Veget Hist Archaeobot (2007) 16: 481–494 DOI 10.1007/s00334-006-0068-4 ORIGINAL ARTICLE Hiroo Nasu · Arata Momohara · Yoshinori Yasuda · Jiejun He The occurrence and identification of Setaria italica (L.) P. Beauv. (foxtail millet) grains from the Chengtoushan site (ca. 5800 cal B.P.) in central China, with reference to the domestication centre in Asia Received: 25 August 2005 / Accepted: 24 May 2006 / Published online: 18 July 2006 C  Springer-Verlag 2006 Abstract Archaeobotanical remains of Setaria grains and chaff were found at the Chengtoushan site in south-central China (ca. 5800 cal b.p.). Grain shape was determined, using length to breadth ratios, and morphological vari- ation in the upper lemma of modern domesticated and wild Setaria species were examined using scanning elec- tron microscopy as a basis for identifying archaeobotan- ical remains. Grains of S. viridis, S. yunnanensis, and S. × pycnocoma are slender, whereas S. italica, S. italica var. germinica, S. lutescenes, S. faberi, S. glauca, S. pal- lidefusca and S. intermedia are round in shape. The papillae distributed on the upper lemma of S. italica are small (8– 15 μm) with a non-ridged base, while other Setaria species have large papillae (15–20 μm) with a widely ridged base. The remains of the Setaria from the Neolithic layers at Chengtoushan included S. italica, based on these identi- fication characters. These new finds of foxtail millet are the earliest discoveries from the Yangtze River basin of southern China and are also the earliest evidence for co- cultivation of foxtail millet with rice. The implications of these findings for understanding foxtail millet domestica- tion centres are discussed. Communicated by S. Jacomet H. Nasu () The Graduate University for Advanced Studies (Sokendai), Shonan Village, Hayama, Kanagawa 240-0193, Japan e-mail: nasu hiroo@soken.ac.jp A. Momohara Faculty of Horticulture, Chiba University, 648 Matsudo, Matsudo-shi, Chiba 274-8150, Japan Y. Yasuda International Research Center for Japanese Studies, 3-2 Oeyama-cho, Goryo, Nishikyo-ku, Kyoto 610-1192, Japan J. He Institute of Archaeology Hunan Province, 129 Dongfeng-lu, Changsha, Hunan 410008, China Keywords Setaria italica . Foxtail millet . Archaeobotany . Domestication . Neolithic . China Introduction Setaria italica (L.) P. Beauv. (foxtail millet) is one of the oldest domesticated cereal grains in Eurasia (Sakamoto 1987; de Wet 1995). Archaeobotanical remains of foxtail millet have been recovered from Neolithic sites in east- ern Eurasia (Crawford 1992a; Li and Wu 1996; Lu 1999) and also from the Bronze Age to late Middle Ages con- texts in western Eurasia (Marinval 1992; Zohary and Hopf 2000). Foxtail millet is presumed to have originated from S. viridis (L.) P. Beauv. (green foxtail), a wild species that is distributed widely across the Eurasian continent (Sakamoto 1988; Lu 2002). Foxtail millet and green foxtail are both diploids with the same chromosome number (2n = 18) and both produce fertile hybrids (Kihara and Kishimoto 1942; de Wet et al. 1979). Taxonomically, some scientists have suggested that both taxa be considered as subspecies of S. italica (de Wet et al. 1979; Wang et al. 1995). The geographical centre from which foxtail millet orig- inated is still controversial. Single and multiple centres of origin for foxtail millet have been suggested in Eurasia. A northern China centre was first suggested by Vavilov (1926), and now many archaeologists and archaeobotanists have confirmed the existence of this centre because the ear- liest archaeological evidence of foxtail millet comes from the Peiligang and Yangshao cultures of the Yellow River basin (Smith 1998; Lu 1999; Shelach 2000). A centre in the south of central Asia (Afghanistan, Pakistan and northwest India) was suggested by Sakamoto (1987, 1988) based on the evidence of high genetic diversity of foxtail millet in this area. Harlan (1992, 1995) suggested independent do- mestication in northern China as well as central Europe, and recent genetic studies have proposed multiple origins of foxtail millet, not only from semi-arid areas but also in