马六甲海峡

在苏门答腊岛沿海的丹戎巴都岛,一艘邦邦船沿航道突突上行。长久以来,这些邻近马六甲海峡的海域一直是海盗的天堂。[第一段]     

《明史·艺文志》“史部·故事类”勘误一则

《明史艺文志》“史部故事类”①著录:“叶来敬《皇明谥考》三十八卷。”叶来敬何许人也?在同书“子部儒家类”著录有:“叶秉敬《读书录钞》八卷。”那么,这里的叶来敬和叶秉敬是什么关系,是否为同一人?笔者首先查阅黄虞稷《千倾堂书目》②,发现在该书卷九“典故类”是这样著录的:“叶秉[一]敬[二]《皇明谥考》三十八[三],西安人。[一]卢校云:志,秉作来,明志同。[二]吴校云:按叶秉敬西安人。疑来字有误。[三]别本无八字。”从上述引文中可以得知,已有人疑“来”字为“秉”字之误,且知其为西安人。于是,笔者随即查阅多种相关的地方志,据记载:…     

夏尔巴人的猜想

这个美丽的村子,是夏尔巴人的家园,他们几百年来一直在这个世界上最美丽的地方默默地存活着。这里难道真是党项人最后的归宿？[编按]     

来,寻找你心目中最具潜力的华夏生态旅游点

你是否已经厌倦了“上车睡觉,下车尿尿,到了景点拍照,回到家啥也不知道”的旅游方式？你是否很想贴近自然,感悟自然,认识自然？生态旅游能满足你的需求。[第一段]     

新疆尼勒克县吉仁台沟口遗址出土金器探讨

从2003年开始,新疆维吾尔自治区文物考古研究所在位于新疆维吾尔自治区尼勒克县的尼勒克吉仁台沟口遗址[1]进行了数次考古发掘,发掘76座墓葬,发现在青铜时代遗留下的大型聚落遗址及超过300组的文物。根据考古的痕迹,此地早在史前时期就有人类活动,也曾是古代塞族人、大月氏人、乌孙人、匈奴人、突厥人的故土,一直是民族与文化的交流之地[2]。     

客家研究呼唤“比较”

放眼客家研究,每一项成果,每一个误判,无不与是否充分使用“比较”有关。客家研究太需要“比较”了![第一段]     

佛光寺东大殿的建筑彩画

<正>五台山佛光寺东大殿作为唐代建筑的重要实例[1],自梁思成、林徽因等先生考察、刊布以来[2],一直备受学界关注[3]。大殿建筑彩画,因日久消褪、风雨剥蚀以及后世重绘,现存情况十分复杂。现根据近年调查,将其中可能与唐代关系最为密切的部分做一简介。斗拱普遍有燕尾彩画(图一)[4],白色燕尾端头形状的内边很可能是曲线(图二)[5]。斗     

回忆与朱仲玉同志交往中的几件小事

朱仲玉同志虽然离开我们一年多了,但是他治学严谨,为人宽厚,乐于助人,看重情义的高尚品德,一直留在我们的记忆里。[第一段]     

拯救丝绸

上海人喜欢说,长乐路上住过张爱玲。旗袍现在是这条路的主角,一整排商店会让人有点乱花渐欲迷人眼的感觉。每一家都有很长的年代,任凭身旁浮华流转,一直安定在这儿。[第一段]     

浅谈如何把握志稿中资料的繁简程度

资料是志书的血肉。志书繁简的真谛不在于数量的多少,而在于志体是否严谨科学．内容是否翔实,表述是否简洁。清著名学者洪亮吉在《泾县志．序》中说：“一方之志,苟简不可,滥收亦不可。”这都是要求用简单明了的文字．记述内容丰富的史实。做到文约事丰。因此,在志稿编写过程中应抱有“沙里淘金”的态度．删繁就简,提炼真金。本文就此谈几点拙见．[第一段]     

Next generation sequencing of DNA in 3300-year-old charred cereal grains

We investigated whether ‘next generation’ methods can be used to sequence ancient DNA molecules in charred cereal grains. We prepared a DNA extract from a mixed sample of barley, einkorn, emmer and broomcorn millet, taken from a 3300-year-old assemblage of charred cereal grains from Assiros Toumba, Greece. Using the SOLiD 5500 system, we obtained 21,112,844 unique sequence reads. Of these, 178,779 had a 75% or greater nucleotide sequence similarity with one or more entries in the full nucleotide sequence database; 496 of these matches were to previously reported sequences from barley, einkorn, emmer, broomcorn millet or related species such as hexaploid wheat. The unique reads were also compared with a database comprising only wheat sequences. This analysis identified 1658 charred grain sequences that had 90% or greater similarity with segments of the wheat genome. The presence of barley, wheat and millet sequences in the next generation dataset confirms the presence of ancient DNA in this charred grain assemblage. Enrichment of extracts by hybridization capture or equivalent methods is likely to enable sequences to be obtained for entire genes and other genomic regions of interest.     

山东高青陈庄遗址炭化种子果实研究

通过对山东高青陈庄遗址灰坑等遗迹中出土的炭化植物种子果实进行鉴定和统计分析,探讨了该聚落人类与植物的关系:(1)遗址中出土的丰富的粟、黍和草木犀属植物遗存,可能与马的喂养有关;(2)陈庄聚落西周时期农业是主要的食物来源,农作物包括了文献记载的"五谷",就是粟、黍、小麦、大豆和稻,粟和小麦等旱地作物占的比重最高,水稻可能较少,牛筋草等杂草可能是收获等过程中带入聚落内的;(3)常见的野生植物如野大豆、枣、葡萄以及动物遗骸等可能反映狩猎捕捞仍然作为食物的补充。     

The effect of charring and burial on the biochemical composition of cereal grains: investigating the integrity of archaeological plant material

Stable isotope analysis of charred archaeobotanical cereal grains has the potential to provide direct evidence of crop growing conditions in the past and to refine palaeodietary predictions. If isotope values of archaeobotanical material are to be considered robust, it is necessary to characterise the compositional changes associated with their charring and burial. This study used a suite of analytical techniques, including FT-IR and solid state ¹³C NMR, to characterise changes in the biochemical composition of modern einkorn grains with heating at 230 °C for 2 h, 4 h, 8 h and 24 h, encompassing conditions that replicate their undistorted ancient counterparts. The biochemical composition of archaeobotanical charred einkorn grains was also investigated by FT-IR and solid state ¹³C NMR in order to assess the changes in composition which occur during burial. Results of FT-IR and solid-state ¹³C NMR show that heating of modern einkorn grains resulted in Maillard reactions between cereal proteins and starch, forming high molecular weight melanoidins, which contain both alkyl and aromatic carbon. Loss of low molecular weight carbon and nitrogen-containing volatiles resulted in a slight but non-systematic increase in the δ¹³C values and a systematic increase of 0.8‰ in the δ¹⁵N values of the charred einkorn grains. Solid-state ¹³C NMR shows that the ancient charred einkorn grains consisted entirely of aromatic carbon and retained a similar proportion of nitrogen to their modern 24 h charred counterparts, despite a significantly lower concentration of amino acids. This indicates that the amino acid nitrogen in the ancient charred grains was retained in the stable melanoidins whose polymeric structure makes them resistant to subsequent degradation.     

DNA analysis in charred grains of naked wheat from several archaeological sites in Spain

In the present work we attempt to recover endogenous ancient DNA from cereal grains preserved under different conditions: charred, partially charred and waterlogged. A total of 126 grains from naked wheat and 18 from barley from different sites on the Eastern Iberian Peninsula ranging from the beginning of agriculture in the region to the turn of the Common Era, were studied. Two different extraction protocols were used, a standard phenol–chloroform method and a silica-based DNA extraction procedure implemented for artificially charred seeds. Amplifications were directed to three markers: the large subunit of ribulose 1,5 biphosphate carboxylase (rbcL) and the microsatellite WCT12 in the chloroplast genome and the x and y subunits of the high molecular weight glutenin gene (Glu-1) in the nucleus. The first two were used to assess the preservation status of the samples, while with the third we tried to identify the wheat grains at species level. It was possible to obtain eleven positive amplifications in 8 partially charred seeds but only two amplifications of the Glu-1 gene from a single sample of the Early Bronze age were genome-specific. Different contamination sources were identified and reported. Cloning and alignment of sequenced clones showed a correspondence of the amplified fragment to modern wheat D genome haplotypes. This result suggests that the sample corresponds to hexaploid wheat (Triticum aestivum L.), thus being the first ancient DNA evidence to date for the cultivation of hexaploid wheat in the prehistoric agriculture of the Iberian Peninsula. Moreover, obtained results highlight contamination problems associated to the study of ancient archaeobotanical charred seeds suggest that the combination of a silica-based extraction method together with the amplification of specific targets is a good strategy for recovering endogenous ancient DNA from this kind of material.     

Stable isotope investigations of charred barley (Hordeum vulgare) and wheat (Triticum spelta) grains from Danebury Hillfort: implications for palaeodietary reconstructions

Palaeodietary studies typically focus on the analysis of bone collagen due to the limited availability of plant remains. Isotopic analysis of plant remains, however, allow for a more extensive consideration of the contribution of plants to the human diet and can potentially provide information about the environment in which the crops were grown. This paper reports the results of carbon and nitrogen isotope analyses performed on charred barley and wheat grains recovered from pits within Danebury Iron Age hillfort. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first Iron Age site in Britain from which charred grains have been isotopically analysed. Our results suggest that cereals found at the hillfort were grown in several different environmental contexts. The isotope data demonstrate that the herbivores were not consuming a diet primarily based on grains as the δ¹⁵N values of the grains are very similar to those of the herbivores. Palaeodietary investigations typically assume that humans eating plant protein only would have the same δ¹⁵N value as the local herbivores. This assumption is clearly invalid at Danebury, where the humans and animals appear to have consumed either different parts of the same plants or different plants. Researchers typically interpret high differences between human and animal δ¹⁵N values as indicative of diets high in animal protein, however where major plant resources have δ¹⁵N values similar to those of the herbivores our ability to distinguish between plant and animal sources of protein in the diet is limited. Our research has demonstrated that whenever possible it is desirable to measure the isotopic signatures of potential major plant resources in order to understand past subsistence strategies.     

The emergence of rice agriculture in Korea: archaeobotanical perspectives

This paper reviews archaeobotanical records on the beginning and spread of rice agriculture in the Korean peninsula. Argument for the earliest evidence of domesticated rice at the Sorori site, 15,000 years ago, is invalid. The evidence for rice cultivation in the Neolithic (Chulmun) is still insufficient although rice remains have been reported from a few late Neolithic sites in central-western Korea which dated to about 3000 BC. The existence of rice agriculture in the Bronze Age (Early and Middle Mumun: c.1300 ∼ 300 BC), on the other hand, is demonstrated by the high percentage and/or frequency of rice remains among crops recovered from various sites, as well as through the numerous findings of paddy fields. Rice appears to have been introduced from the Liaodong region, China, while so called 'southern diffusion route' that the beginning of rice cultivation was first stimulated by influences from Southeast Asia or South China is no more valid. Charred rice remains recovered from the Bronze Age dwellings consist of dehusked clean grains and weedy seeds are very rare among samples containing rice grains, which could be related with the harvesting and processing methods of rice. Measurements of charred rice grains also will be reported in this paper. Agricultural villages disappear from the archaeological records from the third century BC, which corresponds to the beginning of the Early Iron Age (Late Mumun), and reappear from the late first century with the emergence of urban societies.     

Impact of charring on cereal grain characteristics: linking prehistoric manuring practice to δN signatures in archaeobotanical material

Systematic use of animal manure has been demonstrated to be detectable in the plant δ¹⁵N value but evidence of manure affecting isotopic composition is mainly based on studies of fresh plant material. These findings can potentially be applied to archaeobotanical assemblages and thus provide information about prehistoric manuring practice. Prehistoric grains are generally found in a charred state of which the exact charring conditions are unknown but most likely often multifarious. In this study we examined the influence of grain weight and a range of charring conditions with regards duration, temperature, oxygen availability, and manuring. The charring was applied to emmer, spelt and naked barley with assessment of weight loss, N concentration and δ¹⁵N. There were only small and non-systematic variations in δ¹⁵N in relation to grain weight class. We also found that charring did not distort δ¹⁵N in either a systematic or substantial way and conclude that manuring most likely will be detectable in archaeobotanical charred grains. As certain within-grain variability in δ¹⁵N existed, especially in the intensively manured grains, the resolution of this kind of information should be carefully considered. However, despite attempts to deliberately tamper and distort the grain δ¹⁵N signature, the changes observed in this study were too small to be of any consequences for the archaeobotanical applicability of the method. Thus the isotope method offers unique evidence about prehistoric manuring practice.     

THE POTENTIAL OF CARBONIZED GRAIN TO PRESERVE BIOGENIC 87SR/86SR SIGNATURES WITHIN THE BURIAL ENVIRONMENT*

Carbonized grains survive for millennia in many archaeological contexts. Their stable structure raises the possibility that they preserve biogenic strontium isotope signatures. This hypothesis was investigated using short‐term, laboratory experiments with modern grain immersed in Chalk solution. HCl leaching removed > 95% of secondary alteration from charred grain, and isotope ratios close to the starting value were recovered. This could not be achieved with uncharred grains. HCl leaching of archaeological carbonized grains produced comparable levels of decontamination. Although preliminary, these results suggest that strontium isotope analysis of archaeological carbonized grains from calcareous burial contexts could be used to investigate ancient trade and agriculture.     

Miliacin in palaeosols from an Early Iron Age in Ukraine reveal in situ cultivation of broomcorn millet

During the archaeobotanical investigation of Scythian–Sarmatian period (Early Iron Age), pits with crop processing waste, discovered in the floodplain of Donets River, eastern Ukraine, and charred remains of cereal grains, dominated by broomcorn millet, were recorded. The grains from the pits were radiocarbon dated to the fifth to first century BC. Those pits are distant from any known contemporaneous settlement. The apparent disconnection of these pits from any local settlement suggests that (1) millet was brought from other locations by mobile groups, or (2) millet was cultivated locally by populations whose settlements have left no discernible archaeological trace. The analysis of molecular biomarkers preserved in palaeosols that are stratigraphically connected to the pits revealed high levels of miliacin, a molecule that can be preserved in ancient soils and sediments, and that is consistent with broomcorn millet (Panicum miliaceum). High levels in miliacin in soils stratigraphically connected to the pits are interpreted as the result of a large biomass of P. miliaceum produced at time of soil formation. Our biogeochemical results applied to a palaeosol thus attest to the in situ cultivation of crops dominated by the broomcorn millet during the early Iron Age in the floodplain of Donets River. Biochemical examination of soils and palaeosols can thus provide useful information on past dynamics of land-use by ancient population, especially when settlements or macrobotanical remains are absent.     

Ancient DNA in archaeological wheat grains: preservation conditions and the study of pre-Hispanic agriculture on the island of Gran Canaria (Spain)

The recovery of ancient DNA from archaeological wheat samples under different preservation conditions was assessed using a number of genetic markers. It was possible to amplify nuclear DNA from desiccated grains but not from charred. The desiccated grain was from a pre-Hispanic grain silo in Gran Canaria and showed excellent DNA preservation, enabling the amplification of the ribosomal DNA markers IGS and ITS, the upstream region of the HMW-glutenin locus and single-locus nuclear microsatellites. Our results demonstrated the presence of both durum and bread wheat in an assemblage of naked grain. We were also able to identify different genotypes in durum wheat and compare these with extant landraces, providing insights into the agrarian practices of the ancient Canarians and the origin of their crops.