Thank you very much, John. The information is very interesting indeed.

It is well known that some caves had been inhabited for many millennia
(often with gaps) by peoples of different cultures. For the Kilu rockshelter
there are 2 periods of occupation, one c.28,000 to 20,000 years BP and one
c.9,000 to 6500 years BP
(http://www.ahc.gov.au/infores/HERA/pleistocene/png.html).
It is very important from which layer of the cave the taro starch traces
origin. Is it sure that from the oldest one?

Concerning the interpretation:
"Intriguing evidence from the Kilu site on Buka Island (north Solomon
Islands) shows the presence on starch grains on stone tools dated to
c.28,000 years ago; the starch has been identified as deriving from a
species of taro. It is still open to argument as to whether taro might be
indigenous to Buka, or whether indeed it had to have been brought by humans.
These areas need further work and replication, but they do hint at the
deliberate human dispersal of both plants and animals during this early
colonising period. This may in turn be open to several interpretations. On
the one hand, we may be dealing with extremely sophisticated environmental
managers, which is not necessarily to call them "agriculturalists". On the
other hand, such dispersals may have been the by-product of providing
sufficient provisions for extended sea voyages."
Sandra Bowdler, University of Western Australia
http://www.arts.uwa.edu.au/Archaeology/PACHIST.htm

Anyway it's very interesting. But I'd wait a bit before making the final
conclusions.


Alexander

----- Original Message -----
From: "jdcroft" <jdcroft@...>
To: <nostratic@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Thursday, April 18, 2002 3:09 AM
Subject: [nostratic] Re: Problems with Bomhard


> Alexander
>
> While hunting for Web Based resources for you on your post here
>
> > What do you mean? The Solomon Islands? Other parts of this region
> > were not populated yet, AFAIK. Could you give any references please.
>
> I found the following
>
> Human settlement of Sahul (Australia and New Guinea, joined when sea
> levels were lower) in the Pleistocene almost certainly involved
> repeated, purposeful water crossings of some distance. It is perhaps
> no surprise, therefore, that people had crossed the Vitiaz Strait to
> the Bismarck and Solomon Islands by 35 000 years ago; scattered
> evidence reveals tantalising glimpses of their lives. The early
> Holocene saw changes in settlement and foraging patterns: in the New
> Guinea Highlands there is evidence for very early agriculture, while
> the lowlands and islands saw innovations in arboriculture and shell-
> working. Malaria may have played a key role in limiting population
> growth in the region.
>
> http://dannyreviews.com/h/Road_Winds.html.
>
> Golson,J. (1971c) The remarkable history of Indo-Pacific man:
> missing chapters from every world prehistory. Fifth David Rivett
> Memorial Lecture of the CSIRO, Canberra
>
> Kirch,P.V. and P.H.Rosendahl (1973) Archaeological investigation
> of Anuta. In D.E. Yen and J. Gordon (eds) Anuta: a Polynesian outlier
> in the Solomon Islands, pp.25108. Honolulu: Bernice P. Bishop
> Museum, Department of Anthropology. Pacific Anthropological Records
> No.21
>
> Deal with some of this
>
> The easiest to access is from Steve Wickler's "The Prehistory of
> Buka: A Stepping Stone Island in the Northern Solomons" Terra
> Australis series No 16. a joint publication of the Department of
> Archaeology and Natural History, RSPAS and the Centre for
> Archaeological Research.
>
> "The earliest occupational evidence dates to 29,000 BP at the Kilu
> cave site. The rich faunal assemblage at this site includes endemic
> rats which are now extinct. Starch residues and raphides from aroids
> found on stone tools from the basal site deposit provide the earliest
> direct evidence for the use of root crops in the World."
>
> The starch residues and raphides from aroids were found by the
> Commonwealth Scientific Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) of
> Australia - the country's leading research organisation - and relate
> to chemicals known from domesticated taro - which was not endemic to
> the Solomon Islands and had to have been introduced from outside the
> islands.
>
> Thus suggests that the cultivation of root crops in fact occurred in
> the Sahul region long before any evidence of grain farming in the
> Middle East (previously hailed as the beginnings of agriculture).
> This fact suggests
>
> 1. a mechanism for the widespread nature of Indo-Pacific languages
> (Andaman, East Timor, Papua New Guinea, Solomons)
>
> 2. a mechanism whereby very early Sahul cultivars (eg breadfruit,
> sugar cane, sago, Musa australis bananas, a variety of swamp taro and
> possibly domesticated coconuts) could have been taken from Papua New
> Guinea back into Indonesia, there to be spread by later Austronesian
> settlement some of them from Madagascar to Easter Island)
>
> Hope this helps
>
> Regards
>
> John
>
>
>
>
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>