Archaeologists have unearthed a large amount of carbonized rice grains in a cave dating from the New Stone Age in Fujian Province. The discovery strongly challenges the original view that cave dwellers only hunt but did not cultivate land for food.
The archaeological exploration was launched by CASS (Chinese Academy of Social Science), Fujian Museum and Mingxi County Museum in Nanshan ruins, Sanming City.
Archaeologists announced that more than 10, 000 carbonized rice grains, dating back to New Stone Period, have been found in Cave NO.4 of Nanshan ruins. This proves that original residents have mastered some agricultural techniques and created first-ever cave-dwelling agrarian society in China.
Could the grains be obtained by other means? The answer is NO. According to Zhao Zhijun, a member of CASS, many farmland weeds were found along with the grains. They must have been grown by those ancestors. In addition, according to Wang Minghui from CASS, some typical farmers’ dental diseases have been found in the bone, which further proves that Nanshan residents acquired some agricultural techniques.
The new findings offer a new perspective for prehistory study and come up with new question: Since farming began, why the Nanshan residents continued to live in caves instead of moving into more spacious homes?