Neolithic Rice Cultivation In Thailand

[Joel Barlow]

Rice cultivation may have originated in the now submerged Sunda Shelf area before the end of the last Ice Age (11,000 BCE, 13,000 BP? one site I looked at today said 16,000 BCE), or along the middle Yangtze River, in Hubei and Hunan Provinces, China (11,500 BP, 9500 BCE). There were Neolithic communities in north and central Thailand 10,000 years ago, near waterways, who left cave paintings (and clumsy stone tools)… but when did rice first arrive? I wonder also about livestock (chickens, pigs, quai)

A google search (for the title given this thread gave rice in the Korat plateau 2300 BCE, no rice at Spirit Cave (9000 BCE - MaehongSon, I think) and at Non Nok Tha (I've no idea where), permanent settlements with elaborate burials and rice present in earliest levels (4-3000 BC) but which may have been transitional between wild and truly domesticated.

There were also some sites I could not access for lack of a code... leading me to suspect more may be known!

Clearly, domestication occured well before the T'ai, or the Mon.

[sceadugenga]

I'd be curious to see how that compared with other grains like wheat and barley (oh most blessed of crops) world wide. I suppose it all came about when early man realised he could put some of the seeds back in the ground and not have to go hunting for it next year.

[Tarragona]

An old edition of the Thai "Art and Culture" magazine (December 1996) suggests that rice was being cultivated in the area at least 5,000 years ago, with evidence of 2 different types of 'khao niaw'.

There's also a reference to Non Nok Tha, Khon Kaen, going back at least 5,500 years, though it seems unclear whether the rice here was wild or cultivated.

Edited April 26, 2007 by Tarragona

[buddhafly]

the history of rice is nice.

but how about the historical facts about the first people to write about the first grains of rice.

as much as joel barlow's post about neolithic rice does get my paddy perked, i have deeper questions, like:

did someone else write about rice ages ago, even decades ago? or pre-forum, centuries ago?

were those cave drawings actually stories about rice?

[goski]

No, I'm sure the drawings were telling the story of the urban legend "sprice":

1. sprice 2 up, 3 down

coolest guy ever. on a scale of one to awesome, he is super great.

other names: sexxmaster ice, squeak, the almighty reverend.

[svenivan]

I wonder also about livestock (chickens, pigs, quai)

And when came the first ostrich to Chiang Rai?