Identification of Rubus Seeds in Chinese Archaeological Sites: Based on the Morphological Atlas of 126 Modern Rubus Seeds

Rubus seeds constitute the predominant plant remains in archaeobotanical assemblages from Chinese archaeological sites. Nevertheless, no studies have yet reported the precise species-level identification of archaeological Rubus remains, as a result of the lack of systematic research on Rubus seed morphology. The first seed morphology atlas was established by systematically collecting and analyzing the morphological characteristics of 126 Rubus plants' mature seeds, which represent Rubus taxa in China (including 22 varieties). Utilizing this atlas, we identified Rubus seeds from seven archaeological sites, which ranged from the Shang-Zhou dynasties to the present day. Of these seeds, one was carbonized and six were uncarbonized. These specimens were identified as Rubus lambertianus , R. parvifolius , R. flosculosus , R. coreanus var. tomentosus , R. trianthus , and R. adenophorus . Furthermore, the atlas was employed to precisely identify Rubus seeds from nine archaeological sites that had been previously reported, primarily assigning them to R. parvifolius , R. hirsutus , and R. rosifolius . The results indicate that the Rubus seed morphology atlas developed in this investigation can serve as a critical reference for the identification of Rubus seeds that have been excavated from archaeological sites in China.