Radiocarbon dating of charcoal and bone collagen associated with early pottery at Yuchanyan Cave, Hunan Province, China Elisabetta Boarettoa,b,1, Xiaohong Wuc,1, Jiarong Yuand, Ofer Bar-Yosefe, Vikki Chub, Yan Panc, Kexin Liuf, David Coheng, Tianlong Jiaoh, Shuicheng Lic, Haibin Gud, Paul Goldbergi, and Steve Weinerj aDepartment of Land of Israel Studies, Bar Ilan University, 52900 Ramat Gan, Israel; bRadiocarbon Dating and Cosmogenic Isotopes Laboratory, Kimmel Center of Archaeological Science, Weizmann Institute of Science, 76100 Rehovot, Israel; cSchool of Archaeology and Museology, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China; dHunan Institute of Archaeology, Hunan 410008, China; eAnthropology Department, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138; fSchool of Physics, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China; gInternational Center for East Asian Archaeology and Cultural History, Boston University, Boston, MA 02215; hDepartment of Anthropology, Bishop Museum, Honolulu, HI 96817; iDepartment of Archaeology, Boston University, Boston, MA 02215; and jDepartment of Structural Biology and the Kimmel Center for Archaeological Science, Weizmann Institute of Science, 76100 Rehovot, Israel Edited by Bruce D. Smith, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC, and approved April 14, 2009 (received for review January 16, 2009) Yuchanyan Cave in Daoxian County, Hunan Province (People’s Re- such as the Pengtoushan and Bashidang sites, and other settle- public of China), yielded fragmentary remains of 2 or more ceramic ment sites of the Pengtoushan Culture (18, 19). vessels, in addition to large amounts of ash, a rich animal bone Paleoclimatic data for the region suggest similar trends to those assemblage, cobble and flake artifacts, bone tools, and shell tools. The reported globally (20). The last glacial maximum (LGM) ca. artifacts indicate that the cave was a Late Paleolithic foragers’ camp. 23,000–18,000 cal BP led to lower temperatures and increased Here we report on the radiocarbon ages of the sediments based on aridity, with average temperatures in the Yangzi basin ca. 4–5 °C analyses of charcoal and bone collagen. The best-preserved charcoal cooler than today (21). Deciduous trees were increasingly replaced and bone samples were identified by prescreening in the field and by grasses (22, 23). The Terminal Pleistocene warming was inter- laboratory. The dates range from around 21,000 to 13,800 cal BP. We rupted by the Younger Dryas ca. 13,000–11,500 cal BP. Although the Younger Dryas is seen in other regions as a generally cold and show that the age of the ancient pottery ranges between 18,300 and ANTHROPOLOGY 15,430 cal BP. Charcoal and bone collagen samples located above and dry period, in South China the main effect of the Younger Dryas below one of the fragments produced dates of around 18,000. These was probably the sudden onset of greater seasonality. Understand- ceramic potsherds therefore provide some of the earliest evidence for ing the local impact of the Younger Dryas on the basin of the pottery making in China. Yangzi River and in particular in the limestone region south of the main river channel is still not possible (20). ancient ceramics ͉ archaeology ͉ 14C ͉ Yangzi River While there have been previous excavations of Late Pleistocene cave sites in the Yangzi Basin, the dating of these sites has been problematic. First, the complex deposition of interdigitating lenses umerous caves in the vast karstic landscape of the southern of ashes, clays, and sometimes fine gravel requires systematic dating area of the Yangzi River basin of China are known to have N based on a series of radiocarbon determinations and this has been been inhabited by hunter-gatherer groups during the Late Pleisto- lacking. Secondly, accurate and precise radiocarbon dating of these cene and early Holocene. The generally good preservation of the sites in the past has proven to be difficult. While excavators of the cave deposits and the presence of rich archaeological assemblages, cave sites have cited the cause as contamination from calcium including stone, bone, and shell tools, have led to a large number carbonate in the karstic environment of the cave (2), this problem of excavations since the 1980s. While similarly well-preserved Late actually may be related to the presence of large amounts of calcite Pleistocene cave sites are found in other regions of the world, the in the archaeological matrix of the caves. This can indirectly result cave sites in this region of South China (as well as several sites in in poor charcoal preservation (24). Here we apply a prescreening neighboring Japan and the Russian Far East) are unique due to the strategy for identifying the best-preserved bone collagen and char- presence of ceramic vessels in their otherwise Late Paleolithic coal samples. We then analyze 29 prescreened samples for radio- assemblages. Among the well-known sites in China from this period carbon contents. This results in a much clearer understanding of the are Xianrendong and Diaotonghuan in Jiangxi Province (1–4), chronology of Yuchanyan Cave and the age of the pottery found in Miaoyan in Guangxi Province (5, 6), and Yuchanyan in Hunan this site, as compared to other Late Pleistocene caves in East Asia. Province (7). Previous studies of these sites have produced dates for this pottery ranging ca. 16,000–10,000 cal BP (8–15), indicating that Excavations in Yuchanyan Cave. Yuchanyan Cave (25°30Ј N, 111°30Ј the world’s first pottery was produced in East Asia. Many of these E) is located in Daoxian County, ca. 450 km south of the main studies do not report a systematic analysis of the ages of the strata course of the Yangzi River (Fig. 1 Inset). The cave is 12–15 m wide within the site, especially those containing the potsherds. Here we along its east-west axis and about 6–8 m wide from north to south. date the stratigraphic sequence deposited in Yuchanyan Cave, paying particular attention to the strata in close proximity to the potsherds. Author contributions: E.B., X.W., J.Y., O.B.-Y., T.J., P.G., and S.W. designed research; E.B., Chinese Late Paleolithic sites such as Yuchanyan are rich in X.W., J.Y., O.B.-Y., V.C., S.L., H.G., P.G., and S.W. performed research; E.B., X.W., V.C., Y.P., and K.L. contributed new reagents/analytic tools; E.B., X.W., D.C., T.J., H.G., and P.G terrestrial and aquatic fauna, including deer, boar, birds, tor- participated in the excavation; J.Y. led the field excavation; E.B., X.W., V.C., P.G., and S.W. toises, fish, and various small mammals. Rice phytoliths and analyzed data; and E.B., X.W., J.Y., O.B.-Y., D.C., T.J., P.G., and S.W. wrote the paper. husks have been identified at Xianrendong, Diaotonghuan, and The authors declare no conflict of interest. Yuchanyan, and several studies have attempted to differentiate This article is a PNAS Direct Submission. wild and domestic species or to suggest an incipient stage of Freely available online through the PNAS open access option. cultivation (4, 16, 17). Because of the presence of such plant 1To whom correspondence may be addressed. E-mail: [email protected] remains and early pottery, these caves are often seen as the or [email protected]. predecessors of the early Holocene open-air Neolithic villages This article contains supporting information online at www.pnas.org/cgi/content/full/ found in the alluvial plain of the Yangzi River and its tributaries, 0900539106/DCSupplemental. www.pnas.org͞cgi͞doi͞10.1073͞pnas.0900539106 PNAS Early Edition ͉ 1of6 Downloaded by guest on September 25, 2021 Fig. 2. Photograph of the section in square T11 showing the calcitic ash Fig. 1. Location of Yuchanyan Cave in China (Inset) and excavation grid lenses and reddish clay-rich lenses. One of the ceramic sherds was found showing locations of ceramics (arrows: a, location of potsherds found by J.Y.; embedded in this sequence. Its location is marked with O. (Scale bar: 20 cm.) b and c, locations of potsherds found in this study). Results The uppermost deposits were removed in historical time. The cave Cave Sediments. The bedrock of Yuchanyan Cave slopes steeply was first excavated in 1993 and 1995 by one of the authors (J.Y.), from the east, where it is about 2.0 m below datum, to the west, who uncovered 2 clusters of potsherds indicating the presence of 2 where it is 3.2 m below datum. The cave can be roughly subdivided vessels (Fig. 1). A piece of charcoal closely associated with the into 3 main areas differentiated mainly by major rockfalls. The potsherds was dated to 16,700–15,850 cal BP and organic residue western area (mainly square T1) is composed of 2 major lithos- from the ceramic to 17,750–16,900 cal BP (7, 16, 17, 25;) (Table 1). tratigraphic units: the uppermost intact unit is composed of ap- The pottery was coarsely made, with thick, uneven walls up to 2 cm proximately 80 cm of calcareous anthropogenic deposits resulting thick, and was fired at low temperatures. Infrared spectra indicate from numerous burning events. Specifically, they are stringers that the firing temperature was between 400 and 500 °C, with composed of white and light gray calcitic ash lenses that in some kaolinite being a major clay component. Due to the crumbly state cases overlie discontinuous bands of red clay, which are approxi- of the sherds, only one pot could be reconstructed. Its form features mately 1–3 cm thick by approximately 30–50 cm long. The many a round rim 31 cm in diameter and a pointed base—a type known ashes and red bands are compact and massive, with millimeter-size in the Chinese literature as a fu cauldron.