2009/03/19 by Dorian Q. Fuller, Ling Qin, Yunfei Zheng +4 · 11 citations
Agricultural and Biological Sciences · Earth and Planetary Sciences · Social Sciences · #Archaeology and ancient environmental studies #GABA and Rice Research #Pacific and Southeast Asian Studies
paper · doi:10.1126/science.1166605
openalex publication_date 2009/03/19 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/31
The process of rice domestication occurred in the Lower Yangtze region of Zhejiang, China, between 6900 and 6600 years ago. Archaeobotanical evidence from the site of Tianluoshan shows that the proportion of nonshattering domesticated rice (Oryza sativa) spikelet bases increased over this period from 27% to 39%. Over the same period, rice remains increased from 8% to 24% of all plant remains, which suggests an increased consumption relative to wild gathered foods. In addition, an assemblage of annual grasses, sedges, and other herbaceous plants indicates the presence of arable weeds, typical of cultivated rice, that also increased over this period.