Washington, May 30.- Rice was cultivated for the first time in China nearly 10,000 years ago, according to a study published by specialized magazine Proceedings, from the US Academy of Sciences.
The source said this moment coincides with the human start on the cultivation of wheat in the Near East and corn in South America, when the Earth's climate registered drastic changes, from glacier cold, to warm interglacial weather.
The remains of ancient rice were restored at the site of Changsha, low banks of the Yangtze River, China, and are recognized as the first traces of rice cultivation in the history of the Earth.
The researchers obtained the age of the fossils by dating by carbon in organic matter found in pottery shards, and concluded that they have nearly 9,400 years.
Further analysis showed that 36 percent of the Shanghshan rice phytolithis were more than nine features in the form of fish scales.
That represents less than 67 percent found in the modern cultivated rice, but more than 17 percent approximately of modern wild rice.
The phytolithis are plant traces of roots or spores of a plant in the ground, which can be preserved for posterity in the sediment.
These can be harvested in soils of archaeological sites and identify themselves as products of a plant, or another.
In China, the phytolithis are being studied since 1995.