Abstract: The plain along the Yangtze River in southern Anhui is an important cultural corridor which connects the Poyang Plain in middle Yangtze River and the Taihu Plain in the lower Yangtze River.Notably,different from plentiful paleoethnobotanic work conducted in above two regions,we know little about plant foods utilization,particularly agricultural development situations in this plain for the absence of paleoethnobotanic evidence.Miudun site (5060~4890cal.a BC),located in Fanchang County,Anhui Province,is the earliest archaeological site in the plain along the Yangtze River in southern Anhui.To investigate human's plant foods utilization in this area,20 pottery shards were selected from Miudun site for starch grain analysis.All pottery shards were sampled and processed in the Bio-archaeology laboratory,University of Science and Technology of China.Interior surfaces of pottery shards were rinsed by reverse osmosis water and water samples were remained as background samples.Then ultrasonic toothbrush was used to collect residue samples.More than 2972 starch grains were extracted from residue samples including 292 damaged granules.Based on their shapes,sizes and other surface features,these ancient starch grains can be divided into seven categories.Type I comes from Oryza sp. which contains compound and single (n=915) starch grains.Type II starch grains (n=605) are lenticular or spherical in shape with a wide size range (7.99~41.62μm),the morphologies of these granules are consistent with Triticeae tribe.Type Ⅲ(n=744) are characterized by open and eccentric hilum and predominated in prolate-ovoid form,these granules are possibly from Nelumbo. Type IV (n=271) are polyhedral with centric hilum,Z-shape distinct cross,transverse or T-shaped cracks,these diagnostic features are consistent with Coix.Type V (n=105) are characterized with tri-rounded corners oval and drip-shaped oval,Type VI (n=29) are kidney oval or tri-rounded corners shape with distinctive lamellae,and Type Ⅶ(n=11) are aggregate structure compound starch grains with round shape,these three types of starch grains are possibly from Quercus,tribe Phaseoleae and Euryale ferox,respectively.The result reflects remarkable starchy plant use in Miudun site.The absolute number and occurrence frequency of different types of starches show extensive utilization of Oryza which might be one of the main food resources in this region.Contrasted with paleoethnobotanic work in Poyang Plain and Taihu Lake basin,Miudun people shows a similar starchy plant food composition with Fanchengdui culture (5000~4000a B.P.) distributed in Poyang Plain.Notably,paleoethnobotanic evidence indicated a low-level rice utilization in Fanchengdui culture,while Taihu Lake basin has evolved a developed rice farming culture especially during Majiabang culture.Combined with several typical potteries of Majiabang culture found in Miudun site,we infer that,as a strong culture,Majiabang culture effected Miudun site obviously.Analytical result also shows that gathering still play an important role in Miudun people's subsistence strategy.Triticeae and Coix were collected commonly,followed by Quercus,tribe Phaseoleae and Euryale ferox.It should be noted that starch grains from Nelumbo have been found in all potteries,which means aquatic plants are important collecting objects for Miudun people.The universal use of freshwater plants shows Miudun people's strong dependence on their living environment in the lower Yangtze River.