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Early Farming Communities Often Ate Weeds, Other Wild Plants, UCLA Archaeologist Finds
UCLA ^
| March 30, 2006
| Meg Sullivan
Posted on 03/31/2006 8:40:59 AM PST by SunkenCiv
Thousands of years after the advent of agriculture, ancient farmers in India routinely foraged for wild plants -- even weeds -- when times got tough, a UCLA archaeologist has found. In fact, they may have eaten a flower now used today in Hawaii for leis, a weed considered invasive in the American West and a relative of the acacia plant that now grows beside Southern California freeways, said Monica L. Smith, the article's author and an assistant professor in the UCLA Department of Anthropology and who also heads the South Asian archaeology laboratory at UCLA's Cotsen Institute of Archaeology.
(Excerpt) Read more at newsroom.ucla.edu ...
TOPICS: History; Science; Travel
KEYWORDS: civilisation; godsgravesglyphs; india; invasion
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1
posted on
03/31/2006 8:41:00 AM PST
by
SunkenCiv
To: blam; FairOpinion; Ernest_at_the_Beach; StayAt HomeMother; 24Karet; 3AngelaD; asp1; ...
This shows not a failure of settled agriculture, but the occasional failure of the monsoon, a phenomenon that still happens today. The famine caused by the monsoon failure around 1900 led to many starvation deaths. But, it's not much good bringing this up, because as we all know, the climate had always been steady until humans started the industrial revolution. ;')
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2
posted on
03/31/2006 8:43:16 AM PST
by
SunkenCiv
(Yes indeed, Civ updated his profile and links pages again, on Monday, March 6, 2006.)
To: SunkenCiv
Aren't all plants "weeds"?
3
posted on
03/31/2006 8:43:49 AM PST
by
cripplecreek
(Never a minigun handy when you need one.)
To: cripplecreek
Heh... we prefer the term "herbs". ;') Purslane, wintercress, lambsquarters... weeds, but also food, just not all that popular any longer.
4
posted on
03/31/2006 8:45:19 AM PST
by
SunkenCiv
(Yes indeed, Civ updated his profile and links pages again, on Monday, March 6, 2006.)
To: SunkenCiv
just not all that popular any longer.They are still popular in North Korea.
5
posted on
03/31/2006 8:46:56 AM PST
by
USNBandit
(sarcasm engaged at all times)
To: SunkenCiv
My daughter organizes "herb walks" every season to harvest what's out there. I can't believe nature's bounty.
6
posted on
03/31/2006 8:47:10 AM PST
by
sarasota
7
posted on
03/31/2006 8:47:29 AM PST
by
SunkenCiv
(Yes indeed, Civ updated his profile and links pages again, on Monday, March 6, 2006.)
To: SunkenCiv
One of the favored "greens" of my gg grandparents while settling Utah was pig weed. Dandelion, cress....I can't believe this is a new "find."
8
posted on
03/31/2006 8:47:44 AM PST
by
colorcountry
(You don't have a soul. You are a Soul. You have a body.....CS Lewis)
To: colorcountry
Well, she's probably a Valley Girl.
9
posted on
03/31/2006 8:56:30 AM PST
by
SunkenCiv
(Yes indeed, Civ updated his profile and links pages again, on Monday, March 6, 2006.)
To: SunkenCiv
Oh yeah well like fer-sure!
10
posted on
03/31/2006 9:02:14 AM PST
by
colorcountry
(You don't have a soul. You are a Soul. You have a body.....CS Lewis)
To: SunkenCiv
Sounds like Japanese cuisine.
Stewed weeds, raw fish, warm wine...
11
posted on
03/31/2006 9:03:12 AM PST
by
null and void
(Start worrying. Details to follow...)
To: SunkenCiv
How would they even have known if they were weeds or not?
12
posted on
03/31/2006 9:05:40 AM PST
by
stuartcr
(Everything happens as God wants it to.....otherwise, things would be different.)
To: sarasota
I love Euell Gibbons, especially, "Stalking the Blue-Eyed Scallop", but "Stalking the Wild Asparagus" is also an old time favorite. I may have to dig them our and reread.
13
posted on
03/31/2006 9:50:44 AM PST
by
chesley
(Liberals...what's not to loathe?)
To: colorcountry
My family used to go out to the country on weekends and "pick weeds" when we were kids! - dandelions, rappini, etc. We kids were embarassed but as we grew older we realized the value of these "weeds".
They are now usually found in the "gourmet health"
section in the produce dept of the supermarket.
14
posted on
03/31/2006 10:03:53 AM PST
by
eleni121
('Thou hast conquered, O Galilean!' (Julian the Apostate))
To: chesley
One of my favorites is "wild" ferns. Lightly steamed when they fronds are still curled up, with butter and salt, yum.
15
posted on
03/31/2006 11:16:59 AM PST
by
sarasota
To: SunkenCiv
People in this region still seek out and eat the wild
Polk Salad weed.
16
posted on
03/31/2006 12:15:34 PM PST
by
blam
To: SunkenCiv
As a young man I often ate May-apples.
17
posted on
03/31/2006 3:44:03 PM PST
by
Renfield
(If Gene Tracy was the entertainment at your senior prom, YOU might be a redneck...)
To: blam
I ate Poke, too. (Still do.)
18
posted on
03/31/2006 3:50:06 PM PST
by
Renfield
(If Gene Tracy was the entertainment at your senior prom, YOU might be a redneck...)
To: SunkenCiv
Just a partial generation away from pickled kochia and pigweed with canned jack rabbit if you could get them.
To: Renfield
Polk salad and Pokeweed are different weeds, er, plants. :') Not sure what Polk salad looks like, not too sure it grows up here. Pokeweed though is semi-edible (small young shoots only), and is (IMHO) gorgeous. Herbaceous, not woody, so it croaks off with the frost, then regrows the next year. S'cool.
20
posted on
03/31/2006 8:17:52 PM PST
by
SunkenCiv
(Yes indeed, Civ updated his profile and links pages again, on Monday, March 6, 2006.)
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