Rice was grown by early Indus Valley farmers

Angela

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http://www.archaeology.org/news/5029-161121-indus-domesticated-rice

"CAMBRIDGE, ENGLAND—It had been thought that domesticated rice was introduced to India and Pakistan from China in 2000 B.C., but The Telegraph India reports that farmers in the Indus civilization cultivated rice as much as 430 years earlier. Researchers from Banaras Hindu University and the University of Cambridge have found a progressive increase in the proportion of domestic rice, and a decrease in wild rice, between 2430 and 2140 B.C. at archaeological sites in northwest India. The study also suggests that early Indus farmers grew a diverse range of crops, such as rice, millet, and beans during the summer, and wheat, barley, and pulses during the winter, in order to take advantage of summer and winter rains. “Until now, many had argued that the Indus people had not routinely cultivated rice,” said Ravindra Nath Singh of Banaras Hindu University. “Our findings suggest that rice domestication had already occurred in South Asia before the arrival of Oryza [sativa] japonica [the Chinese variety].”
 
the crops from SW Asia relied on winter rains and a dry summer growing season
rice grows in an monsoon climate
NW India has a monsoon climate with a wet season in summer
that is why the settlements of SW Asian farmers, who already arrived 9.5 ka in India (1000 year before Europe) didn't expand very fast
I guess when a few domesticated rice grains arrived with a few Chinese farmers, it had instant succes, even if it wasn't oryza japonica yet
 
Great info Angela & bicicleur. Just a little for the record, early rice cultivation in China was centered around the Yangtze River located in the South. The latitude at which the Yangtze is at is close to the latitude of the Indus, so similar environments does seem to favor independent development of the cultivation rice in both areas and perhaps other crops.
 
yes, but afaik by 4 ka there were Chinese rice farmers in the lower Brahmaputra and Ganges. they were haplogroup O. I don't know whether there was a connection with these people or not. it seems to me not much is known about the prehistory in Southern Asia. the oldest known neolithic site of Bhirrana has been discovered only 2 years ago
 
The first cultivated rice effectively was in Middle China around 7000 BC, but it took several millennia to be diffussed in Indochina (the first real neolithic there starts around 2500) and south India. Maybe the Harappans, being already farmers, got an extra use of their riverine lands with rice. Maybe there was a Harappan demic diffussion in South India as western crops can't resist there the mean anual rainfall. But rice can.
 
I think what surprised the authors is that this is not the Chinese variety, which arrived later. Perhaps, having learned to domesticate one plant, they were experimenting with some native wild varieties initially.
 
The first cultivated rice effectively was in Middle China around 7000 BC, but it took several millennia to be diffussed in Indochina (the first real neolithic there starts around 2500) and south India. Maybe the Harappans, being already farmers, got an extra use of their riverine lands with rice. Maybe there was a Harappan demic diffussion in South India as western crops can't resist there the mean anual rainfall. But rice can.
It is interesting how farming started almost in same time period in few places independently, and all after Ice Age. Granted it was probably too cold and to dry for Fertile Crescent and Mid China, but why not in Savanna Africa or Indonesian Jungle, or other warm and wet place during Ice Age? What was the problem?
 
It is interesting how farming started almost in same time period in few places independently, and all after Ice Age. Granted it was probably too cold and to dry for Fertile Crescent and Mid China, but why not in Savanna Africa or Indonesian Jungle, or other warm and wet place during Ice Age? What was the problem?
there was a start in the African savanna with sorghum and auroch domestication (Nabta Playa) and also the Papoea's had some cultivates like yam, taro, breadfruit and probably bananasif agriculture hadn't spread from the Levant, it is likely to have started in some other places some millenias laterbut in the Levant, conditions were ideal to start agriculture; for mid China, I have a suspicion rice was allready grown on the dry yellow Sea bottom before, around 9 ka while sea level was rising, rice cultivation all of a sudden pops up in several places simultaneously in China
 

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