The Surprising Ingredient That Helped Polynesians Conquer the Pacific

Candy potatoes are a really versatile tuber. You’ll be able to roast them. You’ll be able to bake them right into a pie. You’ll be able to flip them into the third finest sort of french fry. And apparently, you can also make them an integral a part of colonizing Polynesian islands.

Candy potatoes will not be indigenous to Polynesia, having arisen 1000’s of miles away in Central and South America. Even so, the tasty root vegetable has turn into a staple of the islands’ delicacies. Whereas it was recognized that the crop had arrived in jap Polynesia a while after human settlement in 900 CE, after which unfold westward in the direction of New Zealand, scientists have debated precisely how and when it obtained there. Some proof suggests candy potato seeds reached the area via pure means, equivalent to birds, wind, and sea currents. Now, new analysis hints that the crop’s presence was a significant factor in enabling human enlargement throughout the Polynesian islands.

A group of archaeologists, led by College of Otago professor Ian Barber, scoured the New Zealand island Te Wāhipounamu for stays of historic kūmara, because the Maori name candy potatoes. They discovered what they have been on the lookout for at Triangle Flat, an space that was as soon as house to a Maori farming advanced. Within the sand, they situated candy potato granules, which they then carbon dated.

Outcomes confirmed that the crop may have been planted as early as 1290 CE, over 100 years sooner than beforehand believed on the island, and across the similar time that settlers first started colonizing the southernmost Polynesian islands. As Barber wrote in his ensuing research, printed Wednesday within the journal Antiquity, the findings counsel candy potatoes have been among the many first crops planted by colonizers. Actually, the supply of candy potatoes as a crop could have been among the many components that made settling the islands doable within the first place.

The vegetable is understood for its hardiness, in addition to for the pace at which it grows. Polynesia is an enormous community of over 1,000 islands, and settlers wanted hardy crops to maintain themselves as they unfold to new territories with cooler climates than these of islands nearer the equator. In a press launch, Barber advised that Polynesians could have been galvanized by the information they’d such a sturdy meals supply at their disposal.

“American candy potato resilience, as bequeathed by continental evolution, could have helped inspire early migrants to cross cooler waters for southern Polynesian islands the place kūmara would outperform,” he mentioned.

There might be some better impacts of Barber’s analysis. In response to the Worldwide Potato Middle, greater than 105 million metric tons of the crop are produced globally annually, making it the world’s fifth largest crop. Local weather change, nevertheless, threatens to have an effect on manufacturing, as areas that produce a considerable amount of the provision may heat dramatically by 2070. Barber expressed hope that finding out the unfold of candy potatoes may uncover new methods to enhance the crop’s resilience. If that occurs, you’ll know who to thank for saving your favourite Thanksgiving facet dish.