Posted on 12/16/2022 11:02:30 PM PST by SunkenCiv
Striations and residue found on stone tools in China reflect harvesting methods.
Anew Dartmouth-led study analyzing stone tools from southern China provides the earliest evidence of rice harvesting, dating to as early as 10,000 years ago. The researchers identified two methods of harvesting rice, which helped initiate rice domestication...
Wild rice is different from domesticated rice in that wild rice naturally sheds ripe seeds, shattering them to the ground when they mature, while cultivated rice seeds stay on the plants when they mature.
To harvest rice, some sort of tools would have been needed. In harvesting rice with tools, early rice cultivators were selecting the seeds that stay on the plants, so gradually the proportion of seeds that remain increased, resulting in domestication...
In the Lower Yangtze River Valley, the two earliest Neolithic culture groups were the Shangshan and Kuahuqiao. The researchers examined 52 flaked stone tools from the Shangshan and Hehuashan sites, the latter of which was occupied by Shangshan and Kuahuqiao cultures...
To determine if the stone flakes were used for harvesting rice, the team conducted use-wear and phytolith residue analyses. Phytolith refers to the silica skeleton of plants...
Through the phytolith residue analysis, the researchers analyzed the microscopic residue left on the stone flakes. They found that 28 of the tools contained rice phytoliths.
(Excerpt) Read more at home.dartmouth.edu ...
“wild rice naturally sheds ripe seeds,
shattering them to the ground”
I used to harvest wild fice as a kid in
Minnesota. It is accomished using a canoe
and two straight “sticks”, in shallow
water, on our private ponds.
The amazing thing was the number of ducks
that would surround the canoe looking
for any rice dropped in the water.
Any rice plant I’ve seen, caught on dry
land due to receding water levels, would
die rather quickly, and not produce any
rice.
The visible sign on stone tools that were used for harvesting plants is called, “sickle sheen.” Stone tools used to cut meat don’t have the sheen. Pretty cool article. Thanks for posting it.
KingLudd has had an avocational interest in stone tool replication and flintkanpping for almost 30 years. I’m hoping this early technology gets popular again. Until then, Spyderco.
You may get your wish with the collapse right around the corner.
Happy knapping!
My pleasure.
Phytolith - the lab hired a soil scientist on a part time basis. One day we were discussing historic prairies. He said that he could tell what grasses had been growing by microscopic examination of the soil, identifying the silicon phytoliths which do not age in particular.
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