Rice Farming and Chinese Civilization: My survey at the Liangzhu site group

From February 27 to March 5, I went to conduct my survey at the Liangzhu site group in China. My visit aimed to continue our project. Some members went to conduct their surveys at the Tianluoshan site, and other members worked at the Liangzhu site group.

In this survey, I took dental calculus samples from human bone remains. In the first year of the project (FY 2015), human bone remains were very rarely found from the Liangzhu site group, but now the number of these remains are gradually increasing. One of the reasons is that Chinese researchers are conducting their excavations for applying to the World Heritage sites.












I tried to take many calculus samples as possible. Those calculus remains were better preserved. Also, I discussed about modern reference plant samples with a Chinese researcher. He provided me some plant samples (e.g. rice, millet, and others).

 

In this survey, we got many samples from human bone remains at the Liangzhu site group. I'm looking forward to examining my results. Also, we had very delicious dishes for breakfast (carts near our hotel), lunch and supper (the survey office). Thanks a lot.