Remote cave in Guam reveals ancient voyagers carried rice to Pacific islands 3,500 years ago, study finds
In a new study Published today in Science AdvancesMy colleagues and I discovered the first proofs of rice in the Pacific Islands – in an old cave site in Guam in the Mariana Islands in western Micronesia.
Domesticated rice was transported by the first islanders, which sailed 2,300 kilometers [1,400 miles] of the open ocean from the Philippines about 3,500 years ago.
The discovery establishes longtime academic debates and satisfied with decades of curiosity for the origins and lifestyles of the first peoples of the Pacific.
The case of Mariana, located more than 2,000 km [1,240 miles] East of the Philippines and northeast of Indonesia, is particularly intriguing. These islands were the first places Distant oceania Reached by anyone, in this case inhabited for the first time by the Malayo-Polynesian populations of the Southeast Asian Islands.
For almost two decades, the scholars have debated the timing and the source abroad of these first islanders, the ancestors of today Hot. How did they come to Guam and Marianas?
Archaeological research confirmed the colony in the Mariana islands 3,500 years ago on several sites in Guam, Tinian and Saipan.
In 2020, Guam’s first old DNA analysis confirmed what archeology and linguistics had suggested: the first settlers came from the center or north of the Philippines. Other ancestral links retrace them in Taiwan, the homeland of their language and their genetics.
A well -planned trip with rice on board
Was this epic journey intentional or accidental? What source of food allowed these first sailors to survive?
Today, Pacific islanders are mainly counting on bread fruit, banana, coconut, taro and yam. Rice, although a staple food in ancient and modern Asian societies, is difficult to develop in the Pacific due to environmental constraints, including the type of soil, precipitation and the field.
In relation: What is the oldest known recipe?
Rice was originally domesticated in central China About 9,000 years ago and was spread by neolithic agricultural communities while migrating to new regions. One of the most remarkable of these extensions began in the southern coast of China, moved to Taiwan and spread through the Southeast Asia Islands in the Pacific.
Migration has laid the foundations of the Austronesian world, which today includes nearly 400 million people dispersed in a large area that extends from Taiwan to New Zealand and Madagascar on Easter Island.
For more than a decade, we looked for evidence of early rice in open archaeological sites through the Mariana islands, but we found nothing conclusive.
This study marks the first clear proof of ancient rice in the Pacific Islands. He also confirms the renowned American linguist Robert Blust’s hypothesis that the first Chamorros brought cultivated plants with them, including rice.
How we identified the rice
Our research took us to the cave of Ritidian Beach in Guam. To confirm what we found in the cave, the rice remains, we used phytolith analysis. Phytoliths are microscopic silica structures formed in vegetable cells that persist long after the plant’s disintegration.
Once our initial results have confirmed the presence of rice, a more detailed analysis revealed that we had found traces of rice shells kept on the surfaces of ancient terracotta pottery.
Then, we used a detailed microscopic analysis to determine if these balls had been mixed in the clay to prevent it from cracking when it dried (a temperament technique commonly used by old potters) or had arrived by other means. We also analyzed the sediments to exclude that the balls were deposited on the site later than pottery.
Our results have shown that rice balls were not used to make pottery. Rather, they came from a separate and deliberate activity using the finished pottery bowls.
Ritual use in sacred caves?
The framework of discovery – a beach cave – gives us another prospect of interpretation.
In the traditions of Chamorro, caves are sacred places for important spiritual practices.
According to files from 1521 to 1602, the Chamorro people in the Mariannes made rice in limited quantities and consumed it only, reserved for special occasions and critical life events, such as the imminent death of a loved one. Rice became more common after the intensive Spanish colonial period, after 1668.
In this context, ancient islanders have more likely used rice during ceremonial practices in or around caves, rather than a basic food for daily cooking or agriculture.
One of the greatest trips in human history
This study provides solid evidence that the first long -distance ocean passages in the Pacific were not accidental. People carefully planned travel. The first sailors brought them not only survival tools, but also their symbolic and culturally significant plants, such as rice.
They were equipped, prepared and resolved, making one of the most extraordinary trips in the history of humanity.
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