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Volume 11
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10.3390/land11060831
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Article

Discovery of the Earliest Rice Paddy in the Mixed Rice–Millet Farming Area of China

by
Xiujia Huan
1,
Xingtao Wei
2,*,
Jianping Zhang
1,
Jindou Li
2,3,
Xiaohu Zhang
2,
Konglan Shao
1,4,
Yong Ge
4,
Xiaoyan Yang
5,6,7 and
Houyuan Lu
1,4
1
Key Laboratory of Cenozoic Geology and Environment, Institute of Geology and Geophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100029, China
2
Henan Provincial Institute of Cultural Heritage and Archaeology, Zhengzhou 450000, China
3
School of Archaeology and Museology, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China
4
University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China
5
Key Laboratory of Western China’s Environmental Systems (Ministry of Education), College of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou 730000, China
6
Group of Alpine Paleoecology and Human Adaptation (ALPHA), Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China
7
State Key Laboratory of Tibetan Plateau Earth System, Resources and Environment (TPESRE), Beijing 100101, China
*
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Land 2022, 11(6), 831; https://doi.org/10.3390/land11060831
Submission received: 22 April 2022 / Revised: 15 May 2022 / Accepted: 31 May 2022 / Published: 2 June 2022
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Effects of Human-Environment Interaction on Land Ecosystem since Holocene)
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Abstract

Neolithic rice remains were recovered from a mixed rice–millet farming area in China outside the original centers of rice farming. Whether the rice remains were the result of local cultivation or obtained through trade remains unclear. Rice paddy fields are direct evidence of local cultivation. In this study, phytolith samples from the Zhangwangzhuang site were analyzed. The discriminant function distinguished 17 of 30 samples in the suspected paddy field area as rice paddy fields with an average probability of 74%; The proportion of rice bulliform phytoliths with ≥9 scales indicated that rice (Oryza sativa) was still being domesticated and, moreover, six η-type phytoliths from broomcorn millet (Panicum miliaceum) were identified. These results suggested that the suspected paddy field at Zhangwangzhuang might be the earliest rice paddy field (ca. 6000 cal. BP) in northern China and that mixed farming was practiced here since the early Yangshao period. This study adopted discriminant analysis methods to discover ancient rice paddy fields, observed rice paddy fields outside the core rice origin area, and provided the earliest evidence regarding the development of mixed rice–millet farming in the upper Huai River region.
Keywords: phytolith; ancient rice paddy; the Zhangwangzhuang site; discriminant function; Yangshao cultural period phytolith; ancient rice paddy; the Zhangwangzhuang site; discriminant function; Yangshao cultural period

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MDPI and ACS Style

Huan, X.; Wei, X.; Zhang, J.; Li, J.; Zhang, X.; Shao, K.; Ge, Y.; Yang, X.; Lu, H. Discovery of the Earliest Rice Paddy in the Mixed Rice–Millet Farming Area of China. Land 2022, 11, 831. https://doi.org/10.3390/land11060831

AMA Style

Huan X, Wei X, Zhang J, Li J, Zhang X, Shao K, Ge Y, Yang X, Lu H. Discovery of the Earliest Rice Paddy in the Mixed Rice–Millet Farming Area of China. Land. 2022; 11(6):831. https://doi.org/10.3390/land11060831

Chicago/Turabian Style

Huan, Xiujia, Xingtao Wei, Jianping Zhang, Jindou Li, Xiaohu Zhang, Konglan Shao, Yong Ge, Xiaoyan Yang, and Houyuan Lu. 2022. "Discovery of the Earliest Rice Paddy in the Mixed Rice–Millet Farming Area of China" Land 11, no. 6: 831. https://doi.org/10.3390/land11060831

APA Style

Huan, X., Wei, X., Zhang, J., Li, J., Zhang, X., Shao, K., Ge, Y., Yang, X., & Lu, H. (2022). Discovery of the Earliest Rice Paddy in the Mixed Rice–Millet Farming Area of China. Land, 11(6), 831. https://doi.org/10.3390/land11060831

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