Rice · 6 / 7

The Rice Journey

Seventeen moments in the domestication and spread of rice, from the Lower Yangtze to the Green Revolution. Each carries its level of certainty: archaeology and genetics still disagree on some.

c. 9,400-9,000 years ago

First rice at Shangshan, Lower Yangtze

Shangshan and Hehuashan, Zhejiang, China

Prevailing view

Phytoliths dated directly by radiocarbon place rice at Shangshan about 9,400 and at nearby Hehuashan about 9,000 calibrated years ago. Their shape is closer to domesticated than to wild rice, so the authors suggest cultivation began at the start of the Holocene.

Sources (2)

Zuo X, Lu H, Jiang L, Zhang J, Yang X, Huan X, He K, Wang C, Wu N 2017 — Dating rice remains through phytolith carbon-14 study reveals domestication at the beginning of the Holocene
Silva F, Stevens CJ, Weisskopf A, Castillo C, Qin L, Bevan A, Fuller DQ 2015 — Modelling the geographical origin of rice cultivation in Asia using the Rice Archaeological Database

Lines link the events in story order; they are not mapped routes.