Rice holds tremendous significance for nearly half of the modern global population; it is not only an important food source but has also played a key role in the history of human development. About 10,000 years ago, ancient humans began domesticating rice and wheat almost simultaneously in the East and West, leading humanity from a hunter-gatherer lifestyle to an agricultural civilization and eventually into a new era of civilization. Numerous archaeological studies have confirmed that the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River are the origin of rice cultivation. For example, the Shangshan Culture sites in the Qiantang River basin, the Pengtoushan site in the middle reaches of the Yangtze, and the Shunshanji site in the Huai River basin have all uncovered precious evidence of early domesticated rice cultivation dating back more than 8,000 years.
Traditional archaeological work primarily relies on field excavations to search for evidence of our ancestors’ existence. Practitioners in this field usually depend on field surveys, stratum drilling, and excavation to obtain physical evidence. In other words, a group of archaeologists squatting in pits, digging with small shovels and brushes. To date, traditional archaeology has achieved remarkable successes, such as the discovery of nearly 200 prehistoric rice cultivation sites within China, including evidence of 10,000-year-old rice cultivation at the Shangshan site in Zhejiang Puyang.
However, traditional archaeology also faces some insurmountable challenges in revealing the aspects of ancient life. Sometimes the layers of a site, due to their antiquity, are located very deep underground, beyond the depth range of current excavation techniques; or the preservation condition of some layers is poor, affected by natural or human activities, which means many valuable pieces of information cannot be unearthed. Site selection is also a critical task; if the chosen location is too far from the center of ancient human activity, digging deeper might still fail to find noticeable traces of life. More challenging is that with the rapid development of urban construction, new buildings and infrastructure can damage or bury deep underground prehistoric remains, which not only increases the difficulty of archaeological excavation but also risks many evidence related to primitive rice agriculture being overlooked or undiscovered.
Field archaeological evidence suggests that the evidence of primitive rice agriculture in the Yangtze Delta seems to lag slightly behind other regions in time. Generally, scientists believe that the domestication of rice may be closely linked to the course of climate change in prehistoric times. After the end of the last ice age 10,000 years ago, the climate became warmer and more humid. Such climatic conditions facilitated the formation of the Yangtze Delta, providing good living conditions and abundant wetland resources for the residents at the time.
Within the Ning-Zhao Plain embracing the southern area of the Yangtze Delta, after 10,000 years of sea-level fluctuations and climate evolution, successive generations of rice were nurtured. As early as 8,000 years ago, the rice here embarked on a journey of domestication. At the same period, although the climatic conditions of the Yellow River Basin were far less favorable, the imprint of rice cultivation was already widespread there. However, in the downstream areas of the Yangtze River, spanning the Qiantang River basin and the Huaihe area, no evidence of rice cultivation predating 8,000 years has yet been found to this day.
This raises a series of questions: Did the ancient Yangtze Delta never practice rice cultivation? If there was, why has no trace been found so far? Does this mean that the early residents of this region skipped the historical stage of rice cultivation, or have our archaeological techniques not yet made the fortuitous discovery? Traditional archaeological methods seem to fade here, and environmental science technology archaeology may offer a novel solution to this puzzle.
Near the ruins of the Ming Dynasty Imperial Palace in Nanjing, researchers accidentally noticed a special soil sample brought up from the subway construction site in the city. This discovery during their commute extended their thinking—the homogenous, fine soil rich in organic matter might have come from lacustrine sediment, hiding secrets of inestimable value. Historically, this land was part of the ancient Yanchi Lake, and the ink on the pages of history reveals the grand endeavor of Zhu Yuanzhang who moved mountains to fill the lake, allowing the ancient lake sediments to survive to this day.
The value of lake sediments lies in their accurate record of past biological heritage and climate change, acting as nature’s logbook. Among them, pollen is particularly important—being the reproductive cells of seed-bearing plants, their hard texture allows them to transcend time’s barriers, serving as a living witness to past ecological environments.
Finally, in a pollen analysis in the sedimentary layers of the Ming Imperial Palace area, researchers discovered traces of rice-type Gramineae pollen at a depth of 16.9 meters below the surface, an impressively long-term preservation. Through radiocarbon dating, this record was traced back to 8,200 years ago, strongly indicating that stable rice cultivation activities were already present in the Nanjing area at that time, adding a new chapter to the agricultural history of the Yangtze River Delta.
The recent scientific discovery showcases the long history of agricultural activity in the Nanjing area and provides important clues for the study of ancient climates and environmental changes. These evidences from the sediments can be traced back to 8,200 years ago, where phytoliths of rice were found in the sediments of the Liuhe area of Nanjing. Phytoliths are siliceous particles formed inside cells when plants absorb soluble silicate molecules and are important indicators for studying ancient vegetation and environments.
One of the oldest known agricultural sites in Nanjing is the Beiyin Yangying site in the Drum Tower District, with a history of about 6,000 years. However, the newly discovered evidence of rice-type pollen and phytoliths suggests that the agricultural history of the Nanjing area could be even older, with rice cultivation activities dating back to 8,200 years ago.
These findings highlight the importance of archaeological science, playing an indispensable role in unraveling the history of ancient agriculture. Modern scientific methods such as drilling and experimental analysis can effectively supplement the deficiencies of traditional archaeology in excavation while tracking a wide range of information related to agriculture and the environment.
The combined application of scientific archaeology and traditional archaeological methods has brought us a wealth of physical evidence, helping us to deepen our understanding of prehistoric agriculture. This archaeological data helps us to reveal the living conditions and details of agricultural activities of ancient humans, and provides a unique perspective for a deeper understanding of the development of ancient Chinese civilization.
