern times. Only China is larger and as dence of Subsistence and Trade in the Eastern Desert of Egypt. Cotsen In- ancient, but the Chinese have never been as interested in beads stitute of Archaeology at UCLA, USA, pp. 79e80. as have the Indians. The Indian subcontinent has been unparal- Chen, S.L., Phillips, S.M., 2006. Coix. In: Wu, Z.Y., Raven, P. 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