Soybean domestication
Domesticación de la soja
- Date
- c. 3000-1000 BCE · confidence low
- Place
- Middle Yellow River valley, Henan, China
- Credited to
- Neolithic farmers of northern China
- Field
- Life & health
⚠️ Disputed: the sources disagree.
What was discovered
Wild soybean was gradually domesticated: seeds increase in size from c. 3000 BCE and the plant is well established by the Zhou period. It fixes nitrogen in the soil and provides high-quality protein.
Archaeobotanical data point to several centres (northern China, Korea, Japan); the exact timeline is still debated.
What it led to
- rotation of cereals with legumes
- fermented and processed foods such as tofu and soy sauce
- spread to Korea, Japan and, in the 20th century, to America
Built on
Made possible
- Tofu (soybean curd)c. century II (discutido)
- Jang, fermented soy pastes and sauces (meju, ganjang and doenjang)c. siglos III-VII
- Nattō (soybeans fermented with Bacillus subtilis)c. 1060 (primera mención); origen anterior
- Tempeh (soybeans fermented with Rhizopus)c. siglos XVI-XIX (primera mención escrita: 1815)