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A major breakthrough in the study of the origin of human agriculture: Chinese scientists reveal the "100000 year history of rice evolution"

Xinhua News Agency, Hangzhou, May 24 (Reporter Feng Yuan, Zhang Quan) Rice is one of the three major staple foods in the world. When and where did mankind first start planting rice, eating rice and developing rice farming?

The research team of Lv Houyuan, a researcher from the Institute of Geology and Geophysics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, has worked closely with experts from 13 institutions nationwide, including the Zhejiang Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology, Linyi University, and the Shangshan Site Management Center in Pujiang County, Zhejiang Province, to jointly carry out research on the origin of rice in several sites of Shangshan culture, It reveals a continuous evolutionary history of rice from wild to domesticated for 100000 years. This further confirmed that China is the origin of rice in the world, and the mountaineering culture about 10000 years ago plays an important role in the origin of world agriculture. Relevant papers were published online in the international academic journal Science in the early morning of Beijing time on the 24th.

On the morning of the 24th, the Institute of Geology and Geophysics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology of Zhejiang Province and the People's Government of Pujiang County officially released this major research achievement in Pujiang County. It is reported that Chinese scientists have established scientific standards to effectively distinguish wild rice from domesticated rice, and have made a series of major discoveries by using multidisciplinary means and combining field archaeology.

As early as 100000 years ago, wild rice had been distributed in the lower reaches of the Yangtze River, providing conditions for ancestors to use and domesticate rice; About 24000 years ago, the climate entered a cold maximum ice age, which made people explore new food sources and begin to collect and use wild rice; About 13000 years ago, human beings began to cultivate wild rice intentionally or unintentionally; About 11000 years ago, domesticated rice stepped onto the "historical stage", which was the origin of rice farming in East Asia. Experts pointed out that this is an important milestone in the history of human development. It can be said that the time of the origin of rice farming and wheat farming in the two river basins in West Asia is synchronized.

Shangshan Site in Pujiang County was found in November 2000. Shangshan Culture was named in November 2006. At present, 24 Shangshan cultural sites have been found, all located in Zhejiang Province. They form the largest and most concentrated early Neolithic site group known in China and even in East Asia.