编辑推荐：
生物通报道，25日的Science杂志发表了一篇新的评论报道，关注中国在考古界的新发现。
生物通报道，25日的Science杂志发表了一篇新的评论报道，关注中国在考古界的新发现。
一直以来，人们以为中国的古人类最早驯化的谷物是水稻，中国农业的发展路程是由南至北的发展路线。而新的研究证据显示，中国人可能最早驯化的谷物是小麦而非水稻，这一证据通过考古学的化石可以得到。
这成果由中美合作团队在共同发现，该研究团队的领导者是加州大学的考古学家LouKas Barton和华盛顿卡内基研究院的生态学家Seth Newsome。这一发现的地点是在中国西北的大地湾遗址。
中国西部黄土高原的大地湾新石器时代遗址，它首先是由中国考古学家于20世纪70年代末和80年代初发掘的，2006年来自加州大学戴维斯分校和中国兰州大学的一个团队也对它进行了发掘。
小麦是一种C4结构的植物，而北方其他的植物基本上是C3结构的植物，只要通过同位素点位分析就能区别小麦和其他植物化石。研究者发现，7900-7200年前的狗的化石分析显示，狗吃的是小麦，而猪吃得是其他植物。到了6500-4900年前，人的化石，狗的化石已经猪的化石都显示他们所食用的是C4结构的植物，也就是小麦。
这一结果发表在新一期的PNAS上，研究结果表明中国人最早吃的也许是小麦。伦敦大学的Dorian Fuller说，这一成果是一项重要的发现，这给农业发展研究提供了新的思路。这些成果表明，当南方的古人类开始准备驯化水稻的时候，北方的古人类已经完成了野生小麦到家养小麦的驯化过程。
生物通推荐原文阅读：Early Chinese May Have Eaten Millet Before Rice
http://sciencenow.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/2009/325/1?rss=1
PNAS原文检索：Agricultural origins and the isotopic identity of domestication in northern China
【Abstract】
Stable isotope biochemistry (δ13C and δ15N) and radiocarbon dating of ancient human and animal bone document 2 distinct phases of plant and animal domestication at the Dadiwan site in northwest China. The first was brief and nonintensive: at various times between 7900 and 7200 calendar years before present (calBP) people harvested and stored enough broomcorn millet (Panicum miliaceum) to provision themselves and their hunting dogs (Canis sp.) throughout the year. The second, much more intensive phase was in place by 5900 calBP: during this time both broomcorn and foxtail (Setaria viridis spp. italica) millets were cultivated and made significant contributions to the diets of people, dogs, and pigs (Sus sp.). The systems represented in both phases developed elsewhere: the earlier, low-intensity domestic relationship emerged with hunter–gatherers in the arid north, while the more intensive, later one evolved further east and arrived at Dadiwan with the Yangshao Neolithic. The stable isotope methodology used here is probably the best means of detecting the symbiotic human–plant–animal linkages that develop during the very earliest phases of domestication and is thus applicable to the areas where these connections first emerged and are critical to explaining how and why agriculture began in East Asia.
