Canberra, June 27 -- Australian archaeologists have discovered the earliest traces of rice in the remote Pacific, offering new insights into the lives of the region's first island communities, new research has revealed.
Traces of rice husks, embedded in pottery shards, were discovered in Ritidian Beach Cave in northern Guam and dated to 3,500 years ago, according to a release from the Australian National University (ANU) yesterday.
The find, published in Science Advances, pushes evidence of rice in the Pacific back more than 2,000 years, indicating early islanders transported it from the Philippines over 2,300 km of open sea, said the release.
"While rice was a daily staple in many ancient Asian societies, this discovery indicates that i...