References
145
The voyaging and trading implications of the Indian data gathered by Sorenson
and Johannessen imply the possibility of a second-wave extension or intensification of a horticultural trade that, even for first-wave Spice Island traders, by 1600
BC may have combined spice trading and the trading of American plants to India.
Greater emphasis on plant trading in the 1,400 years of potential second-wave Spice
Island contact with America after 400 BC suggests the possibility that horticultural
trading, which had been the driving economic force throughout the Spice Islands’
long maritime history, may have remained the main driving force in later maritime
trading even though, for the last 800 years of the second-wave period, Spice Island
maritime control of, or access to, spice sources may have been consistently eroded
by foreign competition. In a wider context, over a period spanning 2,600 years from
the trading of cloves to Terqa to the fall of the Maya, Spice Island horticultural trading can conceivably be seen as the singular persistent economic force driving the
Spice Islanders in their exploration and settlement of the northern Pacific and of
the Indian Ocean and in the persistent maritime contact with America, east Africa
and India that is suggested by the Indian plant data and by historical evidence for
repeated sailings of the Cinnamon Route.
Despite the strength of Sorenson’s and Johannessen’s botanical and archaeological evidence, the role we have ascribed to Spice Islanders as rare plant traders can
only be conjectured. It is possible that Chinese traders may have traded American
plants to India by combining maritime and overland routes. It is possible that Spice
Island and Chinese mariners may both have been involved in trading American
plants to India. The implications of possible Spice Island involvement, however,
are significant enough to encourage even a conjectural consideration of their role
in this trade. The trade certainly existed and Spice Islanders had the motive, means
and opportunity to pursue it. They had the needed maritime and horticultural backgrounds and skills, a long history of transoceanic exploration, trading and migration,
based on following West Pacific Warm Pool currents, a long history of plant domestication in Wallacea and mastery of transoceanic voyaging in two oceans. They are
known to have exploited the oceanographic strategy of following powerful warm
currents to their continental limits in the Indian Ocean over a comparable time span
and distance. Spice Island involvement in the transoceanic plant trade that Sorenson
and Johannessen document might be seen as a logical extension of a 40,000-yearlong history of horticultural trading and plant domestication. It can even be seen
as the realization of the full trading potential inherent in their exploitation of the
strategy of following West Pacific Warm Pool currents to their limits in two oceans.
References
1. Sorenson J, Johannessen C (2008) Scientific evidence for pre-Columbian transoceanic
voyages to and from America. Part One. Maxwell Institute, Provo, Utah
2. Jett S (1978) Precolumbian transoceanic contacts. In Jennings J (ed.) Ancient Native
Americans. W. H. Freeman & Co, San Francisco, pp. 592–650, pp 640–641
3. Jett S (1978) Precolumbian transoceanic contacts. In Jennings J (ed.) Ancient Native
Americans. W. H. Freeman & Co, San Francisco
145
The voyaging and trading implications of the Indian data gathered by Sorenson
and Johannessen imply the possibility of a second-wave extension or intensification of a horticultural trade that, even for first-wave Spice Island traders, by 1600
BC may have combined spice trading and the trading of American plants to India.
Greater emphasis on plant trading in the 1,400 years of potential second-wave Spice
Island contact with America after 400 BC suggests the possibility that horticultural
trading, which had been the driving economic force throughout the Spice Islands’
long maritime history, may have remained the main driving force in later maritime
trading even though, for the last 800 years of the second-wave period, Spice Island
maritime control of, or access to, spice sources may have been consistently eroded
by foreign competition. In a wider context, over a period spanning 2,600 years from
the trading of cloves to Terqa to the fall of the Maya, Spice Island horticultural trading can conceivably be seen as the singular persistent economic force driving the
Spice Islanders in their exploration and settlement of the northern Pacific and of
the Indian Ocean and in the persistent maritime contact with America, east Africa
and India that is suggested by the Indian plant data and by historical evidence for
repeated sailings of the Cinnamon Route.
Despite the strength of Sorenson’s and Johannessen’s botanical and archaeological evidence, the role we have ascribed to Spice Islanders as rare plant traders can
only be conjectured. It is possible that Chinese traders may have traded American
plants to India by combining maritime and overland routes. It is possible that Spice
Island and Chinese mariners may both have been involved in trading American
plants to India. The implications of possible Spice Island involvement, however,
are significant enough to encourage even a conjectural consideration of their role
in this trade. The trade certainly existed and Spice Islanders had the motive, means
and opportunity to pursue it. They had the needed maritime and horticultural backgrounds and skills, a long history of transoceanic exploration, trading and migration,
based on following West Pacific Warm Pool currents, a long history of plant domestication in Wallacea and mastery of transoceanic voyaging in two oceans. They are
known to have exploited the oceanographic strategy of following powerful warm
currents to their continental limits in the Indian Ocean over a comparable time span
and distance. Spice Island involvement in the transoceanic plant trade that Sorenson
and Johannessen document might be seen as a logical extension of a 40,000-yearlong history of horticultural trading and plant domestication. It can even be seen
as the realization of the full trading potential inherent in their exploitation of the
strategy of following West Pacific Warm Pool currents to their limits in two oceans.
References
1. Sorenson J, Johannessen C (2008) Scientific evidence for pre-Columbian transoceanic
voyages to and from America. Part One. Maxwell Institute, Provo, Utah
2. Jett S (1978) Precolumbian transoceanic contacts. In Jennings J (ed.) Ancient Native
Americans. W. H. Freeman & Co, San Francisco, pp. 592–650, pp 640–641
3. Jett S (1978) Precolumbian transoceanic contacts. In Jennings J (ed.) Ancient Native
Americans. W. H. Freeman & Co, San Francisco