ABSTRACT
The Origins of Rice Cultivation Rice was the staple of ancient agriculture over an enormous area of southern and southeastern Asia and of southern China. Today, rice accounts for half the food eaten by 1.7 billion people and 21 percent of the total calories consumed by all of humankind (B. Smith, 1998). Unfortunately, we still know almost nothing about the origins of this most important of domesticated crops. As a result of recent intensive research on the actual rice remains from prehistoric settlements in the lower Yangzi valley, we can now trace in detail the progressive stages in the domestication of this plant species (Fuller et al., 2010). This is made all the more informative because sites such as Hemudu and Tianluoshan, like the Swiss Lake Villages, have survived waterlogged and organic remains, such as house foundations, boats, paddles, and most significantly plant remains, are available for study.
