CU-Boulder Team Discovers First Ancient Manioc Fields In Americas

Eureka Alert ^ | 8-20-2007 | Payson Sheets-Colorado University

[blam]

GGG Ping.

[RaceBannon]

read later bump

[BOBTHENAILER]

placed horizontally in the soil to regenerate bushes

This article should have a PG-17 rating.

[Red Badger]

Thus far 12 buildings at Ceren -- believed to have been home to several hundred people -- have been excavated, including living quarters, storehouses, workshops, kitchens, religious buildings and a community sauna.

Maybe they were Vikings?...........

[xcamel]

btw: it’s the Cassava plant.

[TASMANIANRED]

If you don’t prepare manioc properly you will cyanide yourself.

[colorado tanker]

Description: A tough tropical plant grown for its fat starchy roots. The roots are boiled and eaten in soups and stews, or ground into flour and made into dumplings, puddings and breads, and used as a thickener for sauces and pies.

Fact: Scientists think the tiny amount of cyanide in prepared cassava may actually help people who eat it every day. It may protect them from diseases such as malaria and sickle cell anemia.

POISON NOTES: Cassava roots contain cyanide but can be made safe to eat by boiling or peeling, grating and washing repeatedly to remove the poison. The little bit of cyanide that remains may actually be beneficial.

Symptoms: Eating raw cassava can cause abdominal cramping, diarrhea and vomiting. High levels of cyanide prevent oxygen from getting into the blood and may even cause death.

[blam]

Tapioca pudding.

[xcamel]

egg-zactly.

[Vietnam Vet From New Mexico]

I have always wondered how humans ever discovered a way to treat manioc. You would thing that after seeing what happened to the first person to sample it, they would have left it alone.

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks Blam.

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[colorado tanker]

I have always wondered how humans ever discovered a way to treat manioc. You would thing that after seeing what happened to the first person to sample it, they would have left it alone.

I wonder the same thing about the Japanese fascination with that puffer fish. I imagine the scene in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade where the Nazis are trying to figure out how to get into the cave where the Grail is. "Next volunteer"!!

[LexBaird]

If you don’t prepare manioc properly you will cyanide yourself.

I wonder sometimes how some food items became staples. Things like olives and acorns, that have to be extensively processed to be made edible. "Gee, Og eat manioc. Him die in convulsions. Maybe me boil, pound and wash manioc several times, then see if I die of convulsions."

[LexBaird]

Ha. Great minds.

[TASMANIANRED]

Isn’t that the truth...

Culinary pioneers..

[Sawdring]

If you trust the information in Wikipedia there is some interesting information under the Processing and Toxicity sub-heading.

[Fred Nerks]

El Salvador's buried roots: Out of the ash of an ancient volcanic eruption, archaeologists are unravelling the complexities of village life in 7th-century Central America

Ceren's sauna is also intriguing in its own right. It is an architectural masterpiece with a striking earthen dome roof covering the building. Largely impermeable, to keep in steam and heat, this earthen structure was protected from wind and rain by a thatched outer layer. Before its discovery, anthropologists believed that the skills needed to construct domes were introduced to the New World by the Spanish - but the Spanish did not arrive until more than 900 years after Ceren was buried. Inside the sauna, a central fireplace is surrounded by lounging platforms that provide enough space for more than a dozen people at a time to take a sauna.

[blam]

Excellent...a sauna, ha.

[Fred Nerks]

here 'tis.