| Abstract: |
Nearly twenty years ago I published a paper with a closely similar title, looking at the archaeological evidence then available for aroid cultivation, mainly of taro (<i>Colocasia esculenta</i>), in the Southeast Asia-Pacific region. Since then a lot of archaeological research has taken place within that region, but it might be argued that our archaeological knowledge on this topic has not increased as much as it should have done. What more do we know now and what research strategies would allow us to advance our knowledge further? I will pose the same two questions as in 1982. What is the evidence for taro as a crop and/or for its existence as a natural part of the flora in any particular part of this region? Secondly, what is the evidence for the types of cropping system employed in growing taro in the different parts of the region? Several lines of evidence will be used to address these questions: pollen, starch grains and calcium oxalate raphides, charcoal identification, plant macrofossils, plant distributional studies, genetic studies, linguistics, and the archaeological evidence of field systems used for taro cultivation. Somewhat surprisingly there have been relatively few studies in the last 20 years, apart from cultural resource management studies in places such as Hawaii, which have addressed the archaeology of taro cultivation and its antiquity as a significant part of their research design. There is a clear need for projects explicitly aimed at looking at the history and development of intensive taro cultivation and other vegecultural systems in the Asia-Pacific region, and which will deploy the full range of analytical techniques available for their elucidation.
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