PNAS:欧洲的植物驯化
英国剑桥大学科研人员报告说，他们在来自巴尔干中部的人类牙齿上发现了来自驯化的谷物颗粒中的淀粉，其年代测定为大约公元前6600年的中石器时代，这提示驯化的植物到达欧洲的时间比此前认为的要早将近500年。驯化的植物向欧洲东南部的传播被认为是在大约公元前6200年左右的新石器时期，与来自亚洲西南部的驯化的动物以及相关农业工具的引入一起出现的。Emanuela Cristiani及其同事研究了保存在巴尔干中部Danube Gorges地区附近的两个考古遗址的个体的牙齿上的硬化牙斑上的淀粉颗粒。这组作者使用加速器质谱仪放射性碳测年测定了这些个体的年代是中石器时代晚期、新石器时代早期以及一个中石器时代-新石器时代的过度阶段，时间范围是在公元前6600年到公元前5900年。根据形态特征以及偏振光显微镜分析，这组作者识别出了这些淀粉颗粒是来自驯化的草与豆科植物的谷物颗粒。这组作者说，中石器时代和新石器时代个体牙齿上的这些淀粉的相似性提示，中石器时代巴尔干中部的采集者至少在公元前6600年就获得了驯化的植物，这比农业实践于新石器时代在该地区确立早了将近500年。
原文链接：
Dental calculus reveals Mesolithic foragers in the Balkans consumed domesticated plant foods
原文摘要：
Researchers agree that domesticated plants were introduced into southeast Europe from southwest Asia as a part of a Neolithic “package,” which included domesticated animals and artifacts typical of farming communities. It is commonly believed that this package reached inland areas of the Balkans by ∼6200 calibrated (cal.) BC or later. Our analysis of the starch record entrapped in dental calculus of Mesolithic human teeth at the site of Vlasac in the Danube Gorges of the central Balkans provides direct evidence that already by ∼6600 cal. BC, if not earlier, Late Mesolithic foragers of this region consumed domestic cereals, such as Triticum monococcum, Triticum dicoccum, and Hordeum distichon, which were also the main crops found among Early Neolithic communities of southeast Europe. We infer that “exotic” Neolithic domesticated plants were introduced to southern Europe independently almost half a millennium earlier than previously thought, through networks that enabled exchanges between inland Mesolithic foragers and early farming groups found along the Aegean coast of Turkey.
作者：Emanuela Cristiani
