Abstract
The ginkgo tree, Ginkgo biloba Linn., is the only living representative of the Ginkgoales, a gymnosperm known as “living fossil”, and is now widely cultivated all over the world. In China, cultivation of ginkgo trees may have been done from the historical era or before, but it is not known at all when and where it started. The Tian Luo Shan site is a Neolithic archaeological ruin at Yuyao, Zhejiang Province with numerous archaeological relics. While examining the tree species of wooden remains excavated from the ruin, we found a fragment of a cylindrical wood instrument made of ginkgo. This is the first discovery of ginkgo remnants of the Neolithic age in the world, and we described this specimen anatomically and examined the possibility that ginkgo was growing around the ruin.
