Amazon farmers discovered the secret of domesticating wild rice 4,000 years ago

[rangerrebew]

Public Release: 9-Oct-2017
Amazon farmers discovered the secret of domesticating wild rice 4,000 years ago


Amazonian farmers discovered how to manipulate wild rice so the plants could provide more food 4,000 years ago, long before Europeans colonised America, archaeologists have discovered.

Experts from the UK and Brazil have found the first evidence that ancient South Americans learned how to grow bigger rice crops with larger grains, but this expertise may have been lost after 1492 when the indigenous population was decimated, research shows.

https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2017-10/uoe-afd100817.php

[driftdiver]

Public Release: 9-Oct-2017
Amazon farmers discovered the secret of domesticating wild rice 4,000 years ago


Amazonian farmers discovered how to manipulate wild rice so the plants could provide more food 4,000 years ago, long before Europeans colonised America, archaeologists have discovered.

Experts from the UK and Brazil have found the first evidence that ancient South Americans learned how to grow bigger rice crops with larger grains, but this expertise may have been lost after 1492 when the indigenous population was decimated, research shows.

https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2017-10/uoe-afd100817.php

More likely it points to some transfer of knowledge from Asia since they were harvesting rice well before this.