Ancient Voyagers Brought Rice across 2300 km of Ocean 3500 Years Ago

Описание: The earliest evidence of rice in Remote Pacific Oceania now has been found in Guam of the Marianas Archipelago. The preserved phytoliths of ancient rice husks and leaves dated back to the first time when people lived in this region, about 3500 years ago.

Rice was unknown in all of the other Pacific Islands, outside this one anomalous case of Guam and the Marianas. Even here, rice was thought to be a recent introduction within the last 1000 years.

The discovery of a much older date now forces us to re-think and re-write what we thought we knew about rice in ancient life across the Asia-Pacific region.

Key reference:
Mike T. CARSON, Weiwei WANG, Xiujia HUAN, Siqi DONG, Hsiao-chun HUNG, Zhenhua DENG, 2025. Earliest evidence of rice cultivation in Remote Oceania: Ritual use by the first islanders in the Marianas 3500 years ago. "Science Advances", Volume 11: DOI 10.1126/sciadv.adw3591

The research article was published in the peer-reviewed journal "Science Advances", 25 June 2025. Anyone can access online for free, including the article and the supplementary materials:
https://www.science.org/doi/full/10.1...

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