| Abstract: |
Professor Peter Bellwood is a leading scholar studying the global origin and expansion of farming, and has published extensively on this topic (e.g. Bellwood 1978, 2005). With his guidance, the author has studied the origins of agriculture in mainland China since the 1990s, and has pursued a number of different archaeological and experimental methods to try and tackle the issue since then. In this chapter, I outline some of the methods of experimental archaeology that have been applied to determine the nature of the origins and development of prehistoric agriculture onwards, summarising the outcome of experimental archaeology integrated with phytolith analysis and ethnographic fieldwork conducted. I argue that integrating cultivation experiments, use-wear analysis of tools, phytolith analysis and ethnographic information can provide novel data and inspirational ideas within the context of the natural and cultural changes involved in and caused by cultivation. Remaining questions for further study are also discussed.
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