ABSTRACT
The cereals identified in China in neolithic contexts are millet, rice and wheat. Cultivation on the deep primary loess requires a cereal able to stand long rainless periods, and the millet which was the staple of the Yang Shao farmers meets this requirement admirably. Neolithic rice is reported only from places in the eastern part of the Yangtze basin in the well-watered region of southern soil and climate, in each case in a context of local Lung Shan type. The neolithic rice is distinguished by the width of the grain and the prominent fine hairs on the husk surface and the ridges. Wheat has only once been identified with certainty in neolithic context, at Tiao Yu T'ai in northern Anhui, accompanied by Lung Shan pottery. In the Shang Bronze Age, to judge from the divinatory texts excavated at Anyang, wheat was still of minor importance compared with millet.
