Posted on 01/15/2022 11:45:48 PM PST by SunkenCiv
We know that King Solomon fed his guests beef, lamb, venison, and poultry, in addition to bread, cakes, dates, and other delicacies. But … bananas?
The amount of water needed to grow bananas makes them an unlikely fruit in ancient Israel, but a new study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences reported some unexpected remains were scraped off the teeth of Canaanites and Philistines who died in the late second millennia B.C., the period of Solomon’s reign. Teeth don’t lie: They ate bananas.
The dietary evidence indicates “a dynamic and complex exchange network connecting the Mediterranean with South Asia,” according to the report. Christina Warinner, a Harvard anthropologist and one of the lead investigators, said the imported fruit may have been dried, like modern-day banana chips.
(Excerpt) Read more at christianitytoday.com ...
[note: Megiddo is the town name, Harmegiddo or Armageddon is the Battle of Megiddo; second note: remains from Megiddo are not Philistine]
Philistines had a taste for far-flung foods, fossilized tooth plaque reveals Andrew Curry National Geographic https://www.nationalgeographic.com/history/article/philistines-taste-far-flung-foods-dental-plaque Illustration by Nikola Nevenov https://i.natgeofe.com/n/fec4cd53-d393-4df1-a786-2d6f0a72afd0/food_bronze-age-market--c--nikola-nevenov_16x9.jpg
I like bananas, I know that mangoes are sweet
I like papayas (PAPAYAS!), but nothing can beat
The sweet love of God
I was walking round in circles five miles an hour
Tryin’ to find my way back to the Heavenly Father
The world tasted sweet, but soon it turned sour
And then I asked Him in and received His power (1,2,3!)
You can search for the tropics to find a fruit that’s new
You can swim in the ocean, until your face turns blue
But look no further, I’ll tell you what to do
Just open your bible to Galatians 5:22
The fruit of the spirit, from love to self-control
If you plant it in your heart it’ll strengthen your soul
So guard your fruit for also we are told
That you fruit will rot if it’s left out in the cold (1,2,3!)
The dietary evidence indicates “a dynamic and complex exchange network connecting the Mediterranean with South Asia,” according to the report. Christina Warinner, a Harvard anthropologist and one of the lead investigators, said the imported fruit may have been dried, like modern-day banana chips.
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I think it’s pretty much a given that there was a crap ton more long-distance trade and seafaring going on back then than academia has wanted to accept for a long time. Although that refusal might be changing lately.
But, I find it more likely, re: bananas, that a batch of cuttings or small pot growths were planted on palace grounds or some such. Seems to me that even dried chips would mold up badly under the months and possibly years-long trips from Asian source to Med destination.
Seems much more likely that over centuries deals got made, small plantations got planted and it made its way west in small lots.
Which explains the puzzling verse in the Song of Solomon:”...Yes we have no bananas! We have no bananas today!”
I went and checked to confirm that bananas are grown in Iraq today, so it’s a safe bet that they could be grown there in Solomon’s time. The Hebrews didn’t have to go all the way to India.
And apparently Egypt grows them too, although it is the 56th largest exporter. Today the majority of their bananas go to Jordan and Palestine. I bet they could be picked green and get to Solomon’s temple in time for them to ripen.
I was in Israel about ten years ago. Our bus drove through banana groves. They grow bananas in israel. I started singing the Banana Boat Song. It almost got me thrown off the bus.
Makes sense, cut up and enjoyed on a nice bowl of Fruity Pebbles or Count Chocula.
[snip] The earliest domestication of bananas (Musa spp.) were initially from naturally occurring parthenocarpic (seedless) individuals of Musa acuminata banksii in New Guinea. These were cultivated by Papuans before the arrival of Austronesian-speakers. Numerous phytoliths of bananas have been recovered from the Kuk Swamp archaeological site and dated to around 10,000 to 6,500 BP. From New Guinea, cultivated bananas spread westward into Island Southeast Asia through proximity (not migrations). They hybridized with other (possibly independently domesticated) subspecies of Musa acuminata as well as Musa balbisiana in the Philippines, northern New Guinea, and possibly Halmahera. These hybridization events produced the triploid cultivars of bananas commonly grown today. From Island Southeast Asia, they became part of the staple domesticated crops of Austronesian peoples and were spread during their voyages and ancient maritime trading routes into Oceania, East Africa, South Asia, and Indochina. [/snip]
- Banana | Historical cultivation | Early cultivation [Wiki-wacky]
Yep, that is in the link I shared earlier. The interesting thing I found in that article is that they “thought” they were brought to the middle east by Muslims. Muslims would be a later time line than your article here shares wouldn’t it? Meaning they must have somehow been imported before that.
Long before that; Solomon preceded the Big Old Mo by 1500 years-ish.
That is what I though. So they were sailing to the far east to get these bananas before the Muslims then. Only way they could get them to the middle east and still be fresh.
There may have been one or more intervening navigators, but it’s not unlikely that Solomon’s port on the Gulf of Aqaba was built for use by his own merchant fleet, as well as traders from south and east.
Yes, we have no bananas.......................
Yeah, Samson was blind, didn’t see the banana peel, slipped into some columns, brought down the whole place.
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