The Hanoitimes - While excavating a historical site in Hanoi’s Me Linh district, archaeologists discovered many burnt paddies in the layer of soil estimated to be 3000 years old. Ten of the paddies have sprouted while soaked in a preservative.
Dr. Lam Thi My Dung, chair of Archaeology in the History Department of Hanoi University for Social Sciences and Humanities, confirms the report.
Dr. Dung explained that, over one month ago, her university and the Hanoi Museum jointly conducted an excavation at Thanh Den. Archaeologists found traces of ancient fire cookers on an area of 300 square meters.
In early May 2010, they discovered the burnt paddies and also rice at four fire cookers at a depth of nearly 1 meter, along with food remains like fish bones and snail shells.
She noted that it is not unusual to discover burnt paddies and rice, but scientists were astonished to see that 10 paddies have sprouted after two days of being soaked in a preservative substance.
Dr. Dung can’t explain about the vitality of these paddies, but, as the one who pursued the excavation from the beginning, Dung confirmed that these paddies are from kitchen dust-holes of the Dong Dau culture, pre-Dong Son age, around 3000-3500 years ago.
In response, agricultural scientists are excited. Le Duy Ham, director of the Agricultural Genetic Institute, maintained that paddies can sprout after several thousand years, but admitted that this is a very rare phenomenon.
“In principle, it is very difficult to have 3000 year old paddies sprouting. However, these paddies may have been preserved in a special environment that we don’t know about yet,” Ham added.
Vietnam Institute for Agricultural Sciences Director Nguyen Van Bo revealed that even the most modern technology can only preserve seeds that can sprout 50-100 years later at maximum. He asserts that it will be necessary to analyze the carbon content of these paddies to have an accurate and convincing answer.
Dr. Dung plans to conduct carbon analysis in 1-2 weeks, when scientists finalize their excavation of Den citadel. The results will be made public several months later.
She went on to say that the discovery is very meaningful, because it is evidence of the ancestor’s wet rice civilization.
“This is a unique discovery that advances new research issues. We must answer the questions: what variety of paddy is it, why can it sprout after 3000 years, what environment were the paddies preserved in and do they have valuable genes?” Dung listed.
Dr. Dung on May 17 confirmed that excavators have found more paddies at more of the citadel’s excavation sites and they hope more will sprout.
Dung said that Vietnamese scientists need to cooperate with foreign colleagues to seek the answer quickly. Sprouting paddies have been transferred to the Agricultural Genetic Institute and the Hanoi University of Agriculture for research.
Director Ham has not discovered the differences in these paddies compared with normal paddies. He observed that his institute’s experts would keep a careful eye on the paddy development and would conduct genetic research to know whether they are ancient paddies or not.
“If this is an ancient rice variety, it would be an unprecedented discovery, which is extremely meaningful in terms of history and heredity,” Ham stated.
International archaeologists have recorded seeds that can sprout after hundreds or thousands of years. In 2002, scientists from the University of California successfully tested the vitality of 500-year-old lotus seeds taken from a lake in China. In 2005, Israeli revealed that it multiplied a date-palm tree from 2000-year-old date-palm seeds.
