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Rice Bulliform Phytoliths Reveal The Process Of Rice Domestication In The Lower Yangtze Region

Posted on:2017-01-25Degree:MasterType:Thesis
Country:ChinaCandidate:Y C MaFull Text:PDF
GTID:2283330485479117Subject:Cultural relics and museums
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The origin of agriculture, especially the origin and spread of rice agriculture, has been highlighting for decades. The methods that how to distinguish between japonica and indica, and between the wild and the domesticated from rice remains are crucial to study these issues. Many attempts to distinguish japonica from indica had been practiced in last century. To date, how to differentiate the wild from the domesticated rice is becoming the new focus and that the process of rice domestication is protracted turns into a common view. However, the detail of the process is unclear. The relationship between rice domestication and other plants use, and what the role of rice agriculture played in the process of the social complexity need further study.Because of the detailed archaeological work and the abundance of the rice remains recovered from the sites in the lower Yangtze River region, the region is the ideal place to study the above issues.38 archaeological samples from 8 Neolithic sites are collected, while 4 modern wild and 13 modern domesticated rice paddy soils from southern China are collected as contrast samples. Based on previous studies, the analysis of the rice bulliform phytoliths recovered from above samples shows that the process of rice domestication could be divided into three stages. Stage Ⅰ was from the early Shangshan culture to the early phase of Hemudu culture (10,000-6500BP), during which the domestication rate was slow, sometimes even regressed. Stage Ⅱ was from the late Majiabang culture to the early Songze culture (6500-5600 BP), during which the domestication process accelerated. Stage Ⅲ was from the early Liangzhu culture to the Guangfulin culture (5300-3900 BP). The process of rice domestication was complete during the Liangzhu culture. The process lasted about 5000 years, during which the length and width of rice bulliform phytolith together with the proportion of domesticated rice spikelet bases, the b/a ratio of bulliform phytolith, and the proportion of domesticated bulliform phytolith came to stabilityone after another during the late Majiabang culture, the early Songze culture, the early Liangzhu culture, respectively. When identifying rice remains, all the criteria above should be taken into account.The trend of the proportion of rice in the plant diet is consistent to the process of rice domestication. The late Majiabang culture is also the turning point of the latter. Before the late Majiabang culture, the proportion of rice was lower than wild plants and gathering was the dominating strategies. Rice became the staple plant food source after the Songze culture, along with the cultivation of bottle gourd, muskmelon and peach from the Liangzhu culture to the Guangfulin culture. Referring to the previous studies on social changes, we think that one of the main forces of social development was the rice domestication and the formation of rice agriculture, which provided substantial supports for the Liangzhu civilization; however, social development had not only relied on the rice agriculture after the late Liangzhu culture.
Keywords/Search Tags:Lower Yangtze River region, The process of rice domestication, Rice Bulliform phytolith, Multiple indexes, Origin and spread of agriculture
PDF Full Text Request
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