• Chinese farmers cultivated rice as far back as 7700 years ago

HONG KONG (Reuters) - Chinese farmers cultivated rice along the eastern coast as far back as 7700 years ago and used fire and flood control measures to manage their fields, researchers said, citing new evidence.

In a letter published in Nature late last week, geographers in Britain and China described how they found artifacts -- bone, bamboo and wooden tools used for foraging and cultivation -- and high concentrations of charcoal in Kuahuqiao, a freshwater marsh about 200 km southwest of Shanghai.

"About 7700 years ago, people started to burn woody crops and there's a very high concentration of charcoal there and a decline of woody tree pollen," said Zong Yongqiang of Durham University in the United Kingdom.

"These two give us a very clear indication that people used fire to open the site for settlement and cultivation. It wasn't just one burn but over several decades to maintain the ground for rice cultivation ... This could be the earliest paddy cultivation in the world," Zong told Reuters by telephone.

so they used slash & burn way back then, eh?