Chronology of ancient Dongxiang wild rice (Oryza rufipogon Griff.), and the morphologies of grains, double-peaked phytoliths, and starch, in the middle Yangtze river region, China
2017
Abstract Common
wildrice (
Oryza rufipogon), the ancestor of Asian domesticated rice (
Oryzasative ), is used as a comparator for identifying
Oryzaspecies in
archaeological records. However, little attention has been paid to the characteristics of the grain morphology, double-peaked
phytolithsand starch granules in ancient
wildrice. Dongxiang
wildrice is believed to be the current northernmost extent of
wild
Oryzain Asia, but few studies have been reported on the history of its growth in Dongxiang. A stratigraphic, chronological analysis of the ancient
wildrice remains discovered in the sediment core at the Anjiashan in
situ conservation(ISC) site in Dongxiang proves that
wildrice may have been present in Dongxiang since at least 500–300 cal. BP, which includes the period of climatic variations commonly called the “Little
Ice Age”. Furthermore, based on a comparison between ancient and modern
wildrice, as well as some indica (Huixiang 9126), japonica (Bijing 37) cultivars, it is demonstrated that the grain size of
wildrice, in contrast to the double-peaked
phytolithand starch granule parameters, changed little during the “Little
Ice Age” of the Ming and Qing Dynasties in China, and that in terms of grain shape analysis
wildrice is easily confused with indica . This may be one of the reasons why traditional grain shape and grain size analysis usually does not work well in classifying the
Oryzaspecies, and why some rice remains from archaeological sites were mainly indica as judged from their shapes but japonica in terms of their morphological parameters of double-peaked
phytolithsand spikelets. Our findings may not only assist in elucidating the spatiotemporal distribution of
wildrice, but can also provide important reference parameters for the identification of
Oryzaspecies in
archaeological records.
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