1498
Columbus had found no coconuts - (Nux indica) in the New World and the Portuguese had travelled the length of Africa to the Cape of Storms (Cape of Good Hope) without finding any. Vasco da Gama had to reach the Indian Ocean in 1498 before "coquos" were recognised.
For "oil or butter" read coconut oil? . . . there were two large candlesticks like those at the Royal palace. At the top of each of these were great iron lamps, fed with oil or butter, and each lamp had four wicks, which gave much light. These lamps they use instead of torches. Modern History Sourcebook: Vasco da Gama: Round Africa to India, 1497-1498 CE
Thatcher, O.J. (ed.) The Library of Original Sources (Milwaukee: University Research Extension Co., 1907), Vol. V: 9th to 16th Centuries, pp. 26-40.
Treen - Une couppe faicte d'une noix d'Inde. Inventar der Anne de Bretagne. Gay (1928) [Cited by Fritz (1983)].
1497
Treen - A nutte couved harnessed wt silver gilt. Inventary of the Craft of Founders, London. Langbeck (1834). Cited by Fritz (1983)].
1492
Treen - Unum ciphum vocatum le nutte stantem argen'in toto cum coopertorio. Testament, England. Cripps (1886). [Cited by Fritz (1983)].
1483-1530
Babur - (Mongolian, "tiger"), real name Zahiruddin Muhammad (1483-1530), founder of the Mughal dynasty of India and its first emperor (1526-1530). A descendant of Tamerlane on his father's side and of Genghis Khan on his mother's, Babur wrote poetry in both Persian and his Turkic mother tongue and also wrote at length about the coconut in a volume of memoirs that has been widely translated.
Beveridge, A.S. (trans.) (1922) Babur-nama in English (Memoirs of Babur) translated from the original Turki text. London 2 vols.
1482
Treen – Ung gobelet couvert fait d'une noix d'outre-mer. Inventar der Maria von Burgund in Gent. Gay (1928) [Cited by Fritz (1983)].
1477
Treen – Ein beslagne nuzz ex India. Inventar des Stiftes St. Peter. Egg, E. (1959) Adeliges Trinkgeschirr in Tirol. In: Beiträge zur Kunstgesichte Tirols. Schlern-Schriften Nr. 208 [Cited by Fritz (1983)].
1476/1481
Treen – J standing blake nutte quae fuit matris meaea. A standing gilt nutt. Testament of Sir Thos. Lyttelton, England. Cripps (1886) [Cited by Fritz (1983)].
1474
Treen – Nux nigra cum turri argentea et pede argenteo. Inventar des Domes zu Lund. Langbeck, J. (1834) Scriptores rerum Danicarum medii aevi, VIII, Copenhagen. Also: Braun (1940) [Cited by Fritz (1983)].
1459
Treen – Meum optimum nutt, meum less nutt. Testament, England. Cripps (1886) [Cited by Fritz (1983)].
1448
Treen – An olde black nutte with cover. English Inventory, Jackson (1911) [Cited by Fritz (1983)].
1446
Treen – Una nux cum ij cooperculis. Durham Priory Surtess Soc. Jackson, C. J. (1911) History of English Plate, London [Cited by Fritz (1983)].
1444
Treen – Ij notes cov'ed garnysshed wt silver t gilt. Treasury of the Exchequer, Henry VI. Cripps (1886) [Cited by Fritz (1983)].
1435
Treen – Ij siluern krosen, die ich to Kollen dede maken met auermertsche noeten gemaeckt. Inventar des Willem von Jülich. Kronijk van het Historisch Genootschap 2 (1850) [Cited by Fritz (1983)].
Treen – Ij noten mit sulwer beslagen. Nachlass der Jacoba von Bayern Gräfin von Holland. Kronijk van het Historisch Genootschap 2 (1850) [Cited by Fritz (1983)].
1433
From the Chinese -The coconut has ten different uses. The young tree has a syrup, very sweet and good to drink; it can be made into wine by fermentation. The old coconut has flesh, from which they express oil, and make sugar, and make a food stuff for eating. From the fibre which envelope the outside they make ropes for shipbuilding. The shell of the coconut makes bowls and cups; it is also good for burning to ash for the delicate operation of inlaying gold or silver. The trees are good for building houses, and the leaves are good for roofing houses.
Ma Huan (1433) The Overall Survey of the Ocean Shores, Beijing, trs. J.VG. Mills, Cambridge UP (for Hakluyt Society), 1970, p. 143.
1402
Coconut decanters from Constantinople - ". . . deux buretes de noix d'Inde garnies d'argent doré, à un long col, sans ances, lesquelles messire Jehan de Chasteaumont apporta de Constantinople et donna à mondir Seigneur ou moys de septembre mil CCCC et deux"
Guiffrey, 1894
1343
Coconut palm as a source of sugar - Ibn Battuta recorded the manufacture of coconut honey in the Maldives (1343-1344) which was exported to Yemen, India and China. The same commerce was noted by Ma Huan in 1432 and Sprenger in 1500.
Ibn Battuta tr. Defremery and Sanguinetti Paris 1853 II p 209 IV p113
Ma Huan's Diary (Ying-yai Sheng-lan): The overall survey of the ocean's shores: (1433) translation by JV Mills (1970) Hakluyt Society publication.
The book of Ser. Marco Polo ed Yule London 1902 II p 315.
Sprenger, . . . Indienfahrt 1050-1506. ed Schulz Strassburg 1902, p163.
Deer, N (1950) The history of sugar. Vol II, pp510-511.
1337
Coconut and crime - coconut shell cups were owned by kings such as Edward III, by dukes, by counts. They were even temporarily in the possession of the man in the street; in 1337 "one cup called a note with foot and cover of silver value 30s" was found on a thief.
Cripps, 1886
1330-1332
Ibn Battuta - From Kulwa we sailed to Dhafari [Dhofar] . . .They grow also betel-trees and coco-palms, which are found only in India and the town of Dhafari . . . The coco-palm is one of the strangest of trees, and looks exactly like a date-palm. The nut resembles a man's head, for it has marks like eyes and a mouth, and the contents, when it is green, are like the brain. It has fibre like hair, out of which they make ropes, which they use instead of nails to bind their ships together and also as cables. Amongst its properties are that it strengthens the body, fattens, and adds redness to the face. If it is cut open when it is green it gives a liquid deliciously sweet and fresh. After drinking this one takes a piece of the rind as a spoon and scoops out the pulp inside the nut. This tastes like an egg that has been broiled but not quite cooked, and is nourishing. I lived on it for a year and a half when I was in the Maldive islands. [The many uses of the coconut] One of its peculiarities is that oil, milk and honey are extracted from it. The honey is made in this fashion. They cut a stalk on which the fruit grows, leaving two fingers' length, and on this they tie a small bowl, into which the sap drips. If this has been done in the morning, a servant climbs up again in the evening with two bowls, one filled with water. He pours into the other the sap that has collected, then washes the stalk, cuts off a small piece, and ties on another bowl. The same thing is repeated next morning until a good deal of the sap has been collected, when it is cooked until it thickens. It then makes an excellent honey, and the merchants of India, Yemen, and China buy it and take it to their own countries, where they manufacture sweetmeats from it. The milk is made by steeping the contents of the nut in water, which takes on the colour and taste of milk and is used along with food. To make the oil, the ripe nuts are peeled and the contents dried in the sun, then cooked in cauldrons and the oil extracted. They use it for lighting and dip bread in it, and the women put it on their hair.
Ibn Battuta, Travels in Asia and Africa 1325-1354, tr. and ed. H. A. R. Gibb (London: Broadway House, 1929) pp. 113-115. Internet Medieval Source Book.
circa 1328
Nargil or Nux Indica - "First of these is a certain tree called Nargil; which every month in the year sends out a beautiful frond like a palm tree, which frond or branch produces very large fruit, as big as a man's head . . . The fruit is that which we call Nux Indica" (1866). ". . . both flowers and fruit are produced at the same time, beginning with the first month and going up gradually to the twelfth; so that there are flowers and fruit in eleven stages growth to be seen together". Jordanus of Séveras (1863)
Yule, H. (trans.) (1863) The wonders of the East by Friar Jordanus. London.
Yule, H. (1866) Cathay and the way thither. London, 3 vols, p.213.
1292
Nux indica were "big as melons, and in colour green, like gourds. Their leaves and branches are like those of the date palm". Friar John of Montecorvino.
Yule, H. (1866) Cathay and the way thither. London, 3 vols, p.213.
1271
Marco Polo - in 1271, the Venetian merchant set off on a journey to China with his father and his uncle. They crossed Asia by the main Silk Road. Polo wrote that the coconut palm was found in abundant supplies in various parts of India and on the Malabar coast. In Europe only the fruit of the palm was known
Chiovenda 1921-3 Webbia 5, 199-294 & 359-449.
1259
Coconut cups were often religious items, in the possession of popes, cardinals, archbishops and bishops; in 1259 a Bishop of Durham made a bequest: "Item Isabellae nepti meae cyphum de nuce Indye cum pede et apparatu argentis" .
Lehmann-Brockhaus, 1955
1250-1800
Treen - The coconut shell was known in the form of gold or silver mounted cups, drinking flasks and other objects which are called treen by antiquarians Between the years 1250 and 1800 records show that these items were found in cathedrals and in castles from the Tyrol to Scotland.
Numerous reference, quoted by Fritz, R. (1983) Die Gefässe aus Kokosnuss in Mitteleuropa 1250-1800. Philipp von Zabern, Mainz am Rhein.
Pinto, 1969.
9th century AD
Coconut carved in stone - Relief of coconut palm in the Barabudur (Indonesia) 9th century AD
van Hall & van de Koppel, 1948
695 AD
Fossil record - Early coconuts on Mo'orea Island, French Polynesia
Lepofsky, D., Harries, H.C. & Kellum, M. (1992) J. Poly. Soc. 101(3), 299-308
Mid 6th century AD
Egyptian monk - "If the fruit is gathered ripe and kept, then the water gradually turns solid on the shell, while the water left in the middle remains fluid, until of it also there is nothing left over." Cosmas Indicopleustes (the Indian Navigator)
McCrindle, J.W. (1897) The Christian topography of Cosmas, an Egyptian monk. London, p.362.
350-600 AD
Physical evidence for trade in coconut oil - Potsherds found at Qasr Ibrim, Egyptian Nubia, were shown to have absorbed oil which was assumed to have come from the locally common date or doum palms. This was seen as the first physical evidence of the exploitation of palm oil (sic) in antiquity and the use of pottery vessels in its processing. The archaeological reports overlook the difference between palm kernel oil and palm mesocarp oil but mention processing date mesocarp for palm sugar, syrup or liquor. Such processing does not release kernel oil. Likewise the doum, which is also known as the "gingerbread" palm, is used to flavor cakes and drinks, not to give oil. Coconut oil is a more likely candidate. One very obvious use for it is as a source light because it burns with a bright, clear and virtually smokeless flame. The archaeological reports consider that signs of burning on the outer surfaces of the potsherds signified processing. But if the pots had contained coconut oil then this would have been solid just when light is most needed, at night, with desert temperatures way below the melting point of coconut oil (around 25°C). The pots of solid oil would show external scorching if they were held over an open fire before decanting smaller amounts of oil into lamp vessels. Coconut oil could have been brought to Egypt by Red Sea dhows from India or Africa. Translations of the Periplus Maris Erythraei (see 1st century AD below) suggest that coconut oil was exported from the ancient town of Raphta, believed to have been situated at the mouth of the Pangani river on present-day Tanzania mainland.
Copley, et al (2001a) Processing palm fruits in the Nile Valley - biomolecular evidence from Qasr Ibrim. Antiquity 75, 538-42.
Copley, et al (2001b) Detection of palm fruit lipids in archaeological pottery from Qasr Ibrim, Egyptian Nubia. Proc. Roy. Soc. (B) 268(1467) 593-597.
220 AD
Ganges - 'And they say that nuts also grow there, of which many are treasured up in our temples here as objects of curiosity'. Apollonius of Tyana (born towards the beginning of the Christian era at Tyana, in Cappadocia)
Philostratus' 'Life of Apollonius of Tyana' English translation by F.C. Conybeare, 1912 Book III, Chapter V p.241
It has been presumed that the nuts referred to are coconuts because it is difficult to think of any other kind of nut that would be a marvel in the Mediterranean. In the context Philostratus is referring to the Ganges plain and he specifically mentions the impressive height of the corn, beans three times larger than Egyptian beans and sesame and millet 'of enormous size'. Personal communication, Dr. Paula Turner, Senior Editor, Longman Scientific & Technical
First and second century AD
Periplus Maris Erythraei (Circumnavigation of the Erythraean Sea). The Periplus reports that coconut oil is exported from the ancient town of Raphta, believed to have been situated at the mouth of the Pangani river on present-day Tanzania mainland. However, there is some debate over the reference since the word taken to mean coconut oil has also been read as "cuttle-fish" and "pearly sea-shells" . Interpretations vary between "a little coconut", "coconut oil" and even "copra". The explanation may lie in the fact that when the translations were published in the late 19th century coconut oil and copra were important articles of trade. At the time the Greek text was written the coconut was hardly known in Europe and copra was not traded but oil that was produced and consumed where the coconuts grew might have been stored in clay pots for transport by dhows. If the coconut was known at all in Europe it was as the empty shell of the nut possibly decorated and ornamented. Coconut shells, together with those of the Coco de Mer, were called Nux indica. They were carried overland by Arab traders, known in Greek temples and reached as far as English cathedrals long before the Portuguese sailed to East Africa.
The Periplus of the Erythraean Sea, annotated by Wilfred H. Schoff, New York, NY: Longmans, Green and Co.,1912
Quseir al-Qadim on the southern Egyptian Red Sea coast - Coconut, Cocos nucifera, was also found in these two deposits, as well as in deposits dated to the mid-2nd century AD (6G and 6H). The remains of coconut consist of fragments of the epicarp and fibrous husk and of the nut shell. In all cases the endosperm, the white coconut ‘meat’, had been removed.
http://www.arch.soton.ac.uk/Research/QuseirDev/getpage.asp?PageID=68&Style=Default
Berenike, a long-abandoned Egyptian port on the Red Sea near the border with Sudan - In a dump that dates back to Roman times, the team also found Indian coconuts and batik cloth from the first century, as well as an array of exotic gems, including sapphires and glass beads that appear to come from Sri Lanka, and carnelian beads that appear to come from India.
http://www.college.ucla.edu/berenike.htm
BC 161
The Mahavanso - Ceylon's oldest chronicle, indicates that the plant was well-known on the island 161 years BC
Chiovenda 1921-3 Webbia 5, 199-294 & 359-449.
BC 415
A Greek physician - Ctesias (around 415 BC), wrote that he had seen these fruits in India.
Chiovenda 1921-3 Webbia 5, 199-294 & 359-449.
BC 1000 -700 AD
Hawai`i. - Fleets from the Marquesas Islands arrive in Hawai`i. The Polynesians bring with them: pigs and chickens of Asian ancestry, elephant's ear, shampoo ginger, gourd, taro, Alexandrian laurel, ti, sugar cane, candlenut, banana, portia tree, coconut, Indian mulberry, bamboo, mountain apple, turmeric, Polynesian arrowroot, sweet potato, yam and breadfruit
(1100 - 1300 AD Similar fleets from Tahiti arrive in Hawai`i. )
BC 1439
Guam - " . . . Cocos is not an introduced tree, but was among the native plants already existing on Guam when the first human colonists arrived. The IARII Laguas data show that this economically important tree increased gradually in the record after about 3,444 cal. B.P. from its pre-human sporadic occurrences, and did not decline until the start of the historical period".
Athens, JS & Ward, JV (2004)
BC 1400-1000
Indian medicine - the oldest document on India medicine, the Susrutas Ayur-Veda (1400-1000 BC), cites coconut as a medicinal plant.
Chiovenda 1921-3 Webbia 5, 199-294 & 359-449.
BC 1650
First written reference - the coconut palm is referred to (for the first time) in the Sallier papyrus which states that there was a specimen of this plant in the botanical collection of Tothmes I (around 1650 BC).
Chiovenda 1921-3 Webbia 5, 199-294 & 359-449.
3,500 YBP
New Guinea - Remains of coconuts, dated at about 3,500 before present, have been found associated with human settlements and Lapita pottery in the St.Matthias group of islands in Papua New Guinea.
Kirch, 1987.
4,600 YBP
New Guinea - An Indo-Malesian origin was proposed in the region to the north west of New Guinea, mainly for geological and biological reasons related to Wallace's line (Mayuranathan). Prior to the time that this suggestion was made a fossilised coconut fruit had been found at Aitape on the north New Guinea coast in association with a human skull but the fact was not published until later (Hossfeld). The material was estimated by radiocarbon dating to be 4,555 years old. Unfortunately, the whereabouts of the fossil coconut is not now known and it may well have been destroyed in the dating process.
Mayuranathan, 1938
Hossfeld, P.S. (1948) The stratigraphy of the Aitape skull and its significance. Trans. Roy. Soc. S. Aust. 72, 201-207.Hossfeld, P.S. (1964) The Aitape calvarium. Australian J. Sci. 27, 179.
7,890-7,750 YBP
Fossil pollen - Aitu Island (Aitutaki Atoll, Cook Islands) 7820 +/-70 YBP.
Parkes 1997
14,000-8,000 YBP
Eden in the East - at the end of the last Ice Age, Southeast Asia formed a continent twice the size of India. Oppenheimer argues that it was in this area, rather than in Mesopotamia, that the civilization which fertilized the great cultures of the Middle East was found.
Mesolithic Pottery in Thailand 10,000 YBP
Invention of Agriculture 9,000+ YBP
Oppenheimer, S. (1998) Eden in the East
19,000 YBP
Land area available for domestication -
Source: Modelling shoreline evolution associated with earth glaciation
1,640,000-11,000 YBP
Pleistocene
Australopithecus Pekin man (Sinanthropus)
Homo erectus (Java man)
The continental coast and larger islands of Malesia was the site for domestication of Cocos nucifera, long before wild, domestic and introgressed types were taken into agricultural cultivation.
2 MYBP
Australia - A silicified coconut fruit from the Chinchilla sands in southern Queensland was dated to the late Pliocene, about 2 mya (Rigby, 1995). The Chinchilla sands are situated about 250 km west of Brisbane, and the area is otherwise rich in fossils of semi-aquatic animals such as crocodiles and tortoises, that suggest a more tropical and humid climate than at present (Dowe & Smith, 2002)).
Rigby, J.F. (1995) A fossil Cocos nucifera L fruit from the latest Pliocene of Queensland, Australia. Birbal Sahni Centenary Vol. pp 379.381
10cm
long x 9.5cm maximum diameter
Dowe, JL & Smith, LT (2002) A Brief History of the Coconut Palm in Australia. Palms 45(2).
5.2-1.64 MYBP
Pliocene
Oldest human ancestors in direct line, Ramapithecus?
Cocos zeylandica (according to Berry) dating disputed (Couper).
Ethiopean man (3 myBP) 1470
Man (2.5 myBP)
Berry, E.W. (1926) Cocos and Phymatocaryon in the Pleiocene of New Zealand.Am. J. Science. 12, 181-184.
23.3-5.2 MYBP
Miocene - Cocos zeylandica (according to Couper).
The primordial coconut would also have floated to continental coastlines but would have stood less chance of surviving competition from other plants or predation by animals until domesticated by early man after human ancestors branched off from apes (18 myBP).
Couper, R.A. (1952) The spore and pollen flora of the Cocos-bearing beds, Mangonui, North Auckland. Trans. Roy. Soc. New Zealand 79, 340-348.
35.4-23.3 MYBP
Oligocene - Islands in the Tethys Sea could have been the ancestral home of the coconut, from where it dispersed by floating to other islands in the Pacific and Indian Oceans, before the Australian plate collided with the Indonesian, but not into the Atlantic because the Afro-Arabian and Indian remnants of the former super-continent Gondwanaland, colliding with Eurasia to the north, pinched shut the western end of the Tethys Sea. Compressional forces generated by the collision helped to push up an extensive system of mountain ranges, from the Alps in the west to the Himalayas in the east.
56.5-35.4 MYBP
Eocene (Cenozoic) - Australia separates from Antarctica (50 MYBP)
India collides with Asia (45 myBP) Members of the Cocoeae that rafted on the Indian plate are now extinct. An origin for Cocos in the western Indian Ocean can be supported by the link with Jubaeopsis caffra (Martius), Vaoniala in Madagascar, the presence of Eocene fossil fruit, Cocos sahnii in the Indian desert (Kaul) and Cocos intertrappeansis (Patil & Upadhye) at Mohgaonkalan and a Cocos-like stem, Palmoxylon (Cocos) sundaram (Sahni) [Palmoxylon parthasarathyi (Sauer 1967)]
Kaul, K.N. (1951) A palm fruit from Kapurdi (Jodhpur, Rajasthan Desert) Cocos sahnii Sp. Nov. Current Science (India) 20 (5), 138.
Patil, GV & Upadhye, EV 1984. Cocos like fruit from Mohgaonkalan and its significance towards the stratigraphy of Mohgaonkalan Intertrappean beds. In: Sharma AK (Editor) Evolutionary botany & biostratigraphy: 541-554. (Ghosh Comm. Vol.).
Sahni, B. (1946) A silicified Cocos-like palm stem, Palmoxylon (Cocos) sundaram, from the Deccan Intertrappean beds. J. Indian Bot. Soc. Iyengar commemorative volume 26, pp. 361-374.
65-56.5 MYBP
Paleocene - With its ability to float the evolving coconut became independent of plate tectonics for its dispersal whereas other palms, such as the coco de mer, became notoriously endemic
Harries (1990)
144.2-65 MYBP
Cretaceous - India separates from Gondwanaland; it is suggested that the wild type Cocos evolved by floating between the volcanic islands and atolls where these fringed the continental plates and not on the lands masses at all.
Harries (1990; 2005)
205.7-144.2 MYBP
Jurassic - Africa and South America separate. Members of the Cocoeae radiated and became very diverse in the Americas; some rafted on the African and Madagascar Plates, where they survive to the present day
Uhl & Dransfield (1987)
248.2-205.7 MYBP
Triassic (Mesozoic) - Gondwanaland breaks up and modern corals appear. The coral atoll is considered to be the world's oldest and most stable ecosystem (Alkire, 1978) and the coconut palm is its most successful plant form (Harries, 1990). An origin for the whole Cocoeae tribe in western Gondwanaland seems most compatible with the present day distribution. The tribe probably differentiated shortly before the break up of that super-continent (Uhl & Dransfield, 1987).
Dated phylogeny of all palm genera - Some doubt has been cast on this convenient explanation by the publication of much later dates for palms in general so that Cocos only appears about 65 Mya when that movement was well under way (Baker et al, 2005) or even that the nucifera lineage diverged around 22 Mya (Gunn, 2004). Until such time as the geochronology and biochronology might be synchronised or recalibrated it has to be accepted that the American and African plates and the Madagascar and India plates were already separate