Scientists from the University of Otago in New Zealand have found the location of one of the earliest securely dated sites of sweet potato cultivation in Polynesia, New Zealand’s South Island.

They found evidence of microscopic sweet potato starch granules alongside Asia-Pacific taro (a root vegetable) and Pacific yam (uwhi) at Triangle Flat in Golden Bay (Mohua) on South Island. The cultivation was dated to as early as AD 1290-1385.

“These early dates correspond with the period during which settlement of Aotearoa New Zealand began and provide the first pre-1400 evidence for kumara (sweet potato) cultivation in Te Waipounamu — as early as anywhere else in Polynesia — and for the southernmost world attempt to grow uwhi,” a statement by the University of Otago noted.

New Zealand, called Aotearoa in the language of its indigenous Maori people, is divided into two main islands. The more populated North Island and the more scenic and larger in size South Island. The latter is known as Te Waipounamou or ‘Island of the greenstone’ in Maori.

‘Blue Continent’

The Polynesians were born out of a synthesis of Asian and Papuan cultures (as is now well-known from analysis of mitochondrial DNA) between roughly 1800 BC and 700 AD.

Between 700 and 1595, they colonised most of their traditional homeland of Polynesia or the islands of the Pacific Ocean. Polynesia is roughly defined as a ‘triangle’ whose three corners are Hawaii, New Zealand and Easter Island.

Armed with just their famous double-hulled, outrigger canoes (something similar to the Tamil catamarans) and with a knowledge of stellar and marine animal movements, the Polynesians colonised these islands, isles and atolls, farming, developing kitchen gardens, developing distinct art forms today famous globally like tattoos and the Haka dance and also fighting (and sometimes cannibalising) each other in brutal tribal warfare.

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