"The world's first grain of rice", what is the significance of carrying civilization?
China News Service, Beijing, December 12, 2019 Title: "The World's First Grain of Rice", What is the Significance of Civilization?
China News Weekly reporter Ni Wei
The cultivation and domestication of plants such as rice and wheat was a key step in the origin of human civilization. In the center of the exhibition hall of the National Museum of "Daoyuan Qiming - Zhejiang Shangshan Culture and Archaeology Special Exhibition", a grain of carbonized rice is displayed. Under magnifier and light, its surface appears a mottled burnt yellow. This is the earliest domesticated rice found in China so far, and the earliest grain of rice in the world, nearly 10,000 years ago. Recently, "East and West" interviewed relevant experts and tried to connect the civilizational significance carried by "the world's first grain of rice".
In November 2021, carbonized rice was exhibited at the National Museum of China in Beijing under the "Daoyuan Qiming - Zhejiang Shangshan Culture archaeology special exhibition". China News Service reporter Tian Yuhao photographed
10,000 years ago, plants such as rice and wheat were cultivated and domesticated by humans, so that humans could finally store food without living by water and grass, which in turn gave birth to a settled society, opened the Neolithic Era, and took a key step in the origin of human civilization. The world's earliest surviving rice farming remains are located in the Shangshan Ruins Group in Zhejiang Province.
According to stratigraphy and typological analysis, combined with carbon 14 dating, the Shangshan culture characterized by the origin of rice cultivation is divided into three stages: early, middle and late, the early period is around 10,000, the middle period is around 9000, and the late period is around 8500. Because of the earliest settled remains found in China, archaeologist Yan Wenming called the Shangshan site "the first village in ancient China", and Yuan Longping, the "father of hybrid rice", wrote an inscription for him " Ten thousand years up the mountain, the source of rice in the world".
Yuan Longping wrote an inscription for the Shangshan site "Ten Thousand Years on the Mountain, the Source of Rice in the World". Photo courtesy of Xu Limin, China News Service
The first wisp of cooking smoke on the East Asian continent
In September 2000, an archaeological team from Zhejiang Province discovered a tomb of Liangzhu culture in Pujiang County.
This is the moment when the small place name "Up the Mountain" entered the history of archaeology. Archaeologists soon discovered that there were strange remnants buried here that predate the Liangzhu culture. The following year, they cleared out an 11-meter-long, 6-meter-wide, structurally complete foundation consisting of three columns of pillar holes, followed by the excavation of large stones and large-mouth pot pottery, and some rice husks remained inside the large-mouth basin.
A photograph taken in August 2021 in the Kamigami Archaeological Site Park recreates the scene of the archaeological site of that year. The Shangshan site is an early Neolithic cultural site dating back about 10,000 years and was discovered in 2000. Photo by Hu Xiaofei, China News Agency
Later research proved that the pottery of the Shangshan culture is the earliest faience pottery in China and the world, and these building sites are the earliest villages in China, and the relics such as rice and rice husks are the evidence of the world's earliest cultivation and domestication of rice.
In the remains of rice excavated at the Shangshan site, archaeologists analyzed the remnants of the spike shaft. Spike shafts are the basis for judging cultivated rice and wild rice, and these spike shafts have both cultivated characteristics and wild characteristics, which can be seen in the early stages of rice domestication.
The soil of the pottery is mixed with rice husks, rice leaves, rice ears and plant stalks, so it is also called charcoal pottery. Most of the charcoal pottery in the early days of the mountain was mixed with densely packed crushed rice husks – this is the world's earliest bran, that is, the broken shell after threshing and taking rice. After eating rice, people consciously combine the remnants of these rice into clay to make pottery.
Pottery amphora on display in the Shangshan Archaeological Site Park in August 2021. Photo by Hu Xiaofei, China News Agency
"The earliest Zhejiang people", drum belly jar and wine
Since 2000, Zhejiang has found 20 remnants of the Shangshan culture, and more unprecedented relics have surfaced.
In the exhibition hall of the National Expo, a complete human skeleton lies in the restored tomb, and the owner of the tomb lies on his side, with a red clay pot buried in front of his abdomen. In 2019, two tombs of the late Shangshan culture were found at the Yiwu Qiaotou site, and two human bones were excavated, known as the "earliest Zhejiang people".
In November 2021, the "Human Bones" were exhibited at the National Museum of China "Daoyuan Qiming - Zhejiang Shangshan Culture and Archaeology Special Exhibition". Photo by Du Jianpo, China News Service
In a clay pot not far from the Ancestor of Zhejiang, the researchers detected a gelatinized starch produced by heating, which is consistent with the characteristics of low-temperature fermentation, which is the basic principle of winemaking. In other words, this may be the earliest evidence of winemaking in China.
Liu Li, a professor in the Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures at Stanford University in the United States, noticed the small mouth drum belly jar unearthed by the Shangshan culture. She said that the small mouth drum belly jar is an ancient vessel that has both north and south of China, and these are the earliest in the Shangshan culture. At least five small-mouth drum belly jars at the early Neolithic sites in the Yellow River Basin have been scientifically tested and confirmed to be wine-making vessels.
"This shape is obviously directly related to winemaking." Liu Li said that mold and yeast were also found in the pottery of the Qiaotou site, and some special molds were specially used for winemaking, which is a very important microorganism in the production of loin, "so we can see that the method of using yeast to make wine also began in the Shangshan culture."
In November 2021, the clay pots exhibited at the National Museum of China "Daoyuan Qiming - Zhejiang Shangshan Culture and Archaeology Special Exhibition" were exhibited. Photo by Chen Xiaogen, China News Service
The real beginning of an era: getting out of the cave and domesticating rice
Barley and wheat originating from West Asia, maize in Central and South America and rice in East Asia are the world's three major agricultural origins. Globally, most of the world's major cultivated crops were domesticated around 10,000 years ago – a direct correlation to global climate change from the end of the Pleistocene to the beginning of the Holocene.
The Holocene period lasted from 11,700 years ago to the present day. In the pre-Pleistocene period, there were alternating ice ages with warmer interglacial periods, and humans evolved and traveled around the world, surviving in small groups as hunters and gatherers. By the Holocene, there was a leap forward in several parts of the world: humans began to grow plants, produce more food and store it throughout the year, which saved them from having to migrate around, thus entering the era of settlement, and the emergence of agricultural societies.
According to Dorian Q Fuller, an internationally renowned plant archaeologist and professor at the School of Archaeology at University College London, archaeologists have found the earliest evidence of plant cultivation in about 20 regions around the world, and the Shangshan culture near the southern edge of the Yangtze River Delta region is one of them.
Professor of the School of Archaeology at University College London, UK, and internationally renowned plant archaeologist Fu Daoxiao. China News Service issued Fu Dao sickle courtesy of the picture
In China, rice remains dating back 10,000 years have been found in four places: the xianren cave ruins and bucket ring ruins in Wannian County, Jiangxi, the Jade Toad Rock site in Dao County, Hunan Province, and the Shangshan ruins in Pujiang County, Zhejiang. The Immortal Cave, the Bucket Ring and the Jade Toad Rock are cave sites that eat wild rice, while the Shangshan site is an open-air site that indicates that the ancestors of the Shangshan Mountains have left the caves, entered a seasonal semi-settled state, and began to cultivate and domesticate rice.
"At present, the origin of rice farming in China can only be traced back to the Shangshan culture, and only the Shangshan culture provides us with sufficient archaeological evidence of human farming behavior." Zhao Zhijun, a researcher at the Institute of Archaeology of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, pointed out that for example, a complete set of agricultural production tools: stone sickles suspected of harvesting tools, stone grinding plates and stone grinding rods for processing rice, stone axes and stone hammers may be related to slash-and-burn cultivation; pottery means that humans have begun to cook rice, and even brew wine.
"Shangshan rice cultivation includes a series of evidence of cultivation, harvesting, processing, and milling, and a new system of farming behavior has been initially formed." Jiang Leping, a discoverer of the Shangshan site and a researcher at the Zhejiang Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology, said that the Shangshan people have gone out of the cave to settle down, which marks the real beginning of an era.
In November 2021, Jiang Leping, a discoverer of Shangshan culture and researcher of Zhejiang Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology, introduced the exhibits of "Daoyuan Qiming - Special Exhibition of Shangshan Culture and Archaeology in Zhejiang" at the National Museum of China. Photo by Sun Zifa, a reporter from China News Service
However, the areas cultivated by the shangshan people in the early days have not yet been found. "We found rice in the 'village', but we have not yet found the 'rice field'", Jiang Leping speculated, because the Shangshan cultural sites are on the terrace of three to five meters, and the rice fields are likely to be in the gentle area with low terrain outside the site, looking for the farming area at that time is the biggest unsolved mystery.
As for the origin of rice farming, Chen Xingcan, director of the Institute of Archaeology of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, proposed that there may be an earlier source, but it has not been discovered. At present, most of the 20 sites of the Shangshan culture are distributed in the Jinqu Basin, which is within a range of about 3,000 square kilometers. After more archaeological work, more sites may be found both inside and outside the Jinqu Basin.
Chen Xingcan, director of the Institute of Archaeology of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. Photo by Sun Zifa, a reporter from China News Service
"But for now, our most certain and well-documented archaeological evidence is of course this area: the Shangshan site and the settlements around the Shangshan site. Undoubtedly, it is the earliest settled society known today. Chen Xingcan said.
The significance of exploring the origins of agriculture goes far beyond agriculture
From the origin of 10,000 years ago to around 8,000 years ago, it is a key stage in the origin of agriculture. Zhao Zhijun, a researcher at the Institute of Archaeology of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said that at this stage, perennial settled villages appeared, and began to produce farming and livestock breeding in the true sense.
The long process of origin of rice farming was finally completed during the Liangzhu culture period between 5200 and 4300.
Liangzhu cultural sites are distributed in the Taihu Lake area, during this period the population increased significantly, and the magnificent Liangzhu Ancient City and large-scale water conservancy projects were built.
Photographed in April 2020 in Liangzhu Ancient City Ruins Park, a world cultural heritage site in Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, the river channel and workshop area restore the original appearance of the production and life of Liangzhu ancestors. Photo by China News Service
"A regional ancient social group dating back 5,000 years ago had such a strong ability to organize the organization of society, and a large number of laborers were drawn to engage in labor unrelated to the production of basic means of subsistence, reflecting that rice farming at that time had developed to a fairly high level." Zhao Zhijun said that due to the increase in the yield per unit area of rice, it is only necessary to invest some members of society to engage in agricultural production, which can provide sufficient food for the whole society.
In northern China, the Site of Donghulin in Mentougou, Beijing, coincided almost at the same time as the Shangshan culture. The Donghulin people do not eat rice, but millet, that is, millet. A small amount of charred millet grains have been unearthed at the East Hulin site, and it is likely that millet cultivation has begun. Around 4,000 years ago, wheat was introduced to China, and with its excellent high yield quality, it gradually became the main crop of dryland agriculture in the north, laying the pattern of "southern rice and northern wheat" that continues to this day.
The inquiry into the origins of agriculture is far beyond agriculture. Xiang Ming, director of the Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology of Zhejiang Province, said that the origin of agriculture and social development are closely related, taking millet agriculture and rice farming as an example, rice is much more complex than millet in irrigation, water conservancy, water management, etc., so rice farming is more dependent on nature and has higher requirements for the complexity of social organization. Different forms of agriculture will also affect ancient religious beliefs, concepts and even fine arts, etc., and there is still a lot of research to be done in the future. (End)