Editing Banana (section)

=== Spread ===

From Island Southeast Asia, bananas became part of the staple domesticated crops of [[Austronesian peoples]].<ref name="Denham-2011">{{cite journal |last1=Denham |first1=Tim |title=Early Agriculture and Plant Domestication in New Guinea and Island Southeast Asia |journal=[[Current Anthropology]]|date=October 2011 |volume=52 |issue=S4 |pages=S379–S395 |doi=10.1086/658682|hdl=1885/75070 |s2cid=36818517 |hdl-access=free }}</ref><!--<ref name="Perrier2009"/>--><ref name="Fuller-2015">{{cite journal |last1=Fuller |first1=Dorian Q. |last2=Boivin |first2=Nicole |last3=Hoogervorst |first3=Tom |last4=Allaby |first4=Robin |title=Across the Indian Ocean: the prehistoric movement of plants and animals |journal=[[Antiquity (journal)|Antiquity]] |date=January 2, 2015 |volume=85 |issue=328 |pages=544–558 |doi=10.1017/S0003598X00067934 |doi-access=free }}</ref>

These ancient introductions resulted in the banana subgroup now known as the [[true plantains]], which include the [[East African Highland bananas]] and the [[Pacific plantains]] (the [[Iholena bananas|Iholena]] and [[Maoli-Popo'ulu bananas|Maoli-Popo'ulu]] subgroups). East African Highland bananas originated from banana populations introduced to Madagascar probably from the region between [[Java]], [[Borneo]], and [[New Guinea]]; while Pacific plantains were introduced to the Pacific Islands from either eastern New Guinea or the [[Bismarck Archipelago]].<ref name="Denham-2011"/><!--<ref name="Perrier2009"/>-->

21st century discoveries of [[phytolith]]s in Cameroon dating to the first millennium BCE<ref name="Mbida-2000">{{cite journal |title=Evidence for banana cultivation and animal husbandry during the first millennium BCE in the forest of southern Cameroon |last1=Mbida |first1=V.M. |last2=Van Neer |first2=W. |last3=Doutrelepont |first3=H. |last4=Vrydaghs |first4=L. |date=2000 |journal=[[Journal of Archaeological Science]] |url=http://www.clas.ufl.edu/users/krigbaum/6930/mbida_etal_JAS_2000.pdf |doi=10.1006/jasc.1999.0447 |volume=27 |issue=2 |pages=151–162 |bibcode=2000JArSc..27..151M |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120114191608/http://www.clas.ufl.edu/users/krigbaum/6930/mbida_etal_JAS_2000.pdf |archive-date=January 14, 2012 |access-date=January 20, 2019  }}</ref> triggered a debate about the date of first cultivation in Africa. There is linguistic evidence that bananas were known in East Africa or Madagascar around that time.<ref name="Zeller-2005">{{cite journal |title=Herkunft, Diversität und Züchtung der Banane und kultivierter Zitrusarten |language=de |trans-title=Origin, diversity and breeding of banana and cultivated citrus |first1=Friedrich J. |last1=Zeller |date=2005 |journal=Journal of Agriculture and Rural Development in the Tropics and Subtropics, Supplement 81 |url=http://www.uni-kassel.de/upress/online/frei/978-3-89958-116-4.volltext.frei.pdf |access-date=September 5, 2014 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304222434/http://www.uni-kassel.de/upress/online/frei/978-3-89958-116-4.volltext.frei.pdf |archive-date=March 4, 2016 }}</ref> The earliest prior evidence indicates that cultivation dates to no earlier than the late 6th century AD.<ref name="Lejju-2005">{{cite journal |title=Africa's earliest bananas? |first1=B. Julius |last1=Lejju |first2=Peter |last2=Robertshaw |first3=David |last3=Taylor |date=2005 |journal=Journal of Archaeological Science |volume=33 |pages=102–113 |url=http://www.inibap.org/pdf/phytoliths_en.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071202120538/http://www.inibap.org/pdf/phytoliths_en.pdf |archive-date=December 2, 2007 |doi=10.1016/j.jas.2005.06.015 }}</ref> [[Malagasy people]] colonized Madagascar from South East Asia around 600 AD onwards.<ref>{{cite book |last=Adelaar |first=Alexander |author-link=K. Alexander Adelaar |chapter=Austronesians in Madagascar: A critical assessment of the works of Paul Ottino and Philippe Beaujard |editor=Campbell, Gwyn |title=Early exchange between Africa and the wider Indian Ocean world |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan |year=2016 |pages=77–112 |url=http://ndl.ethernet.edu.et/bitstream/123456789/70193/1/28.pdf.pdf#page=90 |quote=the beginning of any contacts between East Africa and ISEA, which dates from 300 BC or possibly earlier and involves the transfer of cultigens (including banana, yam, taro, and rice) ... settlement of Madagascar by speakers of Austronesian languages. It covers a period probably beginning around the seventh-century CE |doi=10.1007/978-3-319-33822-4_4 |isbn=978-3-319-33821-7}}</ref> [[Glucanase]] and two other proteins specific to bananas were found in [[dental calculus]] from the early [[Iron Age]] (12th century BCE) [[Philistines]] in [[Tel Erani]] in the southern [[Levant]].<ref>{{cite journal |display-authors=etal |first1=Ashley |last1=Scott |title=Exotic foods reveal contact between South Asia and the Near East during the second millennium BCE |journal=[[PNAS]] |date=Jan 12, 2021 |volume=118 |issue=2 |pages=e2014956117 |doi=10.1073/pnas.2014956117 |pmid=33419922 |pmc=7812755 |bibcode=2021PNAS..11814956S |doi-access=free }}</ref>

Another wave of introductions later spread bananas to other parts of tropical Asia, particularly Indochina and the Indian subcontinent.<ref name="Denham-2011"/> Some evidence suggests bananas were known to the [[Indus Valley civilisation]] from phytoliths recovered from the [[Kot Diji]] archaeological site in Pakistan.<ref name="Fuller-2015"/> Southeast Asia remains the region of [[Center of diversity|primary diversity]] of the banana. Areas of secondary diversity are found in Africa, indicating a long history of banana cultivation there.{{sfn|Ploetz|Kepler|Daniells|Nelson|2007|p=7}}