Carbonized Rice

The rice that we are looking at is about 3,000 to 6,500 years old so far, which was unearthed from Xiaojin relics in Ziyuan County, Guilin. Over 2,000 precious cultural relics including earthen wares, pottery shards and kernels, were unearthed there in the meantime. A series of mausoleums and architectural sites with great archaeological values were also discovered. The over 13,000 rice grains unearthed here have been identified as primitive cultured japonica rice and non-glutinous rice through preliminary authentication. They are the earliest rice specimens with the largest amount at the highest altitude discovered in the region south of the Five Ridges so far. The discovery of the carbonized rice indicates that people at that time had begun agricultural cultivation and had well-mastered techniques of planting rice.