Bernard
I see Lejjua, Robertshaw & Taylor have published in Journal of Archeological Science [
www.sciencedirect.com] but the paper is behind a $31.50 paywall.
I also found an interesting paper [
lib-ojs3.lib.sfu.ca]
"The entry of bananas: Contact with Asia
Contact between Africa and Asia fueled an exchange
of crops, but the timing and nature of these transfers of
plants and technology are murky. Sorghum, a crop indigenous
to Africa, appeared in South Asia earlier than current
archaeological evidence for its domestication in Africa
(Fuller 2003). Moving in the opposite direction, the
introduction of bananas to Africa is not well understood,
although two primary scenarios have been proposed.
The first entails introduction in several waves via the In-"
dian Ocean, starting more than 2000-3000 years ago (De
Langhe et al. 1994/95, De Langhe & de Maret 1999). The
second suggests introduction to eastern Africa by people
of Malaysian-Indonesian origin, possibly via Madagascar,
in the first millennium A.D. (Rossel 1998:220, Simmonds
1966, Smartt & Simmonds 1995, Vansina 1990:64). Data
derived from outside archaeology argue for the earlier
scenario: Africa has a strikingly high number of cultivars,
among them both AAB plantains cultivated in the Central
African rainforest (c. 120 genetically distinct varieties) and
AAA bananas in the eastern African highlands (c. 100 varieties).
Such high diversity could only have developed
through somatic mutation, requiring a long time of cultivation
and selection by local farmers (De Langhe et al.
1994/95).
Blench (2009) proposes a third scenario for banana introduction.
He argues, based on linguistic evidence, that
plantains� first foothold in Africa was not on the Indian
Ocean coast. Rather, he suggests that plantains entered
western Africa as part of an Indo-Pacific crop package
that included taro (Colocasia esculenta (L.) Schott) and
water yam (Dioscorea alata L.).
"The Stone Age did not end for lack of stone, and the Oil Age will end long before the world runs out of oil"
-- Sheikh Zaki Yamani
