Sub-Project 3

Tracing taro dispersals in the ancient Indian Ocean

The SEALINKS Project is investigating the question of when and how the crop known as taro – Colocasia esculenta – dispersed across the Indian Ocean. This is an South/Southeast Asian crop that spread, perhaps as part of a package with banana and yams, as far west as Africa at what may have been a very early time period. The project is testing hypotheses about how taro has moved using genetic markers and archaeological data. The results will help to resolve whether this crop was domesticated in different areas, how its exploitation originated, and how prehistoric peoples engaged in early seafaring may have been responsible for its current widespread tropical distribution.