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Rice was a staple crop in the ancestral Austronesian areas of Taiwan and Island Southeast Asia, however it was unidentified in any of the Pacific Islands at the time of European encounters, with the exception of the special case of Guam and the Mariana Islands. New research study by researchers from Guam, China and Australia validates the existence of plentiful rice husk and leaf phytoliths sticking to red-slipped pottery discovered in Ritidian Beach Cave in Guam, dated by radiocarbon to 3,500 to 3,100 years back.
Ritidian Beach Cave, Guam. Image credit: Hsiao-chun Hung.
The concern of early rice in the settlement of the Pacific Islands links to the bigger context of rice as an essential food amongst the ancient Austronesian-speaking individuals, accountable for the world’s most extensive language household before the overlay of worldwide colonial growths.
Austronesian individuals grew rice considering that at least 4,800 years back in Taiwan, the growing obviously decreased amongst the neighborhoods beyond eastern Indonesia into the Remote Pacific Islands.
Ancestral Austronesian populations moved from Taiwan through the Asia-Pacific area, beginning around 4,200 years earlier.
These early islanders brought domesticated rice from Taiwan, traced back to a source in the center Yangtze Basin of mainland China.
Within this context, the function of rice in Guam and the Mariana Islands in western Micronesia has actually drawn in extreme attention, as the Marianas were the only islands in Remote Pacific Oceania where individuals grew rice, testified a minimum of as early as the documentary records of the 1500s through 1600s.
“The findings provide brand-new hints about ancient migration and culture,” stated Dr. Hsiao-chun Hung, an archaeologist at Australian National University.
“Until now, historical proof has actually exposed just unusual traces of rice in the remote Pacific going back possibly 1,000 to 700 years earlier– so the proof we’ve discovered presses that timeline back considerably.”
Rice phytoliths from excavations at Ritidian Beach Cave, Guam. Scale bars– 10 μm. Image credit: Carson et aldoi: 10.1126/ sciadv.adw3591.
Dr. Hung and her coworkers discovered the ancient remains of rice in Ritidian Beach Cave in northern Guam, a website that still holds cultural significance today.
“While rice was an everyday staple in numerous ancient Asian societies, this discovery shows that in the remote Pacific it was dealt with as a valuable product, booked for routine usage instead of being taken in daily,”Dr. Hung stated.
“We have not discovered any proof of ancient rice fields, watering systems or harvesting tools in Guam.”
“Our findings support the concept that the very first Pacific Islanders transferred rice with them from the Philippines throughout 2,300 km of open water– the longest recognized ocean trip of the time.”
“It shows not just their innovative navigation abilities however likewise their insight in maintaining and transferring valuable resources throughout huge ranges. It highlights how essential rice needs to have been.”
“Ritidian Beach Cave offers a distinct insight into the lives of the very first residents of the location, as a lot of other cavern websites in Guam were interrupted throughout and after the Second World War.”
“Despite several years of work at outdoor websites we discovered no proof of early rice usage previously.”
“This discovery indicate a deep and long-lasting connection to ancestral customs and an Asian homeland.”
“The rice husks were discovered in the website’s earliest cultural layer and were dated utilizing a series of sophisticated strategies, consisting of radiocarbon dating of surrounding human rubbish mounds– called middens.”
“People most likely prepared the rice in other places, far from the cavern, as grain processing and cooking unquestionably would have left other traces.”
“A moist cavern environment would have disagreed for keeping unprocessed rice in pots.”
“The ancient rice stays were discovered just on the surface areas of the pottery, dismissing regular food storage.”
The discovery is reported in a paper in the journal Science Advances
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Mike T. Carson et al2025. Earliest proof of rice growing in Remote Oceania: Ritual usage by the very first islanders in the Marianas 3500 years earlier. Science Advances 11 (26 ); doi: 10.1126/ sciadv.adw3591
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