Agronomical and archaeological investigations on rice cultivation culture in ancient China

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The objects of field researches in China were to consider the origin and development of rice cultivation and the oldest rice cultivation culture in China or in the world. The studies were conducted as followings : (1) investigating the distributions and ecological situations of wild rice growing sites in the southern parts of China, (2) taking the scaled photographs of carbonized rice grains excavated from the Neolithic remains distributed in the upper, middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze river in order to compare the characteristics of the grain sizes and shapes among the locations, (3) collecting information from the archaeological materials excavated from the remains related to the ancient rice cultivation culture in China at the Neolithic Age.Until the recent years, the earliest remains of rice cultivation culture in China were such remains as the Kaboto and Rakakaku Neolithic ones located in the province of Sekkou on the lower reaches of the Yangtze river. But the Houtousan remains excavated at Rii prefecture in the province of Konan in 1988 was carbon-dated to ca. 6500 BC. Four carbonized rice grains found in the earthenwares were measured by the scaled photographs. The data showed the expectations that Japonica type rice varieties or short grain type ones were cultivated on the middle reaches of the Yangtze river in the 8500 BP. The facts presented the serious problems onto the origin of rice cultivation