Chickens crossed to South America from Polynesia, while sweet potatoes went the other way, who knows, maybe in the same canoes. Ok, let’s unpack that a little bit. A DNA study has found links between 14th century (i.e. pre-Columbian) chicken bones buried on the coast of south central Chile and chicken bones from Polynesian archaeological sites, particularly on Tonga and American Samoa. Meanwhile, ocean circulation models suggest that, contrary to previous thinking, a ship setting off from various points along the western coast of South America could indeed have delivered sweet potato seed pods (and bottle gourds?) to Polynesia (in particular the Marquesas) in a relatively short period. These studies have been all over the news lately and are being much discussed in the blogosphere. For example, Gene Expression and John Hawks work through some of the anthropological questions.
Agave paper
There’s a paper out on the diversity of Agave in Mexico, the source of tequila.
Ancient genebank dug up?
Is it possible to trace an intellectual connection from Roman horti to the medieval and renaissance physic garden to colonial botanic gardens such as Kew to the modern genebank? Possibly. If so, news of an archaeological discovery not far from where I’m sitting will be of importance to all who take an interest in agricultural biodiversity.
Archaeology of food
Speaking of conferences, there’s another one that’s worth keeping an eye on, which I learned about via Eurekalert. It’s called Food and Drink in Archaeology 2007 and will feature a keynote address by Professor Martin Jones of the Department of Archaeology, University of Cambridge entitled “Feast: Why Humans Share Food.”
Why is this relevant to us here at the Agricultural Biodiversity Weblog? Well…
Whilst the importance of nutrition for survival has long been recognised, recent studies have increasingly stressed the cultural significance of the production, distribution and consumption of foodstuffs through out all archaeological periods. An understanding of diet in past societies is therefore crucial to an understanding of daily life, and the relationships between different classes and societies throughout the world.
Potato foundation story
You may remember a post a few weeks back on the origins of potato late blight. Now comes news of a DNA study which looked at the origin of the European potato itself.
The spud was introduced into Europe via the Canary Islands in the mid-16th century. The authors of the study compared landraces currently grown in the Canaries, which are thought to be the descendents of those early introductions, with material from Chile and the Andes. There has long been controversy about whether European varieties trace their origins to one or the other of these places.
It turns out the answer is probably both: there were
“multiple early introductions of both Andean and Chilean germplasm to the Canary Islands and to Europe,” said Dr. David Spooner, co-author of the Crop Science study.