A Journey to the West: The Ancient Dispersal of Rice Out of East Asia

Abstract

Rice is one of the most culturally valued and widely grown crops in the world today, and extensive research over the past decade has clarified much of the narrative of its domestication and early spread across East and South Asia. However, the timing and routes of its dispersal into West Asia and Europe, through which rice eventually became an important ingredient in global cuisines, has remained less clear. In this article, we discuss the piecemeal, but growing, archaeobotanical data for rice in West Asia. We also integrate written sources, linguistic data, and ethnohistoric analogies, in order to better understand the adoption of rice outside its regions of origin. The human-mediated westward spread of rice proceeded gradually, while its social standing and culinary uses repeatedly changing over time and place. Rice was present in West Asia and Europe by the tail end of the first millennium BC, but did not become a significant crop in West Asia until the past few centuries. Complementary historical, linguistic, and archaeobotanical data illustrate two separate and roughly contemporaneous routes of westward dispersal, one along the South Asian coast and the other through Silk Road trade. By better understanding the adoption of this water-demanding crop in the arid regions of West Asia, we explore an important chapter in human adaptation and agricultural decision making.

The Domestication and Dispersal of Large-Fruiting Prunus spp.: A Metadata Analysis of Archaeobotanical Material

“…is there archaeobotanical evidence attesting to its spread to other regions. These data seem to fit the current understanding of the Trans-Eurasian Exchange, as other East Asian domesticated plants and animals appear to have rapidly dispersed to the far ends of two continents at the same time, notably rice and chicken [98][99][100].…”

OsPSTOL1is prevalent in upland rice and its expression in wheat enhances root growth and hastens low phosphate signaling

“…Yet, presence and Absence alleles are found in varieties on other continents where irrigation and fertilization are well controlled. We do not know if this distribution reflects selection or ancient and modern dispersal routes of rice from Asia to Europe (Spengler et al . 2021) and Asia and Africa to the Americas.…”

Plastome phylogenomics and biogeography of the subfam. Polygonoideae (Polygonaceae)

“…The Asia to North America then to South America route could have been easily established once the spread from Asia to North America was successful, as previously reported in Chrysosplenium (Saxifragaceae), Munroa (Poaceae), Ephedra (Ephedraceae) and Gunnera (Gunneraceae) ( Soltis et al., 2001 ; Wanntorp and Wanntorp, 2003 ; Ickert‐Bond et al., 2009 ; Amarilla et al., 2015 ). Similarly, long distance dispersal form Asia to Europe is achievable via the Himalayas to the West Pamir Mountains (Tajikistan), passing through the northern Iranian Plateau then to the Caucasus ( Figure 6 ), this route was also detected in Oryza (Poaceae) and Triticum (Poaceae) ( Liu et al., 2017 ; Spengler et al., 2021 ).…”