Ancient tree root of about 6000 years old
The legendary Shengnong tasting herbal mediciine.
China is the hometown of tea. However, there isn't a definite record about the beginning of tea. Lu Yu recorded inThe Classic of Tea that "tea drinking started from Emperor Shennong and became popular in the period of Duke Zhou of Lu." One opinion is that China has a history of 4700 years of using tea after having found tea tree according to the record of Lu Yu. However, the topic team of "Comprehensive Study on Natural Remains in Tianluo Mountain Site", comprised by experts from China and Japan, declared the result showing that a batch of roots unearthed in the strata about 6000 years ago in the remains of Tianluo Mountain Site were identified as the roots of Camellia, and have great possibility of "artificial planting" - it is expected that the history of tea plantation in China could be pushed back by one millennium.
In "Conference on Report of Comprehensive Study Achievements of Natural Remains of Yuyao Tianluo Mountain Site" held recently in Kanazawa University, Japan, experts from China and Japan declared that a batch of roots unearthed in the strata about 6000 years ago in the site were identified as roots of Camellia and have great possibility of artificial planting.
"Samples of ancient tea trees are now being finally verified by Tea Research Institute of Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences. If the sample can be identified as containing the ingredient of theanine, we can determine that the sample was the tea tree whose leaves were picked for drinking. If so, it can change the history of tea and push it back at least by one millennium earlier. Meanwhile, Tianluo Mountain Site will become the oldest site of tea tree in the world and the real "origin of tea", told by Sun Guoping, a research fellow of Zhejiang Province Cultural Relic Archaeology Research Institute and head of Tianluo Mountain Site archaeological team to the journalist of Morning Post yesterday.
Ancient Roots of Artificial Planting 6000 Years Ago Unearthed
Roots suspected as that of ancient tea tree were unearthed in Yuyao Tianluo Mountain Site, Ningbo. The site is located at Sanqishi Town of Yuyao City, about 7km away from Hemudu (linear distance) and the total area of the site is nearly 30,000m2. Tianluo Mountain Site belongs to Hemudu Culture with an ancient village layout. Its underground remains are the most complete among cultural relics of Hemudu Culture, which was about 6000 - 7000 years ago and ancient tree roots were found in the strata about 6000 years ago.
As introduced by Sun Guoping, these ancient roots were unearthed when Tianluo Mountain Site was excavated for the first time in 2004. They were originally hidden in the soil of high underground water table, almost sealed up. About ten roots were unearthed in a 3m long and 2m wide pit in the ground. They stood up in two blocks and showed fresh brown color. When unearthed, they lined up neatly. Similar roots were also found in another excavation site, only 5 meters away. The block where ancient roots were found was about 10m2, surrounded by village houses.
Therefore, experts from the archaeological team thought that the possibility of artificial planting was high since roots were arranged alternately. Because it was impossible to judge which type of tree they belonged to by naked eyes, they didn’t attract much attention among unearthed relics. After unearthing, these roots were soaked in clean water in an ordinary way. Meanwhile, there were several small potteries with semi-circular handle and nozzle among unearthed potteries; they were quite like small tea kettles commonly used today.
May Push Back the History of Tea by More than One Millennium
Based on the research progress after excavation, these roots were picked out until the first half of last year. Some were sliced and sampled for observation. Samples were also entrusted to be identified by Mr. Suzuki, a botanical archaeologist and professor of Tohoku University of Japan. In December of last year, Professor Suzuki picked out samples from many tree roots and identified six roots samples as Camellia. In combination with the feature of artificial planting, Professor Suzuki judged that trees of these camellia roots had high possibility of being tea tree whose leaves were picked for drinking.
Tea was used as sacrifice in West Zhou period. Fresh tea leaves were taken by people as vegetables in Spring and Autumn period yet drugs in Warring States period. Tea had become one of the major commodities in Western Han Dynasty. Especially during Northern and Southern Dynasties when Buddhism was popular, Buddhists used tea to keep them awake when they sit in meditation. Therefore, tea trees were planted in valleys around temples. According to textual research today, the earliest written record of tea was in Erh Ya (ancient book containing commentaries on classics, names, etc), which was composed in about 100 BC (i.e. West Han Dynasty), about 2000 years ago.
As expressed by Sun Guoping, if these ancient roots could be identified as that of tea trees, it will indicate that villagers in Tianluo Mountain 6000 years ago were likely to start artificial planting of tea trees, used pottery to make and drink tea, which on the other hand will push back the history of tea by at least one millennium.
