SC - Bananas?

[Decker, Terry D.]

Pliny describes bananas and their consumption in India based on Nearchus'
invasion of Northern India around 325 BCE.  Apparently the fruit was not
brought back to Greece at that time.

The fruit was brought to Africa from Southeast Asia about 325 CE by a
migration to Mozambique.  A second importation to North Africa occurred
after the Arab conquest of Nothern India at the beginning of the 8th
Century.  Between the two importations and the Arab slave trade into Central
Africa, bananas spread to the West Coast of Africa by the 15th Century.   

There are supposedly references to bananas in some of the Arab texts, but I
have not found the texts or translations.

The Portuguese found bananas in West Africa and brought them to the Canary
Islands after the islands were taken from Castile in 1425.  The bananas were
under cultivation when Spain retook the islands in 1496.

Oviedo records the importation of bananas from the Canary Islands to the
Caribbean in his "Historia general y natural de las Indias, Islas y
Tierra-Firme del Mar Oceano" in 1517.  While there are a few quibbles, the
evidence suggests that this is the initial introduction of bananas into the
New World.

The banana which turned up in a Tudor trash heap represents, in my opinion,
an anomalous import from the Canaries.  Two professionals commenting on the
origin of this particular banana suggested the New World and Southeast Asia.
Both are doubtful, since bananas last only about 10 to 14 days after cutting
without carefully controlled refrigeration.

While the banana was eaten in Africa, Asia, and probably Arabia and the
Levant during the SCA period, it is a tropical fruit, and its perishable
nature severely limited its use in Europe.  The banana was not a
commercially viable crop outside of the tropics until the advent of steam
powered transportation.

Bear  

> What references, if any, do we have for bananas used as 
> foodstuffs during 
> our period?
> 
> Malachias