8.3 Archaeological Evidence for the Introduction of American Plants to India
139
it sterile. The preservation in America of varieties with seeds suggests a very early
introduction to America from Wallacea.
A third possible first-wave plant introduction to America was of Morus celtifolia,
a paper mulberry similar to the plant used by many Asiatic papermakers, which
Sorenson and Johannessen tell us were identified by Von Hagen “in the taxonomy
of over 60 years ago” as a tree whose bark was still then being made into paper
by the Otomi Indians of central Mexico (p. 38). They note that stone bark beaters,
dated to 1500 BC, identical to those used in Sulawesi in Wallacea, were excavated
by MacNeish et al. [9] in the Tehuacan Valley of Mexico and that as Tolstoy [10]
had “demonstrated that the bark cloth/paper complex of Mesoamerica was parallel
in great detail to bark-processing methods in island Southeast Asia”, there appears
to be evidence for the ancient introduction of the white mulberry (Morus alba) to
Mesoamerica from Wallacea along with the technology for making cloth and paper
and the stone bark beaters found in the Tehuacan Valley.
Aside from the peanut, which could have been brought back to Southeast Asia
by either anomalously early Spice Island or Chinese explorers 4,000 years ago, and
a possible early introduction of maize, the earliest plant introductions into China, as
we have noted, appear to be late second-wave introductions made in the 6th and 7th
centuries AD. In other words, the Indian botanical and archaeological evidence suggests that first-wave Spice Island mariners could have been actively procuring and
trading American plants to India 2,000 years before second-wave Chinese traders
began introducing American food plants to China.
The fact that there may be little chance of obtaining evidence for either first- or
second-wave spice trading with America does not invalidate the secure Indian botanical and archaeological evidence for the introduction of American plants to India.
Whether or not Spice Island traders were responsible for trading American plants to
India, this evidence needs to be explained. Nor does it invalidate the evidence just
presented in which Wallacea appears to be the source both for an early introduction
to America of banana species with seeds and for the 1500 BC paperbark beaters
found in an area where Wallacean paperbark trees were still growing in the 20th
century and where paper and cloth making were still being practised using ancient
Wallacean techniques. Arguably China had early paper making but the domestication of bananas in China has never been proposed and the ancient stone bark beaters
found in America were identified not as Chinese but as Wallacean.
8.3.3 Second-Wave Introductions of American Plants to India
Archaeological evidence for some of the earliest plants to be introduced to India
in the second-wave period of Spice Island voyaging at the end of the global cold
period in about 400 BC is listed below. The earliest was possibly one of three
Argave species to have reached India. Its fibres combined with plant resins were
used in caulking a Greek ship sunk at Kyrenia in Cyprus in the 4th century BC
[11]. Whether this plant reached Greece from the Spice Islands via the Cinnamon
139
it sterile. The preservation in America of varieties with seeds suggests a very early
introduction to America from Wallacea.
A third possible first-wave plant introduction to America was of Morus celtifolia,
a paper mulberry similar to the plant used by many Asiatic papermakers, which
Sorenson and Johannessen tell us were identified by Von Hagen “in the taxonomy
of over 60 years ago” as a tree whose bark was still then being made into paper
by the Otomi Indians of central Mexico (p. 38). They note that stone bark beaters,
dated to 1500 BC, identical to those used in Sulawesi in Wallacea, were excavated
by MacNeish et al. [9] in the Tehuacan Valley of Mexico and that as Tolstoy [10]
had “demonstrated that the bark cloth/paper complex of Mesoamerica was parallel
in great detail to bark-processing methods in island Southeast Asia”, there appears
to be evidence for the ancient introduction of the white mulberry (Morus alba) to
Mesoamerica from Wallacea along with the technology for making cloth and paper
and the stone bark beaters found in the Tehuacan Valley.
Aside from the peanut, which could have been brought back to Southeast Asia
by either anomalously early Spice Island or Chinese explorers 4,000 years ago, and
a possible early introduction of maize, the earliest plant introductions into China, as
we have noted, appear to be late second-wave introductions made in the 6th and 7th
centuries AD. In other words, the Indian botanical and archaeological evidence suggests that first-wave Spice Island mariners could have been actively procuring and
trading American plants to India 2,000 years before second-wave Chinese traders
began introducing American food plants to China.
The fact that there may be little chance of obtaining evidence for either first- or
second-wave spice trading with America does not invalidate the secure Indian botanical and archaeological evidence for the introduction of American plants to India.
Whether or not Spice Island traders were responsible for trading American plants to
India, this evidence needs to be explained. Nor does it invalidate the evidence just
presented in which Wallacea appears to be the source both for an early introduction
to America of banana species with seeds and for the 1500 BC paperbark beaters
found in an area where Wallacean paperbark trees were still growing in the 20th
century and where paper and cloth making were still being practised using ancient
Wallacean techniques. Arguably China had early paper making but the domestication of bananas in China has never been proposed and the ancient stone bark beaters
found in America were identified not as Chinese but as Wallacean.
8.3.3 Second-Wave Introductions of American Plants to India
Archaeological evidence for some of the earliest plants to be introduced to India
in the second-wave period of Spice Island voyaging at the end of the global cold
period in about 400 BC is listed below. The earliest was possibly one of three
Argave species to have reached India. Its fibres combined with plant resins were
used in caulking a Greek ship sunk at Kyrenia in Cyprus in the 4th century BC
[11]. Whether this plant reached Greece from the Spice Islands via the Cinnamon