The origins and dispersal of rice cultivation

• Published in: Antiquity Vol. 72; no. 278; pp. 867 - 877
• Main Authors: Higham, Charles, Lu, Tracey L.-D.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Cambridge, UK Cambridge University Press 01.12.1998; J. Bellows
• Subjects: Agricultural history; Agriculture; Agriculture, Primitive; Anthropology; Archaeology; Crops; Cultivation; Cultivation practices; Domestication; History; Origin; Paleobotany; Rice; Southeast Asia; Special section: Rice domestication; the Yangzi valley; Traditional agriculture; China; Asia; Yangtze Valley; the Yangzi valley; Southeast Asia; rice; cultivation
• ISSN: 0003-598X; 1745-1744
• DOI: 10.1017/S0003598X00087500

Domesticated rice (Oryza sativa) is one of the five major crops in the world and a staple food for more than 30% of the world population. Yet the question of where, when, why and how the domestication of rice originated has been, and still is, a question under debate. However, as more archaeological and archaeobotanic discoveries have recently come to light, the question of the origin of rice cultivation now seems less elusive than it was a few decades ago. To date, both archaeological and archaeobotanic discoveries seem to indicate that rice cultivation first began in the middle Yangzi Valley by 8500–8000 years BP, and subsequently expanded to south China and Southeast Asia.