Approaching the Origins of Rice in China and Its Spread towards Indus Valley Civilization (Pakistan, India): An Archaeobotanical Perspective
Muhammad Azam Sameer *
Department for the History of Science and Scientific Archaeology, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230026, China
Zhang Juzhong
Department for the History of Science and Scientific Archaeology, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230026, China
Yang Miao Miao
Department for the History of Science and Scientific Archaeology, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230026, China
*Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Abstract
The rice (Oryza sativa) was the central crop of the Ancient Civilizations. Most of the economy of ancient societies was based on rice. In the present Era, archaeobotany and ecology rebuild the ancient rice domestication in a systematic way. Historical and archaeobotanical records establish the fact that early rice farming was started at the Southern part of the China (Yangtze River basin), and later on rice was spread towards Indus Valley Civilization (Pakistan, India). It is also the fact that rice has been a crucial crop of both Ganges valley and China. The journey of earliest rice from China to Indus Valley Civilization (Pakistan, India) is the focusing of this manuscript. With this, the ancient rice agriculture of China, as well as Pakistan and India, is also the central part of the writing. Different phases of archaeobotany and its progress in Pakistan and India has also been presented in the writing. The origin of ancient rice and its dispersal is appealing debate which has been discussed in this paper hypothetically and systematically.
Keywords: Archaeobotany, Ancient Chinese rice, Ancient rice of Indus Valley, rice dispersal