What did grinding stones grind? New light on early Neolithic subsistence economy in the Middle Yellow River Valley, China

Authors

Li Liu, La Trobe University, Melbourne
Judith Field, The University of Sydney
Richard Fullagar, University of WollongongFollow
Sheahan Bestel
Xingcan Chen, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences
Xiaolin Ma, Henan Prov. Inst of Cultural Relics & Archaeology

RIS ID

35350

Publication Details

Liu, L., Field, J., Fullagar, R., Bestel, S., Chen, X. & Ma, X. (2010). What did grinding stones grind? New light on early Neolithic subsistence economy in the Middle Yellow River Valley, China. Antiquity: a quarterly review of archaeology, 84 (325), 816-833.

Abstract

Grinding stones have provided a convenient proxy for the arrival of agriculture in Neolithic China. Not any more. Thanks to high-precision analyses of use-wear and starch residue, the authors show that early Neolithic people were mainly using these stones to process acorns. This defines a new stage in the long transition of food production from hunter-gatherer to farmer.