Thanks Allan, for directions to this paper. The Chinese researchers are claiming this is the "earliest domesticated cereal crop in the world" (Houyuan Lu
et al. 2002: p. 384), crop domestication not being a subject I'm very familiar with, so this has been informative for me even though it's been published since 2002.
Recently, L'Anthropologie devoted an (in press online early) issue to various aspects of the Paleolithic prehistory of Korea:
CLICK HERE, among which, in the article:
La culture du Paléolithique dans la région de Jungwon en Corée.
Paleolithic Culture in the Jungwon Region of Korea.
Yung-jo Lee and Jong-yoon Woo.
there is mention of the Sorori site
("5. Le site de Sorori"), which also is laying claim to being the earliest domesticated rice at 14,000 rcyrbp.
CLICK HERE which calibrated to calendar years would make it earlier than the Chinese claim, but in both cases there seems to be a caution that it's very difficult to discriminate between the latest wild rice and the earliest domesticated rice. Regardless, what Houyuan Lu
et al. call "human induced vegetation changes" (presumably including rice harvesting) in both cases (Korean and Chinese) were occuring previous to the Younger Dryas. The
L'Anthropologie article is in the French language, and although I have the article, I haven't made an attempt to translate much of its content.
The best English-language information I've found on the Sorori site rice is:
EXCAVATION OF THE SORORI PALAEOLITHIC SITE AND ITS SIGNIFICANCE. LEE, Yung-jo (Ph.D)* & WOO, Jong-yoon**4th International Rice Genetics Symposium, Manilla, Philipines, Oct. 22-27, 2000.
CLICK HERE.
Dar
