Abstract:

A large number of plant remains were discovered in the ancient-woods layer of Zhujiajian Island, Zhejiang Province. There were some thick trunks, complete laminas, fruit, seeds and so on. According to radiocarbon tests conducted for plant remains, the ancient-woods layer has been dated back to about 8750–6200 years, and the vegetation was a subtropical evergreen and deciduous broad-leaved mixed forests on the island in the past. In the middle of the ancient-woods layer, two grains of wild rice were explored accidentally, which are Oryza rufipogon, along with the fruit and seeds of some water plants, such as Ceratophyllum demersum, C. oryzetorum, Euryale ferox, Trapa incisa var. quadricaudata, Scirpus yagara and so on. There might be marshy soil and a pond in ancient forest vegetation from where the grains of wild rice and hydrophytic fruit were found. It is of tremendous importance to study the origin of wild rice in China.

Key words: ancient-woods layer, wild rice, agricultural archaeology