Ancient plant use and palaeoenvironmental analysis at the Gumugou Cemetery, Xinjiang, China: implication from desiccated plant remains
- Autor(en)
- Guilin Zhang, Shuzhi Wang, David-Kay Ferguson, Yang Yang, Xinyi Liu, Hongen Jiang
- Abstrakt
The Gumugou Cemetery is located in the Lop Nor region of the Tarim Basin in Xinjiang, northwest China. Radiocarbon dating found the site to be 3800 years BP. Due to the exceptionally arid conditions, most of the plant remains are well-preserved. Morphological and anatomical studies suggest that the plant remains consist of: Triticum cf. aestivum, Phragmites australis, Populus euphratica, Ephedra sp., as well as Typha sp. These ancient plants imply that the indigenous people lived in oases surrounded by extensive desert. Caryopses of T. cf. aestivum might have been used as funeral objects of the mummies as well as a subsidiary food source of the inhabitants, while the wild plants were used in other aspects of daily life.
- Organisation(en)
- Institut für Paläontologie
- Externe Organisation(en)
- Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS), University of Cambridge, University of the Chinese Academy of Sciences
- Journal
- Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences
- Band
- 9
- Seiten
- 145–152
- Anzahl der Seiten
- 8
- ISSN
- 1866-9557
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1007/s12520-015-0246-3
- Publikationsdatum
- 03-2017
- Peer-reviewed
- Ja
- ÖFOS 2012
- 105117 Paläobotanik
- Schlagwörter
- ASJC Scopus Sachgebiete
- Anthropology, Archaeology, Archaeology
- Link zum Portal
- https://ucrisportal.univie.ac.at/de/publications/24d8cc83-dee6-4fdf-97ff-e26d216593fd