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Palaeoethnobotanical analysis of plant remains discovered in the graveyard of the Haihun Marquis, Nanchang, China

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Abstract

Analysis of plant remains of 73 taxa obtained from the graveyard of the Haihun Marquis (circa 59 bc) at Nanchang, China, is presented. Chronology was confirmed by direct AMS radiocarbon dating of both a seed and wood, while plant seeds were collected by wet sieving. Detailed composition of the samples suggests that the fundamental landscape of the graveyard was composed of Platycladus orientalis, a symbol of solemnity and compatible with the high status of the tomb owner Liu He. Furthermore, seeds of Sapium sebiferum, Castanopsis sclerophylla and Lauraceae, among other high-status plants were also discovered and thus could be included in the landscaping of the graveyard of the Haihun Marquis. In addition, plants like Poaceae, Santalaceae, Cyperaceae and Broussonetia sp., among others, represented a considerable share of the graveyard growth. Fruit stones of Amygdalus persica, Armeniaca mume and Cerasus pseudocerasus discovered in the well may have been included as fruit trees, but grew outside the graveyard. In the main tomb (M1), remains of five plant were discovered, i.e. Oryza sativa (rice), Cannabis sativa (hemp), Setaria italica (foxtail millet) and Cucumis melo (sweet melon), as well as Armeniaca mume (Japanese apricot) and had been placed in the tomb for further use as cereals and fruit by the deceased in the world beyond, thus also demonstrating diversified plant use in the Western Han Dynasty.

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Acknowledgements

We gratefully thank G. Fiorentino and the two anonymous reviewers for their critical suggestions of the paper. We thank Timothy Conboy for his kind correction of an early version of this paper. We thank Guilin Zhang for helping with the location map. This study was supported by the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (E0E48931X2), the Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 41672171), the Special Project of “Lushan Plants” (2019ZWZX03), and the National Social Science Fund of China (No. 16@ZH022).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Archaeology and Anthropology, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China

    Hongen Jiang & Xuekai Qi

  2. Jiangxi Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology, Nanchang, 330025, China

    Jun Yang

  3. Key Laboratory of Plant Ex-situ Conservation and Utilization of Jiangxi Province, Lushan Botanical Garden of Chinese Academy of Science, Jiujiang, 332900, China

    Tongjun Liang & Zhiyong Zhang

  4. Institute of Archaeology, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Beijing, 100710, China

    Shuzhi Wang

  5. Fudan University, 220 Handan Rd, Wu Jiao Chang, Yangpu District, Shanghai, 200433, China

    Pengfei Sheng

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  1. Hongen Jiang
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Correspondence to Hongen Jiang.

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Communicated by G. Fiorentino.

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Jiang, H., Yang, J., Liang, T. et al. Palaeoethnobotanical analysis of plant remains discovered in the graveyard of the Haihun Marquis, Nanchang, China. Veget Hist Archaeobot 30, 119–135 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00334-020-00821-y

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