The Transfer of Kūmara (Ipomoea batatas) from East to South Polynesia and Its Dispersal in New Zealand

Authors

  • Atholl Anderson University of Otago
  • Fiona Petchey Radiocarbon Dating Laboratory, University of Waikato Centre of Excellence for Australian Biodiversity and Heritage, James Cook University http://orcid.org/0000-0002-3308-9983

Keywords:

kūmara (Ipomoea batatas), sweet potato dispersal, South Polynesia, Māori gardening, 14C calibration models, New Zealand

Abstract

Whether kūmara ‘sweet potato’ (Ipomoea batatas) arrived in South Polynesia with initial colonisation or later is discussed in the light of recent evidence from East Polynesia and by examination and statistical modelling of radiocarbon ages associated with kūmara arrival and dispersal in New Zealand. Largely unresolved difficulties in radiocarbon dating of horticultural sites preclude reaching a secure conclusion about the relative timing of kūmara introduction, but strong evidence emerges of delayed dispersal southward and inland of kūmara cultivation. In the short New Zealand chronology this may have been more significant than the date of arrival for the role of kūmara cultivation in economic and political change.

Author Biographies

Atholl Anderson, University of Otago

Atholl Anderson is an Emeritus Professor, formerly on the staff of the Anthropology Department, University of Otago, and held the Chair of Prehistory in the Institute of Advanced Studies, Australian National University from 1993 to 2008. He has worked extensively in Oceanic archaeology, ethnohistory and palaeoenvironmental studies across the Indian and Pacific oceans from Madagascar to the Galapagos Islands. In retirement his research is mainly in southern New Zealand. He co-authored the multiple-award-winning Tangata Whenua: An Illustrated History with Judith Binney and Aroha Harris (2014; Bridget William Books and Auckland War Memorial Museum).

Fiona Petchey, Radiocarbon Dating Laboratory, University of Waikato Centre of Excellence for Australian Biodiversity and Heritage, James Cook University

Fiona Petchey is an Associate Professor at the University of Waikato and Deputy Director of the Waikato Radiocarbon Dating Laboratory specialising in AMS dating of archaeological materials. She has researched the complex 14C pathways in shellfish and human bone and has used this knowledge, in combination with Bayesian statistical methodologies, to solve chronological problems in archaeology. She has written extensively on marine reservoir variation anomalies and temporal offsets and their impact on archaeological chronologies of human dispersal across the Pacific.

Double-petal form of kaute

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Published

2020-12-30

Issue

Vol. 129 No. 4 (2020): December 2020

Section

Articles

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