Early history of Chinese domestic sheep indicated by ancient DNA analysis of Bronze Age individuals

China has a long history of sheep husbandry, and has several indigenous sheep breeds. However, the exact geographic origin of Chinese domestic sheep remains unclear. To provide valuable genetic information for origin of Chinese domestic sheep, we performed an ancient DNA study on 22 sheep excavated from four Bronze Age archaeological sites in Northern China. Two lineages (A and B) were observed in ancient Chinese sheep, of which lineage A was predominant reaching a frequency of 95.5%. Furthermore, phylogenetic network showed that the most frequent haplotype in ancient sheep was the founder of lineage A. These results suggest that Lineage A may hold the key to understanding the origin of Chinese domestic sheep. Sequence sharing and principal component analysis showed that the ancient Chinese sheep had a close affinity to modern Chinese sheep. However, there was no significant breed structure among three modern Chinese sheep groups, making it difficult to determine their relationship to ancient Chinese sheep. Lastly, our results imply that ancient DNA analysis could provide a new way to investigate prehistoric East-West contact.     

古代绢画补配修复工具研制的探讨

针对在古代绢画补配修复中,面对古今材质与装裱要求不一、病害种类不同的情况,为将现代的绢绫线与文物的经纬线更好地匹配,研制了一种绢绫刮口刀。此刀由八个点形成的一条线或一个面作为刮口工作的状态,可以避免绢画修复中常用工具——马蹄刀、美工刀以点为工作面的刃口所产生的倾斜角度力点小且刀刃的点难以控制易伤及画心等缺点。虽然研制的绢绫刮口刀在修复明代绢本水陆画《七宿星君水陆道场图轴》的补绢刮口步骤中发挥了很好的作用,但作为非物质文化遗产的苏裱技艺如何科学化,还需不断地探讨。