Phytoliths and rice: from wet to dry and back again in the Neolithic Lower Yangtze

Weisskopf, Alison; Qin, Ling; Ding, Jinglong; Ding, Ping; Sun, Ge; Fuller, Dorian Q.

doi:10.15184/aqy.2015.94

Cited by 88 publications

(72 citation statements)

References 28 publications

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“…Based on the principle that most of the grass phytoliths in archaeological middens come from the waste of crop processing and therefore reflect the ecologies of rice fields, we can compare the proportion of phytoliths from different parts of the grass plants (Weisskopf et al 2015a). While it may not be possible to identify most grass phytoliths to the genus or species from which they come, it is possible to separate those from leaf surfaces, versus pores, leaf interiors or husks.…”

Section: What Was the Ecology Of Early Rice Cultivation In Different mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Given that all rice is grown in hot climates, the main variable in how much evapotranspiration there is should be water availability, and thus more sensitive forms turn into phytoliths in wetter fields. We have tested this method on phytoliths collected from the soils of modern rice stands, and have also shown logical changes from wetter, to somewhat dry, to wet again in the archaeological sequence of the Lower Yangtze (Weisskopf et al 2015a). …”

Section: What Was the Ecology Of Early Rice Cultivation In Different mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…3900 BC). We have attributed this shift to cultivation in small fields with tight control of flooding and then draining that helped to increase grain production in early rice, which still had ancestral proclivity to perennial growth and lower grain production (Weisskopf et al 2015a). Through the sequence at Baligang we also see a period when cultivation systems became drier although it is less clear why that was (Weisskopf et al 2015b).…”

Section: What Was the Ecology Of Early Rice Cultivation In Different mentioning

confidence: 99%

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Pathways of Rice Diversification across Asia

Fuller

Weisskopf

Castillo

2016

Archaeology International

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The archaeology of rice has made important methodological advances over the past decade that have contributed new data on the domestication process, spread and ecology of cultivation. Growing evidence from spikelet bases indicates that non-shattering, domesticated forms evolved gradually in the Yangtze basin and that there were at least two distinct processes around the Middle Yangtze region pre-dating 6000 BC, and the in the Lower Yangtze region between 6000 and 4000 BC. Early rice cultivation in these areas was based on wet field ecologies, in contrast to rainfed rice that is indicated among the earliest systems in India. When rice first spread north it was not entirely suited to shorter temperate summer growth seasons, and we are able to infer from high levels of apparently green-harvested spikelets that genetic adaptations to temperate conditions evolved after 2000 BC. When rice first spread south, to mainland Southeast Asia, after 2500 BC, it was grown in rainfed, dry ecologies that were less labourdemanding and less-productive. More productive and intensive irrigated rice then redeveloped in Southeast Asia around 2000 years ago, supporting growing population densities and social complexity. IntroductionRice is one of the world's most widely eaten and most productive cereals. Over the past decade archaeobotanical research based at the UCL Institute of Archaeology and involving a wide range of collaborators in east, south, and southeast Asia has been seeking new insights into the processes by which rice evolved and rice cultivation systems evolved, and how these relate to cultural change and long-distance cultural relationships across Monsoon Asia. While this research began with critical reflections and debate surrounding the initial cultivation of rice in China (Fuller, Harvey and Qin 2007) and India (Fuller 2006),

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Section: What Was the Ecology Of Early Rice Cultivation In Different mentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: What Was the Ecology Of Early Rice Cultivation In Different mentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: What Was the Ecology Of Early Rice Cultivation In Different mentioning

confidence: 99%

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Pathways of Rice Diversification across Asia

Fuller

Weisskopf

Castillo

2016

Archaeology International

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“…Stone et al 1990;Stump 2013), parts of East Asia (e.g. Fuller and Qin 2009;Weisskopf et al 2014Weisskopf et al , 2015, and south and eastern India (Morrison 1992;Kingwell-Banham et al 2012;Weisskopf et al 2014Weisskopf et al , 2015, which are dominated by summer rainfall. In these instances, where rainfall primarily comes in the one season, crop species suited to those water availability regimes were exploited, and farming activities were concentrated in particular times of the year.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

‘Multi-cropping’, Intercropping and Adaptation to Variable Environments in Indus South Asia

Petrie

Bates

2017

J World Prehist

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Past human populations are known to have managed crops in a range of ways. Various methods can be used, singly or in conjunction, to reconstruct these strategies, a process which lends itself to the exploration of socio-economic and political themes. This paper endeavours to unpack the concept of 'multi-cropping' by considering diversity and variation in the cropping practices of the populations of South Asia's Indus Civilisation. It argues that nuanced interpretations of the evidence provided by the combinations of crop seeds and weeds present in specific contexts and phases of occupation can reveal much about Indus cropping strategies, which in turn enables consideration of issues related to adaptation, intensification and resilience in the face of changing social, political, economic and environmental climates.

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“…Some of the earliest farming ecologies took advantage of soils naturally replenished by annual flooding. These include many early Pre-Pottery Neolithic sites in the Levant, inferred from site locations (Scott 2017: 66;Sherratt 2007), and the decrue rice agricultural systems of China in use prior to evolution of domesticated, non-shattering rice (Fuller, Weisskopf and Castillo 2016;Weisskopf et al 2015). But as cultivation expanded, and crops became morphologically closer to domesticated forms, thus more demanding, intensive management of soil conditions became necessary, as inferred for rice based on early field systems and associated phytolith indicators (Fuller and Qin 2009;Weisskopf et al 2015), and for early Near Eastern/ European wheat and barley based nitrogen isotopes from archaeological grains (Bogaard et al 2013;Styring et al 2017).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Open for Competition: Domesticates, Parasitic Domesticoids and the Agricultural Niche

Fuller¹,

Stevens²

2017

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This paper explores the relationship of weeds and crop parasites in the domestication of crop-plants within the Old World, drawing predominately on China and the Near East. This relationship is explored using the concept of niche construction in which the act of cultivation sets about chains of feedback in which the ecological worlds of plants and humans became increasingly intertwined resulting in ever increasing spheres of interdependence. Into this domestication entanglement a number of peripheral organisms (termed parasitic domesticoids) were drawn, from the weeds which came to inhabit arable fields, to the insect pests and rodents that came to settle in the grain stores of the first farmers. The evolution and spread of these organisms is then outlined against that of the crop itself.

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Phytoliths and rice: from wet to dry and back again in the Neolithic Lower Yangtze

Abstract: Abstract

Cited by 88 publications

References 28 publications

Pathways of Rice Diversification across Asia

Pathways of Rice Diversification across Asia

‘Multi-cropping’, Intercropping and Adaptation to Variable Environments in Indus South Asia

Open for Competition: Domesticates, Parasitic Domesticoids and the Agricultural Niche

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