[Sca-cooks] Buckwheat

[Decker, Terry D.]

> >   Tartarian buckwheat appears to have been
> introduced during the
> > Mongol Invasions of the early 13th Century.
>
> Hm.. I was relying on my notes from Dembinska and from Smith
> & Christian
> (_Bread and Salt_). I may have missed references to an
> earlier use of a
> separate strain of buckwheat in the Woyes Weaver-Dembinska
> text. I'll go
> back and check it tonight and post what I find whenever I get
> back online.

Dembinska doesn't say that buckwheat was used earlier, just that Tartarian
buckwheat was introduced during the Mongol invasions of the 13th Century.
It is possible that Neolithic buckwheat had been marginalized by better
grains and that it was brought back into the mainstream by the Mongol use of
the grain and the disruption of normal agricultural activity by the
incursion.  It is a point that would be difficult to prove either way.

>
> Buckwheat is not mentioned in: "Archaeobotanical Evidence for
> Food Plants
> in the Poland of the Piasts (10th-13th Centuries AD)", M.
> Polcyn. Biological Journal of Scotland, vol 46, no 4, p 533-537.
>
> But that's at best negative evidence.
>
> -- Jadwiga Zajaczkowa

How old is the paper?  If it is within the past 10 years, then it will be
looking at some of the newer archeological finds and should reference the
field papers.  If the site studies show no or very minimal evidence of
buckwheat, then the probability is that of societal introduction in or after
the 13th Century.

Given some of the dates for the introduction of buckwheat in European
countries, I tend to think the 13th Century introduction date is probably
accurate for purposes of our interests.  A broader study would of course
need to evaluate the available evidence from earlier sources.

Bear