Secret History X

The English word tomato comes from derives from “tomatl,” its name in Nahuatl, the language of the Aztecs. The first printed reference to the Tomatl was in a Spanish tract in 1595. In the tract it is mentioned that Hernando Cortez discovered tomatoes growing in Montezuma‘s gardens and brought seeds back to Europe in 1519 where they were planted as ornamental curiosities, but not eaten. The early fruits were yellow, and became known as “manzanas” (apples) and “pomi d’oro” (apple of gold).

Tomatl

The history of the Tomato can be traced back to the early Aztecs around 700 A.D; and mention appears in the diary of an early Italian writer who called the tomato a “Poma Peruviana” (Peru being a generic name for Andean South America). Few primitive forms of tomato are found in Central America and Mexico compared with the number in South America, indicating a rather late adoption of the fruit by Central and Northwest Indians. The Spanish distributed the tomato through most of the Carribbean colonies, and are responsible for introducing it to Europe, the Philippines, and South East Asia.

William Salmon

The Spanish, Catalan, and Occitan people of the Piedmont (north-Western Italy) were the first to embrace and cultivate the tomato for practical reasons (as food) outside South America. The French called it the “love apple.” or Pomme d’Amour, and was prized for its stimulating aphrodisiac qualities. However it remained suspect among the Upper class outside these areas and was shunned by the British. The earliest reference to tomatoes being grown in British North America is from 1710, when herbalist William Salmon reported seeing them in what is today South Carolina. They were doubtless introduced by the Spanish settlers from the Caribbean, and Huguenot refugees who fled from the areas of Europe that were the early adopters of tomato use.

New England with its heavy English influence remained profoundly suspect of the fruit until at last in 1808, Jamaican raised Colonel Robert Gibbon Johnson, proved once and for all that the tomato was not poisonous by performing a public demonstration of rather exhibitionist proportions on the steps of the Salem NJ Courthouse. Colonel Johnson, dressed in black and accompanied by the local Fireman’s band playing funeral dirges, bravely consumed an entire basket of tomatoes. His grandstanding attracted a crowd of people estimated at 2000 who were certain that the foolish Captain was committing public suicide. When this Victorian era Mythbuster failed to expire or suffer any ill effects, the myth was effectively busted. However, it is interesting that the tomato is still the first of “The Usual Suspects” in any incident of communal food poisoning.

So while it appears that this plant in indeed edible and may well have its origins in South America, the mystery remains that in the 2nd Century CE the Greek Physician Claudius Galen accurately describes this plant as being native to North Africa and the Canary Islands. Is it possible that the common Tomato may actually be proof of pre-Columbian commerce between North Africa and South America prior to 700 A.D?

According to the various traditions, the Picts descended from a colony of Milesians (a Minoan based Scytho-Thracian seafarering culture) led by Galamh of Miletus. Galamb and his men allegedly took wives from among the Dannan (Don River People)  and Areyanum Veiya (Ahhiwaya) before exploring the lands beyond the Pillars of Hercules and ultimately settling in the Orkney Islands, Hebrides, and northern Scotland. The only reliable authority to offer this account is the Venerable Bede and he would have learned it from the Irish sources.

W J Watson [1926, pp 60-61] dismissed the legends as merely attempts at Irish embellishment of their history based on the mention of “Picti Agathyrsi” and “Picti Geloni” in the Aeneid of Virgil. Both Virgil and Herodotus trace the descent of these nations from the three sons of Heracles: Agathyrsus, Gelonus, and Scythes.

Herodotus, writing in 450 BC located the Agathyrsi on the Black Sea above the Danube, and the Geloni he sways were Greeks who settled in the territory of the Budini on the upper Dneiper. Both tribes were tributary to the Scythians.

The social organization of the Agathyrsi was complex in that they practiced group marriage. That is while each man had a single wife, all wives were held in common. For purposes of noting descent only the children of the man’s wife were counted as his own regardless of their actual parentage. However for purposes of tribal cohesion, all men in the tribe were deemed to be brothers of a single family. This organizational principle as noted by Herodotus was confirmed by Julius Caesar, Dio Cassius, Solinus and St Jerome.

This social custom and practice of matrilineal succession as practiced by the Agathyrsi, Barsarkar, Swydds, Picts, Amazijan Berbers and Miathi of Northern Wales was most certainly known among the Irish who made the connection and asserted their claims. Before we dismiss those claims closer examination of them is warranted. What more evidence is there that the groups were connected? Solinus notes in his writings that the red haired/blue eyed Agathyrsi dyed their hair blue and strode naked into Battle covered with the tattoos of their lineage and rank. The same is true of the Baltic Hero Aganthyr who was called the Barsarkar for his habit of waging war covered only with his weapons. While the notion that they dyed their skins with or used Woad for tattooing has been debunked, the fact that they did utilize Woad for dying their clothing and hair, and that they were extensively tattooed using an iron compound (which results in a bluish hue) has been confirmed for all related tribes.