Sweet potato history casts doubt on early contact between Polynesia and the Americas
4/13/2018 06:00:00 PM
Evidence reported in the journal Current Biology shows that sweet potatoes arose before there were any humans around to eat them. The findings also suggest that the sweet potato crossed the ocean from America to Polynesia without any help from people. The discovery raises doubts about the existence of pre-Columbian contacts between Polynesia and the American continent.
"Apart from identifying its progenitor, we also discovered that sweet potato originated well before humans, at least 800,000 years ago," says Robert Scotland from the University of Oxford. "Therefore, it is likely that the edible root already existed when humans first found this plant."
Read more at
https://archaeologynewsnetwork.blogspot.com/2018/04/sweet-potato-history-casts-doubt-on.html#ymSoOMzttwwHvFYh.99
