Allan Shumaker Wrote:
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> Bernard,
> It may turn out that there were other groups
> involved in navigating in and around the Indian
> Ocean several millenia B.C.. There was an
> interesting link in your ucdavis link
>
> "Meluhha
> Ancient Mesopotamian texts speak of trading with
> at least two seafaring civilizations - Magan and
> Meluhha - in the neighborhood of South Asia in the
> third millennium B.C. This trade was conducted
> with real financial sophistication in amounts that
> could involve tons of copper. The Mesopotamians
> speak of Meluhha as a land of exotic commodities.
> A wide variety of objects produced in the Indus
> region have been found at sites in Mesopotamia."
>
> It is possible that introduction of sorghum in
> India was through a local marine trade network
> completely independent of Austronesian
> introduction of bananas to Africa.
That may be and that is another whole rat's net of investigation. I'm in too many rabbit holes now. The important point is that, the apparent contention in the paper you originally posted on bananas, that the presence of sorghum in Asia before domestication in Africa somehow supported the early Austronesian banana introduction is no longer valid.
I'm back to Madagascar and bananas.
Bernard
>
> "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