Between Archaeology and Text: The Origins of Rice Consumption and Cultivation in the Middle East and the Mediterranean

pia Muthukumaran, S 2014 Between Archaeology and Text: The Origins of Rice Consumption and Cultivation in the Middle East and the Mediterranean. Papers from the Institute of Archaeology, 24(1): 14 pp. 1-7, DOI: http:// dx.doi.org/10.5334/pia.465 SHORT REPORT Between Archaeology and Text: The Origins of Rice Consumption and Cultivation in the Middle East and the Mediterranean Sureshkumar Muthukumaran* I. Introduction Asiatic Rice Oryza sativa L. (Poaceae) is a domesticated grain crop native to the tropical and subtropical regions of Asia, which presently ranks among the most important grains in a global diet. Oryza sativa is comprised of two distinct phylogenetic subspecies, namely japonica and indica, for which genetic evidence indicates at least two centres of domestication: the Lower Yangtze valley for the broad thick-grained japonica (c. 4000 BC) and the Gangetic basin for the thin elongated indica variety (c. 2500 BC) (Fuller et al 2010; idem 2011; Nesbitt et al 2010: 325–7). Modern genetics of landraces from northeast India may indicate a third distinct origin for the so-called aus rice varieties (Londo et al 2006: 9581–2). The genetic history of this taxon is further complicated by post-domestication hybridisation between domesticates and their wild ancestors as well as the presence of rarer forms like the aromatic rice varieties (basmati in South Asia and sadri from Iran) which may be of independent origin (Nesbitt et al 2010: 324–5). In South Asia domesticated rice is attested at various archaeological sites in the Ganges basin from the mid-3rd millennium BC * Department of History, University College London, UK onwards. It subsequently appears at mature and late Harappan levels in north-western India (c. 2000 BC) before arriving at the edge of the eastern Iranian plateau at Pirak on the north Kachi plain in the early 2nd millennium BC (Costantini 1981; Fuller 2006: 36; Sato 2005). The presence of rice at Pirak heralds its gradual westward movement along the Iranian plateau via overland and perhaps even coastal routes into western Iran and Mesopotamia. While much effort has been expended in the archaeological sciences over the past few decades to refine our knowledge of rice domestication in prehistoric East and South Asia, there have been few attempts to trace its westerly anthropogenic diffusion from those centres of domestication to the Middle East and the Mediterranean. Although rice is an important crop in the Middle East and the eastern Mediterranean by Late Antiquity (c. 250 - 600 AD), the earliest history of rice in those regions is unclear and its appearance in antiquity has primarily been discussed with the aid of Greco-Roman and Hebraic texts (Hehn 1887; Rabin 1966; Konen 1999). The materials for the study of rice cultivation in the ancient Middle East are, however, already to be found in Akkadian and Elamite, the written languages of Mesopotamia and southwestern Iran. Owing to substantial philological impediments, these texts have rarely been utilised in any discussion of rice Art. 14, page 2 of 7 cultivation in the ancient Middle East and the Mediterranean. I will attempt in this paper to integrate the diverse strands of archaeological and textual data in order to understand the spatial and chronological distribution of rice consumption and cultivation as well as postulate potential trade pathways along which rice was introduced into the Middle East and the Mediterranean. II. The Archaeological Data The archaeobotanical imprints of riziculture in the Middle East and the Mediterranean before the 1st century AD are meagre and of dubious value in assessing its agricultural potential. A single charred grain of rice was reported from the site of Hasanlu (ancient Gilzanu) in northwestern Iran from a pit dated by the excavators to 750–590 BC (Tosi 1975). Van der Veen (2011: 77), however, suggests that the single grain of rice from Hasanlu may be a misidentification of einkorn (Triticum monococcum) especially since subsequent archaeobotanical work at the site yielded no trace of rice at the 1st millennium levels (van der Veen 2011: 77). On a related note, einkorn grains recovered by Japanese researchers in the early 1970s at Sang-i Čakmaq, a Neolithic site in northern Iran, were also misidentified at the outset as rice, owing to the superficial morphological similarities between einkorn and rice (Fuller, personal communication). As for the Mediterranean basin, the earliest positive strand of evidence comes from Mycenaean Tiryns where German excavators have identified a single uncharred grain of rice dating to the 12th century BC (Late Helladic IIIC) (Kroll 1982: 469). The hot and dry summers of the Argolid do not augur well for water-intensive rice cultivation and consequently this find, if not intrusive, must represent an exotic import rather than a locally cultivated taxon (Sallares 1991: 23). Egypt, where rice was eminently suited to grow in the Delta and Fayyūm oasis, has produced hardly any evidence for the cultivation and consumption of rice before the Greco-Roman period (Konen 1999: 34–5). Muthukumaran: Between Archaeology and Text Two 18th century French antiquarians had independently reported pieces of rice straw used as a binder on the gilded plaster covering of a statue of Osiris (de Caylus 1752: 14; Sonnini 1799: 253) but the current whereabouts and date of this statue remains ill-defined. While some modern scholarly works (Daressy 1922; Darby et al 1977: 493) are favourable to the testimony of the18th century French scholars, finds of rice straw, which are difficult to identify with certainty, should be treated as suspect. Following a long dearth in data, the 1st century AD is relatively well endowed with rice finds from various Roman and Parthian sites across Europe and the Middle East. Somewhat unexpectedly Roman settlements beyond the Alps, namely Novaesium (Neuss am Rhein) and Mogontiacum (Mainz) in Germany and Tenedo (Zurzach) in Switzerland, have produced significant evidence for the consumption and ritual use of rice (Knörzer 1966: 433–443 ; idem 1970: 13, 28; Nesbitt et al 2010: 329; Furger 1995: 171; Zach 2002: 104–5). The Roman military encampment at Novaesium (Neuss) produced 196 charred grains of rice dating to the first quarter of the 1st century AD. These were recovered from a building identified as a military hospital (valetudinarium) suggesting that rice was valued for its medicinal properties, which are amply remarked upon in various Roman pharmaceutical and medical treatises. Dioscorides, for instance, notes that rice was ‘moderately nutritious and it binds the bowel’ (MM II.95 Beck 2011). Other finds are less substantial but offer different contexts for the use of rice. At Mogontiacum (Mainz), the capital of Germania Superior, a single grain of rice was found in a sacrificial pit at the temple of Isis and Magna Mater dating to the second half of the 1st century AD or slightly later (Zach 2002: 104–5). As rice was (...truncated)