Discovery shows cave dwellers were farmers too
Print Edition
Chinese archaeologists have found a large amount of carbonized rice grains in a cave from thousands of years ago, challenging the conventional view that cave dwellers were solely hunter-gatherers and not farmers.
More than 10,000 grains were found at a cave in the Nanshan ruins in Fujian Province, which dates from between 4,300 and 5,300 years ago.
At an international conference on prehistoric archaeology that is being held in the province, the team of archaeologists said this evidence of a cave-dwelling agrarian society was the first to be found in China.
The finding was also rare for the world, said Zhao Zhijun, a member of the team who is from the Institute of Archaeology of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.
Zhao said the grains were believed to have been grown by cave dwellers because many farmland weeds were found with the grains.
The team’s studies on the remains of the cave dwellers showed that they had dental cavities and other oral diseases that were common among farmers, said Wang Minghui, a team member.
“It further proves that Nanshan residents mastered some agricultural techniques,” said Wang.
The finding has raised the question as to why the cave dwellers in Nanshan kept living in caves after they started to farm. It is traditionally believed that farmers would move from caves to bigger homes because of strong population growth.
“The Nanshan finding offers a new perspective for prehistoric studies. We must consider more possibilities when talking about where our ancestors lived and what they lived on,” said Zhao.
Excavation of the Nanshan ruins started in 2012. Scores of caves, thousands of items made from pottery, stone and bones, as well as eight tombs and two reservoirs, were found at the site.
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