Zachariah
Banned
Land Below the Sunset #1- Crucible of Civilization
The island nation of Papua [1], the world's most populous island, the second largest island on Earth (after Greenland) and the largest wholly or partly within the Southern Hemisphere, has a long history. Archeological and genetic evidence indicates that the first humans may have arrived on Papua as early as 60,000 BP, and that their migration was one of the oldest human migrations out of Africa. They came by sea from Southeast Asia during an Ice Age period, when sea levels were markedly lower and distances between islands shorter- at this time, the Kaiwa Strait [2] still linked Papua with the far larger landmass of Australia. When sea levels were low during the last glacial maximum, the Arafura Shelf, the Gulf of Baralku [3] and Kaiwa Strait formed a large flat land bridge connecting Australia and Papua, with the combined landmass forming the continent of Meganesia [4]; and many humans continued onwards on their migration, crossing this land bridge to settle on Australia.
But Australia itself is a harsh, dry, flat and arid land, with little geological activity, scorching heat, burning deserts. It has poor, ancient soils lacking in essential minerals, with the indigenous Australian flora relatively lacking in plants which possessed the necessary range of qualities to be worth independently domesticating, needed for the development of agricultural systems and of sedentary farming societies. While Australia would eventually give rise to its own aboriginal civilizations and nations of considerable significance, none would come close to rivaling the scale, size and significance of civilization on the island of Papua. Although the founding population was comprised largely of fishermen and hunter-gatherers, estimated to have been several thousand in number and to have had relatively sophisticated water craft, with shellfish and fish having long been mainstays of coastal dwellers' diets, early evidence shows that people moved inland and offshore quickly.
As early as 50,000 BP, the presence of archaeological artifacts suggests that people already occupied sites in the highlands, at altitudes of up to 2,000 m (6,600 ft), rather than being restricted to coastal areas. Soon enough, these nomadic foragers began to manage these wet and fertile highlands to provide more food. And it was here, in the highlands of Western Papua, around 10,000 BP, where we can place the crucible of Papuan, and indeed, of Meganesian civilization, with the emergence of one of the world's earliest centers of agriculture, contemporary with its counterparts in the Levant, Mesopotamia, China, the Indus Valley and Mesoamerica.
Archeological digs have uncovered evidence for early agricultural drainage systems in this region, with features such as pits, postholes, and runnels, consistent with the planting, digging and tethering of plants, indicating evidence of early agriculture. In addition, evidence has been found of irrigation draining ditches. Several of the world's most important staple crops would be grown here first, and their cultivation would spread from this region of Papua to be cultivated elsewhere in the world- among these would be the banana, sugarcane, taro, and ufi [5].
But the domestication and cultivation of the most important of Papuan crops, asbin [6], is believed to have begun its rise to prominence around 8000BP. The earliest archaeologically verified asbin tuber remains have been found at the coastal site of Gamei (Sepik Delta, north-central Papua), dating to 2500 BC. As with all peoples who developed agriculture independently, in other parts of the world, the speed of development, and of the spread of their agricultural societies outwards until they spanned most of the globe, was related to how easily domesticable their founder crops were. And in their founder crops, the Papuans had some of the very best.
While bananas, taro, sugarcane and ufi, along with coconuts later on, all provided significant sources of supplementary sustenance, it would be asbin which provided the principal energy source for the Papuan Empire, its predecessors and its progeny. A highly adaptable self-pollinating plant, an effective cover crop and a nitrogen-fixing restorative crop, capable of improving the most nutrient-poor soils and of tolerating the very heaviest rainfalls, asbin also possessed a wider variety of uses than several competitors' entire crop packages, with several different varieties which have been specifically bred and cultivated to boost the protection yields of different parts of the plant.
Its tender bean pods are widely eaten, and these are rich not only in protein, but in tocopherols (antioxidants that facilitate vitamin A utilisation in the body). These beans can be made into milk when blended with water and an emulsifier, in the same manner as soy milk (though these varieties of asbin typically grow even faster than soy). Asbin flowers are used to color rice and pastry, and young asbin leaves are picked and prepared as a leaf vegetable- both of these are protein-rich, but not as much as its nutritious nutty-flavored tubers, which have more protein than almost any other root vegetable.
And asbin seeds are even more so, at about 35% protein and 18% fat. These can be eaten dried or roasted, ground down to make asbin flour, and can be also brewed to make a coffee-like drink. Small wonder, then, that asbin has since spread around the world, and become a staple crop in many countries. Asbin beans are also used as a cure for vertigo, and their use as an effective remedy for smallpox would eventually play a critical role in the tale of Papuan civilization's rise to prominence...
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[1] Papua- the official name of the island of New Guinea ITTL
[2] Kaiwa Strait= OTL's Torres Strait
[3] Gulf of Baralku= OTL's Gulf of Carpentaria (regarding 2, 3 & 4, I didn't think it'd be feasible for them to still have their OTL names ITTL, not when the coastlines around them are set to be at least ten times more populated by the time the Europeans arrive)
[4] With Papua more populous than OTL's Java ITTL, and with Melanesians comprising a far greater portion of the world's population ITTL, the continent's more commonly known by the name of 'Meganesia', with 'Australia' not acknowledged as the name of the continent as a whole.
[5] aka D. alata, or 'Purple Yam'- as IOTL.
[6] aka Psophocarpus tetragonolobus, or 'Winged Bean'- only 'discovered' and first cultivated by the Japanese occupation forces in the region during WW2 IOTL, a mere 70 years ago, though it's been collected by native foragers for centuries. Dubbed as a 'supercrop', it's effectively the wild potato, soybean and spinach combined into a single plant, with higher yields and higher protein content in all departments- all of the info on the plant is 100% true, even its utilization as a smallpox remedy. Perhaps the most underutilized crop in the world IOTL, but it's already widely gaining recognition by farmers and consumers across southern Asia for its variety of uses and disease resistance, as well as for its potential to become a major multi-use food crop in the tropics of Asia, Africa, and Latin America. So then, how much more of an impact will it have ITTL as a founder crop, when domesticated and widely cultivated by the peoples of the Sepik more than 4000 years earlier? Wait and find out...
So, here it is- my first main TL, exploring the full potential of a New Guinean civilization. Any thoughts?
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. And I can confirm that winged beans are quite delicious BTW. Suscribed!