| Abstract: |
Introduction: The Swedish geologist J.G. Anderson was the first person to recognize and excavate an important Neolithic village in China in 1921. The Yangshao (仰韶) culture and its successor, the Lung-shan (龍山) cultureboth based on hoe agriculture and distributed mainly in North Chinahave consequently become quite well known in the archaeological world. One typical Yang-shao cultural site, the Pan-po Museum near Zian, has on record that the appearance of dry farming (chiefly millet growing) dates back to 6000 B.P. In recent years, thousands of Neolithic cultural sites have been excavated over most of China (Xia 1977). Numerous Neolithic cultural sites in North China, such as Da-di-wan in eastern Kansu Province, Pei-li-gan in western Henan Province, and Ci-shan in southern Hebei Province, have on record that the appearance of dry farming dates back to 7000-8000 B.P., while several Neolithic cultural sites along the Hangzhou Estuary (Fig. 1) such as He-mo-du on the southern bank and the Luo-jia-jiao in the southeastern Yangtze Delta have recorded that the origin of domesticated paddy rice in South China is as early as 7000 B.P. The latter are certainly among the earliest sites anywhere for growing paddy rice.
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