Notes on the recent discovery of ancient cultivated rice at Jiahu, Henan Province: a new theory concerning the origin of Oryza japonica in China.

Notes on the recent discovery of ancient cultivated rice at Jiahu, Henan Province: a new theory concerning the origin of Oryza japonica in China. China is one of the places for the origin of the Asian cultivatedrice (Oka 1988), but there are different theories for precise locationswhere ancient cultivated rice first originated, including thoseproposing South China and Yunnan (Li 1989) or the middle and lowerYangtze River Yangtze RiverChinese Chang Jiang or Ch'ang ChiangRiver, China. Rising in the Tanggula Mountains in west-central China, it flows southeast before turning northeast and then generally east across south-central and east-central China to the East China Valley (Yan 1989), or the middle Yangtze and the upperHuai River Huai RiverRiver, eastern China. It flows east for 660 mi (1,100 km) and discharges into Hongze Lake in Jiangsu provin ce. With its many tributaries, it is subject to extensive flooding; work to control the flooding is ongoing. Valley (Wang 1996) as the site of the oldest rice cultivationin China. The discovery (Zhang et al. 1994) of ancient rice at Jiahu inHenan province not only pushed the history of rice agriculture in theHuai River region back to 9000 BP, but also indicated the existence ofan agricultural tradition of rice cultivation in the region from thebeginning of the Holocene Anathermal until the end of the Holocenemegathermal. Jiahu is located at 33 [degrees] 36 [minutes] N and 113 [degrees]40 [minutes] E. It is now in a transitional zone between the northernsubtropical sub¡¤trop¡¤i¡¤cal?adj.Of, relating to, or being the geographic areas adjacent to the Tropics.subtropicalAdjectiveof the region lying between the tropics and temperate lands and the northern temperate zones, and covers an area of55,000 sq. m. Six seasons of excavation have been carried out by theHenan Archaeology I nstitute since 1983. The total excavated area wasabout 2400 sq. m, and 400 remains of houses, pits, earthenware kilns and300 graves were found, together with several thousand pieces of potteryand stone tools, animal bones, horns and teeth. The most interestingitems among them include 7-note bone flutes, turtle shells and boneswith carved ancient characters, carbonated rice grains, husks,impressions of rice grains in pottery and a large quantity of ricephytoliths (Zhang et al. 1998). Investigation of the rice grains and husks revealed that the lengthof the grains approached that of japonica japonica(jəpŏn`əkə): see quince; camellia. , the width that of indica, andthe L/W L/W Left Word ratio approached that of early indica and later japonica. Theshape of the phytoliths also approached that of japonica (49% of themwere fan-shaped, approaching the shape of japonica; 22% approached thatof indica, and 29% were of intermediate type). The bi-peak-tubercles onlem ma lemma(lĕm`ə): see theorem. (logic) lemma - A result already proved, which is needed in the proof of some further result. were also pro-japonica. Thus an integrated analysis of the Jiahuancient rice suggested that it should be a pro-japonica primitive type In computer science, primitive types — as distinct from composite types — are data types provided by a programming language as basic building blocks. Primitive types are also known as built-in types or basic types. of cultivated rice with some characteristics of the common wild rice andwhose I-J (indica-japonica) identity has not yet been fullydifferentiated. Results from a scanning electronic microscope observation revealedthat the grains of the Jiahu ancient rice had all been processed. It wasalso found that some of pottery had carbonated rice husks within thefabric. Analysis of excavated human bones revealed that the averagecontents of [[Delta].sup.13]C and[[Delta].sup.18]O were[[Delta].sub.13]C VSPDB = -20.76[per thousand] and [[Delta].sup.18]VSPDB = -18-53[per thousand] respectively, indicating that the staplefood A staple food is a food that forms the basis of a traditional diet, particularly that of the poor. Staple foods vary from place to place, but are typically inexpensive starchy foods of vegetable origin that are high in food energy (Calories) and carbohydrate and that can be stored of the Jiahu man was mainly [C.sup.3] plants, including rice; andthis shows, in turn, the importance of rice-cropping agriculture in thelife of the Jiahu people. The large number of stone axes, spades,sickles, knives, mills and clubs excavated implies that rice agricultureof the Jiahu tribes was already well developed. Among the excavated specimens, there were remains of a great manyanimals and plants adapted to a warm, humid environment, such as Yangtzealligator alligator,large aquatic reptile of the genus Alligator, in the same order as the crocodile. There are two species& mdash;a large type found in the S United States and a small type found in E China. Alligators differ from crocodiles in several ways. (Alligator sinensis Noun 1. Alligator sinensis - small alligator of the Yangtze valley of China having unwebbed digitsChinese alligatorgator, alligator - either of two amphibious reptiles related to crocodiles but with shorter broader snouts ), Cuora flavomarginata, Muntiacus cf.reevesiogilly, buffalo (Bufalus), sweetgum (Liquidambar), beech (Fagus),water fern water fern,common name for various species of aquatic ferns. (Ceratopteris), cattail cattailor reed mace,any plant of the genus Typha, perennial herbs found in almost all open marshes. The cattail (also called club rush) has long narrow leaves, sometimes used for weaving chair seats, and a single tall stem bearing two (Typha) and common wild rice (Oryzarufipagan), indicating that the natural conditions of the Jiahu districtthen were similar to those of the present Yangtze River region. T hus,the water and temperature factors of this region then were quitesuitable for the growth and propagation of rice, and this was aprerequisite for the emergence of the Jiahu rice-cropping agriculture. Following a systematic study of the cultural remains of Jiahu, theexcavators classified them into three periods belonging to the earlier,middle and later periods (TABLE 1). More than 20 14C determinations wereobtained from specimens of charcoal, ash, fruit stones and human bone,[TABULAR DATA FOR TABLE 1 OMITTED] [TABULAR DATA FOR TABLE 2 OMITTED]indicating a date range from 8285 to 7450 BP, or about 7000-5800 BCafter calibration. In the early 1990s, members of the Nanjing Museum excavated a sitedated 7000-5000 BP at Longqiozhuang, Gaoyu County, Jiangsu Province,located in the lower Huai River Region. The site was similar to theJiahu site in more than one way. Its culture was considered, therefore,one of the successors of the Jiahu culture. Evidence of its developedrice-cropp ing agriculture and specially the discovery of the improvedtypical cultivated japonica rice resulting from selective breedingindicated the following process of evolution of ancient cultivated rice.Meanwhile, in the middle Yangtze River region the ancient cultivatedrice was of pro-indica type in the Pengtoushan culture period 8000 BP;it then differentiated toward indica and japonica in the Daxi cultureperiod 6000-5000 BP and mainly toward indica, but the indica-japonicaidentity had not yet been fully differentiated (TABLE 2, [ILLUSTRATIONFOR FIGURE 2 OMITTED]): 1 primitive cultivated type with some wild rice characteristics 2 intermediate type between indica and japonica 3 pro-japonica type 4 typical japonica type. Conclusions From the above-mentioned evidence we concluded that: 1 The primitive cultivated rice originated almost simultaneouslyaround 9000 BP in the upper Huai River region and in the middle YangtzeRiver region. These regions would have been the primary ce ntres oforigin of the Chinese cultivated rice. 2 The ancient cultivated rice in the Huai River region evolvedtoward the direction of the japonica type; then developed into typicaljaponica arround 5500 BP. But the ancient cultivated rice in the middleYangtze River region differentiated mainly toward indica, although alsotoward the japonica type on a smaller scale arround 6000-5000 BP. Itcould be concluded, therefore that the Huai River region is the primarycentre of origin of japonica. The different results of evolution mightbe caused by the different environmental, climatic, as well as water andtemperature conditions of the two regions. 3 The human interference exerted on the ancient cultivated riceduring the course of its evolution was stronger in the Huai River regionthan in the Yangtze River region and the speed of its evolution quicker.The grain shape of the ancient cultivated rice in the Huai River regionwas unchanged around 8000 BP. By 7800 BP, it began to evolve tow ard thedirection of japonica. And by 5500 BP, most of the characteristicssimilar to those of the modern japonica evolved as the result ofselection for better types. Thus, the speed of the course of evolutionwas through the pressure of human interference, i.e. domestication domesticationProcess of hereditary reorganization of wild animals and plants into forms more accommodating to the interests of people. In its strictest sense, it refers to the initial stage of human mastery of wild animals and plants. andselection. These pressures, in turn, were closely related to thesurvival pressures on early man and the affluence of natural resources.Some 8000 years ago, the Huai River region was located at the border ofthe northern subtropical zone. It was a region with transitionalclimatic conditions, an ecotone e¡¤co¡¤tone?n.A transitional zone between two communities containing the characteristic species of each.[eco- + Greek tonos, tension, tone; see tone. with greater diversity o f animals andplants. But the climatic conditions and natural resources of this regionwere not as favourable as those of the Yangtze River region forsurvival. Thus, under stronger survival pressure, early communities inthis region had to make greater efforts in the exploitation of naturalresources Exploitation of natural resources is an essential condition of the human existence.This refers primarily to food production, but minerals, timber, and a whole raft of other entities from the natural environment also have been extracted. . From among the many kinds of plants they collected, it wasnatural that these communities selected the more nutritious, more easilyharvested and stored wild rice as the first choice for a staple food,and exerted a strong domestication and selection pressure on it. Perhapsthis might be an explanation for the speedier course of evolution ofancient cultivated rice in the Huai River region than in the YangtzeRiver region around 6000 BP. Acknowledgement . This project was supported by the National NaturalScience Foundation of China. References GU, H. 1996. Ancient rice of Chengtoushan and its classification,Hunan Archaeology 6:125-35. LI, K. 1989. Role of Yunnan in study on origin of Asian cultivatedrice, Yunnan Social Science 1: 69 73. OKA, H.I. 1988. Origin of cultivated rice. Tokyo: Japan ScientificSocieties Press. WANG, X. 1996. New research progresses relating to several mainproblems about the origin of rice cultivation in China, in Wang &Sun (ed.): 2-7. WANG, X. & C. SUN (ed.). 1996. 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