Wild taro processing at Kilu Cave
Procesado de taro silvestre en la cueva de Kilu
- Date
- c. 28 ka · confidence medium
- Place
- Kilu Cave, Buka Island, Bougainville, Papua New Guinea
- Credited to
- First inhabitants of the northern Solomon Islands
- Field
- Life & health
⚠️ Disputed: the sources disagree.
What was discovered
Starch grains of Colocasia and Alocasia on 17 stone tools from Kilu's Pleistocene layer indicate that wild taros were already processed about 28,000 years ago. It is the Melanesian site with the oldest evidence of plant exploitation.
The study by Loy, Spriggs and Wickler (1992) rests on starches from tools; some authors question the scope of starch residues as proof of use. The usual reading is intentional use of wild taro, not domestication.
What it led to
- taro as a staple of the Pacific islands, domesticated later
- exploitation of galip nuts and other forest plants
- a sign of plant management by Pleistocene seafarers of the western Pacific