Agronomical and archaeological investigations on rice cultivation culture in ancient China

田野调查的对象是研究中国稻作的起源和发展，以及中国乃至世界最古老的稻作文化。研究进行如下：（1）调查了我国南方地区野生稻产地的分布和生态状况;（2）拍摄了长江上、中、下游新石器时代遗址出土的野生稻颗粒的比例照片，比较了不同地点野生稻颗粒的大小和形状特征;（3）收集新石器时代中国古代稻作文化遗存的考古资料，直到近年来，中国最早的稻作文化遗存是位于长江下游的石口省的Kaboto和Rakakaku等新石器时代遗存。但是1988年在甲南道里井县挖掘出的后头山遗骸被碳测年为大约1000年。公元前6500年通过比例照片测量了在陶器中发现的四个碳化米粒。这些数据表明，8500年前长江中游地区栽培粳稻或短粒型水稻品种的预期。这些事实对稻作起源提出了严重的问题

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