Sugarcane in Prehistory

Abstract

AbstractWe suggest that sugarcane (Saccharum officinarum L.) was a major food for pigs (Sus scrofa) in the New Guinea Highlands prior to the introduction of the sweet potato (Ipomea batatas) about 250 years ago. Taro (Colocasia esculenta) has been favoured in the literature, but pigs do not like raw taro and will only eat most varieties when cooked. Pigs consume sugarcane avidly and it provides a high calorie diet combined with suitable fibre roughage. Evidence is provided to show that large fields of sugarcane were grown in monoculture in the highlands at the time of European contact. Humans consumed sugarcane as a major food in some areas in the early 20th century. S. officinarum is usually recorded as having evolved in New Guinea and Indonesia east of the Wallace line, from the wild cane Saccharum robustum Brandes & Jeswiet ex Grassl. An alternate theory that S. officinarum was derived from the Chinese sugarcane, Saccharum sinense, transported east of the Huxley line by Austronesian speakers is mentioned as a serious possibility. Both hypotheses are compatible with sugarcane being available for human and pig food from about 6000 years ago.