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A Journey to the West: The Ancient Dispersal of Rice Out of East Asia

Journal

RICE
Volume 14, Issue 1, Pages -

Publisher

SPRINGER
DOI: 10.1186/s12284-021-00518-4

Keywords

Rice; Paddy farming; West Asia; Archaeobotany; Agricultural intensification; Crop exchange

Categories

Funding

  1. Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History
  2. European Research Council [851102]
  3. Fruits of Eurasia: Domestication and Dispersal (FEDD)
  4. NSFC [41672171]
  5. European Research Council (ERC) [851102] Funding Source: European Research Council (ERC)

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Rice, a culturally valued and widely grown crop, gradually spread westward into West Asia and Europe, with its importance as a crop in West Asia only becoming significant in recent centuries. The adoption of rice outside its regions of origin can be illustrated through historical, linguistic, and archaeobotanical data, showcasing two separate routes of dispersal - one along the South Asian coast and the other through Silk Road trade.
Rice is one of the most culturally valued and widely grown crops in the world today, and extensive research over the past decade has clarified much of the narrative of its domestication and early spread across East and South Asia. However, the timing and routes of its dispersal into West Asia and Europe, through which rice eventually became an important ingredient in global cuisines, has remained less clear. In this article, we discuss the piecemeal, but growing, archaeobotanical data for rice in West Asia. We also integrate written sources, linguistic data, and ethnohistoric analogies, in order to better understand the adoption of rice outside its regions of origin. The human-mediated westward spread of rice proceeded gradually, while its social standing and culinary uses repeatedly changing over time and place. Rice was present in West Asia and Europe by the tail end of the first millennium BC, but did not become a significant crop in West Asia until the past few centuries. Complementary historical, linguistic, and archaeobotanical data illustrate two separate and roughly contemporaneous routes of westward dispersal, one along the South Asian coast and the other through Silk Road trade. By better understanding the adoption of this water-demanding crop in the arid regions of West Asia, we explore an important chapter in human adaptation and agricultural decision making.

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