Pre-Columbian agriculture -- or aquaculture in this case

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sagittaria

http://www.histecho.com/ancient-underwater-potato-garden-found-in-canada/

This harvest came 3,000 years too late.

Hundreds of blackened potatoes were pulled out of the ground at a prehistoric garden in British Columbia, Canada.

Dating back to 3800 years before the present, the garden was once under water, in an ecologically rich wetland. And it shows sign of sophisticated engineering techniques used to control the flow of water to more efficiently grow wild wapato tubers, also known as Indian potatoes.

Archaeologists led by Tanja Hoffmann of the Katzie Development Limited Partnership and Simon Fraser University in British Columbia excavated the garden during roadwork on Katzie First Nation territory just east of Vancouver, near the Fraser River.

The site had been waterlogged for centuries, resulting in good preservation of plant and other organic materials like wooden tools that would have normally disintegrated over time.

In all, the researcher counted 3,767 whole and fragmented wapato plants (Sagittaria latifolia). Today, these plant are found in wetlands across southern Canada and the United State.

Though they were not domesticated, the chestnut-sized roots had long been important to indigenous peoples, and they are mentioned in some of the 1st ethnographic accounts of the Pacific Northwest.

Explorer Meriwether Lewis and William Clark, for example, were offered wapato roots at a native village near present day Portland, Oregon.

Clark wrote in his diary that the plant resembled a “small Irish potato,” and after being roasted, had “an agreeable taste and answers very well in place of bread.”

The ancient tubers that were discovered in British Columbia had turned dark brown to black in color, and some still had their starchy insides preserved.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/11/2019 10:45PM by anybody.

Mormon Jesus liked french fried wapto tubers! ;)

Well, Duh. Of course. Lamanites growing Wapatos to make Funeral Potatoes!

Finally! Proof of the BoM. For those who needed proof because in their pride they did not have enough faith.

British Columbia is full of surprises!

It has some of the prettiest cultivated gardens in the world..

That's a pretty cool find, even for there with its rich indigenous cultural history.