Ancient plant seeds provide important archaeological evidence for studying the evolution of human civilization. Lingnan University and Shandong University have jointly developed the world’s first artificial intelligence (AI) archaeological system dedicated to identifying ancient Chinese plant seeds. The system emulates the identification process of archaeobotanical experts and achieves a classification accuracy of more than 90%.

The researchers said identifying plant seeds excavated from archaeological sites has traditionally relied on experts examining each seed individually, a process that is both time-consuming and difficult to scale. The large, standardized database they created helps improve research efficiency while advancing archaeobotanical research and the digitization of cultural heritage.

The findings have been published in Heritage Science.