A few weeks ago, I ventured to comment that I believed that, despite a published report to the contrary, fig trees were not the first plant domesticate, but that rice was first. I did some more digging and discovered that figs and rice were domesticated about the same time, in the early Holocene at the end of the last Ice Age, about 10,000-12,000 years ago, during what archaeologists would call the early Neolithic.

To date, archaeological evidence suggests that domesticated rice (Oryza sativa) was developed from the wild variety Oryza rufipogon, probably in the lower and middle Yangtse River Valley in China, before 10,000 years ago. Some preliminary data have been published suggesting dates as early as 12,000-14,000 years ago, but the full report isn't in press (at least not in the English language press that I could find). An interesting article in the September issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science suggests that rice was domesticated twice, once in China (Oryza sativa v. japonica) and once in India (Oryza sativa v. indica).

For more information, as well as the sources, read the whole article, The Domestication of Rice: The Archaeological Evidence.

More resources are here:

• Fig Trees and Archaeology: The History of the Domestication of Fig Trees
• Domestication of Plants and Animals, information about how domestication works
• History of Rice Origins, from Jun Shan, About's guide to China
• Rice Varieties in Cooking, from Linda Larsen, BusyCooks
• Chinese Rice Recipes, from About's guide to Chinese Cuisine, Rhonda Parkinson
.

Thanks to Ron Hicks (Ball State) for the suggestion and a reference.