Spatial and temporal pattern of rice domestication during the early Holocene in the lower Yangtze region, China

Rice is among the world’s most important and ancient domesticated crops. However, the spatial and temporal pattern of the early rice domestication process remains unclear due to the lack of systematic study of wild/domesticated rice remains and corresponding dates during the early Holocene. Here, we collected 248 samples from five typical Shangshan cultural sites in the lower Yangtze region where is the most likely origin place of rice for phytolith analysis. The results showed the following. (1) Rice bulliform phytoliths from the five sites all present domestication traits, suggesting that the rice domestication process had begun across the region by the early stage of the Holocene. (2) The relative domestication rates reflected by the rice bulliform phytoliths were different between sites, the sites with higher domestication rates were distributed closer to the mainstream river. (3) The rice domestication process revealed by bulliform phytoliths can be divided into three periods during the early Holocene: from 10 to 9 ka, rice domestication began and stayed at a low level under 35%; from 9 to 8.5 ka, rice domestication level increased to 50%; and from 8.5 to 8 ka, rice domestication level was in a fluctuating state. (4) By 9 ka BP, rice double-peaked phytoliths from glume cells are present in most of the studied sites, which imply the presence of crop dehusking processing. This study reconstructed the spatial and temporal patterns of rice domestication during the early Holocene, which will improve our knowledge of early crop domestication and enhance our understanding of changes in rice status.

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Presumed domestication? Evidence for wild rice cultivation and domestication in the fifth millennium BC of the Lower Yangtze region

Antiquity ◽

10.1017/s0003598x0009520x ◽

2007 ◽

Vol 81 (312) ◽

pp. 316-331 ◽

Cited By ~ 161

Author(s):

Dorian Q Fuller ◽

Emma Harvey ◽

Ling Qin

Keyword(s):

Wild Rice ◽

Phytolith records of flourishing early Holocene Pooideae linked to an 8.2 ka cold event in subtropical China

Elem Sci Anth ◽

10.1525/elementa.077 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 8 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Xinxin Zuo ◽

Houyuan Lu ◽

Zhen Li ◽

Bing Song ◽

Deke Xu ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Climate Changes ◽

Asian Monsoon ◽

Early Holocene ◽

Subtropical China ◽

Cold Event ◽

Ecological Zones ◽

Lower Yangtze Region ◽

Dry Conditions ◽

Lower Yangtze

The grass subfamily Pooideae originated in a temperate niche during the late Cretaceous; it is the largest Poaceae subfamily, consisting of almost 4,000 species, which are distributed worldwide. Pooideae responses to climate changes at different time scales, and different ecological zones are thus important in understanding Poaceae evolutionary processes and their relationship with climate change. In the study described in this article, we reconstructed Pooideae variability during the early Holocene, as inferred by a phytolith sequence from the Lower Yangtze in subtropical China. The phytolith assemblage was marked by three increases in Pooideae phytoliths, dated to ca 8.4–8.0, 7.8–7.6, and 7.4–7.2 ka BP (before present, 1950 AD), with each representing pronounced increases in Pooideae extent and distribution. All these increases were within age ranges that agreed well with the timing of weak Asian Monsoon events, at 8.2, 7.7, and 7.3 ka BP. The first Pooideae flourishing period in subtropical China was the most significant, lasting for approximately four centuries and being characterized by a double peak, which equated with an event at 8.2 ka. This suggested that cold and/or dry conditions—which occurred over a period of several hundred years and were linked to weakening of the Asian monsoon—probably caused Pooideae to flourish in the Lower Yangtze region. Comparison of two diagnostic trapezoid phytolith types—namely wavy and wavy narrow—which showed different changes between ca 8.4 and 8.0 ka BP, suggested that they responded differently to the climate change represented by the 8.2 ka event. Our phytolith records have provided not only new data clarifying the detailed Pooideae response to the 8.2 ka event but also a reliable index for past cold climates in subtropical China.

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A multi-proxy lacustrine record of last deglacial–early Holocene environmental variability in the lower Yangtze region from the Chaohu Lake Basin, eastern China

Quaternary Research ◽

10.1017/qua.2017.52 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 88 (3) ◽

pp. 446-457 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Houchun Guan ◽

Li Wu ◽

Jinzhe Zhang ◽

Shihao Shen ◽

Dongru Chu ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Lacustrine Sediments ◽

Cold Climate ◽

Early Holocene ◽

Chaohu Lake ◽

Lake Basin ◽

Chaohu Lake Basin ◽

Lower Yangtze Region ◽

Lower Yangtze ◽

The Chaohu Lake Basin ◽

Last Deglacial

AbstractThe Rb, Sr, and Ti content, Rb/Sr ratio, grain size, magnetic susceptibility, and magnetic fabric in sediments of the BZK1 core were utilized to reconstruct the evolution of the climatic environment in the Chaohu Lake Basin between the last deglacial and the early Holocene. Multi-proxy analyses indicate that lacustrine sediments in Chaohu Lake clearly record the Bølling-Allerød interstadial, the Younger Dryas event and dry-cold climate events occurring between 10.7 cal ka BP and 10.5 cal ka BP. At approximately 15.6–14.8 cal ka BP, the waters became deeper and the climate turned cool. The climate subsequently shifted to a relatively humid period and the lake was largest from 14.8 to 12.8 cal ka BP. From 12.8 to 11.7 cal ka BP, the climate abruptly turned dry and cold and the lake shrank to its lowest level. During 11.7–10.7 cal ka BP, the climate became relatively humid but, from approximately 10.7 to 10.5 cal ka BP, suddenly reverted to a dry and cold state. These climatic change records suggest that lacustrine sediments from the Chaohu Lake Basin in the lower Yangtze region responded actively to global climate changes, comparable with the environmental records from stalagmites and other lacustrine sediments in the region.

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Transitions in Productivity: Rice Intensification from Domestication to Urbanisation

Archaeology International ◽

10.14324/111.444.ai.2020.08 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 23 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Dorian Q. Fuller

Keyword(s):

Population Density ◽

Southeast Asia ◽

Social Hierarchy ◽

Lower Yield ◽

Rice Agriculture ◽

Lower Yangtze Region ◽

East And Southeast Asia ◽

Rice Intensification ◽

Domestication Process ◽

Lower Yangtze

Archaeobotanical research in East and Southeast Asia provides evidence for transitions between lower and higher productivity forms of rice. These shifts in productivity are argued to help explain patterns in the domestication process and the rise of urban societies in these regions. The domestication process, which is now documented as having taken a few millennia, and coming to an end between 6700 and 5900 bp, involved several well documented changes, all of which served to increase the yield of rice harvests by an estimated 366 per cent; this increase provides an in-built pull factor for domestication. Once domesticated, rice diversified into higher productivity, labour-demanding wet rice and lower-yield dry rice. While wet rice in the Lower Yangtze region of China provided a basis for increasing population density and social hierarchy, it was the development of less productive and less demanding dry rice that helped to propel the migrations of farmers and the spread of rice agriculture across South China and Southeast Asia. Later intensification in Southeast Asia, a shift back to wet rice, was a necessary factor for increasing hierarchy and urbanisation in regions such as Thailand.

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