Archaeologists have discovered American sweet potato starch granules in early site deposits of Aotearoa/New Zealand’s South Island (Te Waipounamu), revealing how the tuberous root was instrumental to Polynesian colonisation of cooler climate South Pacific islands.
The American sweet potato features prominently in Polynesian oral tradition, being associated with the Māori god of agriculture and peace. Today, it is the world’s fifth most important comestible crop.
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Despite its importance to Polynesian life both in the past and today, little is known about the timing and circumstances of the sweet potato’s initial spread across Oceania. Some botanists propose that sweet potato drifted naturally into Polynesia thousands of years ago. But many anthropologists infer undated human mediation instead, especially since the ancient Māori crop name kūmara is a variation on pre-Columbian American sweet potato names.
Location maps for places and regions of this study: A) Polynesia, including Eastern Polynesian homeland ‘ellipse’ region identified in grey fill (after Yen 1974; Green 2005); B) central Aotearoa (base data CC BY 4.0) (figure by Les O’Neill).
“Given these uncertainties and intriguing possibilities, scholars have debated exactly when, and even if, sweet potato became important in early Polynesian colonisation,” says lead author of the research, Professor Ian G. Barber from the University of Otago.
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To tackle this, Professor Barber and Rebecca Waikuini Benham from Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga evaluated and radiocarbon dated deposits incorporating starch granules of Polynesian crops from a multi-period Māori cultivation complex at Triangle Flat, northwestern Te Waipounamu. Their results are published in the journal Antiquity.
The results suggest that kūmara were cultivated at Triangle Flat as early as AD 1290-1385, alongside Asia-Pacific taro and yam (uwhi) crops, and then again as late as the eighteenth century. They provide the first pre-1400 Te Waipounamu evidence for kūmara cultivation – as early as anywhere else in Polynesia – and for the southernmost world attempt to grow uwhi.
Importantly, these earlier dates correspond with the period during which colonisation of Polynesia’s southernmost habitable islands began. They point to the transfer of sweet potato into those southern islands during initial settlement, rather than sometime after people first arrived.
M24/11 sections presenting shelly mounded surfaces above planting pits filled with post-harvest beach shell (indicated within broken lines): A) lower L2 context between oblique baulk edges below discrete but disturbed beach mollusc cap (ii) and extensive mollusc deposit (i), N41 E15 (location Figure S1; also in Barber 2013: figs. 4, 6B–B’); B) L4 context at border of N21 E3–E4 (SD3). Scale 100mm in each section (photographs by Ian Barber; figure by Les O’Neill).
American sweet potatoes are an incredibly efficient root crop, able to grow faster, and in much harsher conditions, than taro and uwhi. This research suggests that these qualities helped sustain early settlement in cooler Pacific island regions, perhaps including subtropical Rapa Nui/Easter Island where sweet potato became a dietary staple as well. It also supports Māori traditions of kūmara cultivation in Hawaiki, the central Polynesian homeland, when the first voyagers set out for southern Polynesia.
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“American sweet potato resilience as bequeathed by continental evolution may have helped motivate early migrants to cross cooler waters for southern Polynesian islands where kūmara would outperform,” adds Professor Barber.
These findings could also have implications for improving modern food security. “Adverse impacts of climate and other environmental changes have affected twenty-first century sweet potato production,” concludes Professor Barber. “The archaeology of Oceanic sweet potato persistence might yet inform modern efforts to enhance crop resilience.”
The article, “American sweet potato and Asia-Pacific crop experimentation during early colonisation of temperate-climate Aotearoa/New Zealand,” by Ian G. Barber and Rebecca Waikuini Benham appears in Antiquity. A link will be added soon.
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Top Image: Precontact Māori pā/fort, Puponga headland, northwestern Te Waipounamu, about one kilometre south of study site. Credit: Ian Barber
Archaeologists have discovered American sweet potato starch granules in early site deposits of Aotearoa/New Zealand’s South Island (Te Waipounamu), revealing how the tuberous root was instrumental to Polynesian colonisation of cooler climate South Pacific islands.
The American sweet potato features prominently in Polynesian oral tradition, being associated with the Māori god of agriculture and peace. Today, it is the world’s fifth most important comestible crop.
Despite its importance to Polynesian life both in the past and today, little is known about the timing and circumstances of the sweet potato’s initial spread across Oceania. Some botanists propose that sweet potato drifted naturally into Polynesia thousands of years ago. But many anthropologists infer undated human mediation instead, especially since the ancient Māori crop name kūmara is a variation on pre-Columbian American sweet potato names.
‘ellipse’ region identified in grey fill (after Yen 1974; Green 2005); B) central Aotearoa (base data CC BY 4.0)
(figure by Les O’Neill).
“Given these uncertainties and intriguing possibilities, scholars have debated exactly when, and even if, sweet potato became important in early Polynesian colonisation,” says lead author of the research, Professor Ian G. Barber from the University of Otago.
To tackle this, Professor Barber and Rebecca Waikuini Benham from Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga evaluated and radiocarbon dated deposits incorporating starch granules of Polynesian crops from a multi-period Māori cultivation complex at Triangle Flat, northwestern Te Waipounamu. Their results are published in the journal Antiquity.
The results suggest that kūmara were cultivated at Triangle Flat as early as AD 1290-1385, alongside Asia-Pacific taro and yam (uwhi) crops, and then again as late as the eighteenth century. They provide the first pre-1400 Te Waipounamu evidence for kūmara cultivation – as early as anywhere else in Polynesia – and for the southernmost world attempt to grow uwhi.
Importantly, these earlier dates correspond with the period during which colonisation of Polynesia’s southernmost habitable islands began. They point to the transfer of sweet potato into those southern islands during initial settlement, rather than sometime after people first arrived.
American sweet potatoes are an incredibly efficient root crop, able to grow faster, and in much harsher conditions, than taro and uwhi. This research suggests that these qualities helped sustain early settlement in cooler Pacific island regions, perhaps including subtropical Rapa Nui/Easter Island where sweet potato became a dietary staple as well. It also supports Māori traditions of kūmara cultivation in Hawaiki, the central Polynesian homeland, when the first voyagers set out for southern Polynesia.
“American sweet potato resilience as bequeathed by continental evolution may have helped motivate early migrants to cross cooler waters for southern Polynesian islands where kūmara would outperform,” adds Professor Barber.
These findings could also have implications for improving modern food security. “Adverse impacts of climate and other environmental changes have affected twenty-first century sweet potato production,” concludes Professor Barber. “The archaeology of Oceanic sweet potato persistence might yet inform modern efforts to enhance crop resilience.”
The article, “American sweet potato and Asia-Pacific crop experimentation during early colonisation of temperate-climate Aotearoa/New Zealand,” by Ian G. Barber and Rebecca Waikuini Benham appears in Antiquity. A link will be added soon.
Top Image: Precontact Māori pā/fort, Puponga headland, northwestern Te Waipounamu, about one kilometre south of study site. Credit: Ian Barber
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