Archaeobotany · phytoliths · genomics · dispersal corridors

Rice Explorer

From wetland coevolution to world staple

Rice Explorer maps published evidence for rice domestication and dispersal across Asia, Africa, the Indian Ocean, the Mediterranean, and the Americas. It keeps Asian rice, African rice, and Amazonian wild-rice domestication evidence separate while showing probable corridors of movement, exchange, and adoption.

Open explorer Methodological note Comment / source correction
—Evidence points
—Probable corridors
—Source records
100k BPDeep Origins panel

Methodological note

Evidence type over narrative simplicity

Rice Explorer is cumulative and evidentiary, not a single-arrow origin myth. A plotted point can represent a site, a tightly bounded excavation region, or a model-supported evidence zone. Each card declares its evidence type, date range, confidence level, source register, and caution text.

Routes are probable dispersal corridors inferred from clustered archaeobotanical, genomic, historical, and trade-route evidence. They are not claims that an object, population, or plant lineage moved directly from one plotted node to another.

Phytoliths ≠ grains Presence ≠ domestication Domestication ≠ single event Routes ≠ certainty

Deep Origins panel

Before the spread: wild rice, gathering, cultivation, domestication

This panel is intentionally separate from the main timeline. It summarizes deep-time phytolith evidence without compressing a 100,000-year sequence into the Holocene dispersal map.

Evidence map

Global rice domestication and dispersal

Bright points are active by the selected date. Faint points mark later evidence so the academic geography remains visible while the temporal slider is used.

Reading the data

What a point means

Some points are single archaeological sites; others are regional model anchors when the cited paper discusses a corridor or evidence zone rather than a single excavation. Regional points are marked with broader halos and stronger caution language.

The v1.1 seed dataset is designed for a polished academic visualizer, not a final catalogue. It can be expanded paper by paper by editing the JSON files.

Route semantics

How to read the lines

  • Solid: strong combined support from archaeobotanical and/or genomic evidence.
  • Dashed: probable corridor with partial or regionally clustered support.
  • Dotted: historical, maritime, linguistic, or trade-route inference.

Scholarly source register

Seed bibliography used by v1.1

NoDB JSON comment section

Corrections, source suggestions, and research notes

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Comments are stored locally in /rc/rice/data/rice-comments.json. Use this for source corrections, better coordinates, date refinements, and paper suggestions.

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