Sea Day 103

SAIL THE INDIAN OCEAN
The ancient history of human movement and migration across the Indian Ocean can be tied to its ancient history of animals and food. Though it is not clear to scholars exactly how, five crops endemic to Africa (hyacinth bean, cowpea, finger millet, pearl millet and sorghum) crossed these waters around 2000 BC and were eventually cultivated in India's Gujarat region. Sometime during the same period, chickens, zebu cattle and broomcorn millet were loaded onto ships in Central Asia bound for Africa, followed by bananas around 1000 BC. Black pepper and sesame made similar journeys, soon to be planted in the Nile-fed soils of Egypt. It is easy to imagine that all of these goods were transported for trade; however, the black rat and the house mouse —which also made the crossing to Egypt-likely made the journey asRead more