東南アジアの初期農耕

Abstract

This Article introduces archaeological remains related to early agriculture, especially rice cultivation, in Late Prehistoric to Early Historic Southeast Asia, and presents aspects of agricultural development based on recent archaeological informations. Cultivated rice remains found at prehistoric to early historic sites in Southeast Asia reveal the appearance of rice cultivation in both Mainland and Islands Southeast Asia in the second millennium B. C., and indicate that various types of rice were cultivated in the first millennium B. C. and the first millenium A. D. Farm implements used in the first millennium B. C. and the first millennium A. D. include the hoe, spade, sickle, harvesting knife and weeder. Many harvesting knives made of shell, stone and metal from Neolithic or Early Metal sites suggest that ear-plucking was the major way of rice harvesting in Early Southeast Asia. On the contrary, most of the sickle-shaped iron implements found at Early Metal sites are not harvesters but weeders of a type that is still used by inhabitants of Southeast Asia. Metal hoes of Yunnan style and Han style were found at Early Metal sites in North and North-Central Vietnam only. Few metal hoes were uncovered at Early Metal sites in Southern Indochina and Malaya, where many iron weeders were found. Based on the distribution of farm implements, it is proposed that there were two tides of rice cultivation in Early Southeast Asia, that is, the agriculture with metal hoe originating in China, and the agriculture with no metal hoe adapted to the natural environment of Deep Southeast Asia.