IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/sagope/v9y2019i2p2158244019858437.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Archaeobotanical Evidence of Hazelnut (Corylus heterophylla, Betulaceae) Exploitation in the Neolithic Northern China

Author

Listed:
  • Pengfei Sheng
  • Xue Shang
  • Xinying Zhou
  • Hongen Jiang

Abstract

Hazelnut is an important nut food that was widely consumed throughout prehistory. Archaeologists frequently find the charred plant macrofossils of Corylus at archaeological sites throughout Eurasia. We present new records of charred Siberian hazelnut ( Corylus heterophylla ) that were recovered from the Beiniu site (109.32°E, 34.46°N) in Shaanxi Province, North West China, that are directly dated around 5,400 cal. yr BP. They are basic evidence that we use to reconstruct the early history of hazelnut use in the northern part of China. Our findings in China are much less abundant than the hazelnut remains recovered at archaeological sites in Europe and North America. We suggest that the hazelnuts deposited in the cultural layer of Beiniu site were not intentionally used as a fuel but rather were first broken and then consumed as food before their eventual charring in a refuse pit. These discoveries also contribute to our understanding of risk mitigation strategies in food production by ancient farmers in China.

Suggested Citation

  • Pengfei Sheng & Xue Shang & Xinying Zhou & Hongen Jiang, 2019. "Archaeobotanical Evidence of Hazelnut (Corylus heterophylla, Betulaceae) Exploitation in the Neolithic Northern China," SAGE Open, , vol. 9(2), pages 21582440198, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:sagope:v:9:y:2019:i:2:p:2158244019858437
    DOI: 10.1177/2158244019858437
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/2158244019858437
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/2158244019858437?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:sagope:v:9:y:2019:i:2:p:2158244019858437. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.