HIST: Irises and grave sites

Griff Crump mentions finding irises growing in an abandoned cemetary in the
Hingston Creek area of Bourbon County, KY.  That reminds me of something I
read many years ago about a probable explanation of the wide distribution of
the 44-chromosome sterile IB's in Europe and western Asia.

It has been observed that in some Moslem-dominated areas a common practice is
the planting of irises, particularly of Albicans, if I remember correctly, at
grave sites.  It would not be surprising that bearded irises attracted human
attention far in the remote past.  Since the rhizomes survive handling out of
the soil for long periods of time they are easy to transport over long
distances by foot travel or on horseback, once that domestication took place.
The spread of irises that have fertile seedlings is easy to explain by
non-human agents, but those that are sterile clones don't spread over hundreds
or thousands of miles without a more radical intervention.

Recent finds in desert areas of western China of tartans and woolens being
used by obvious western Europeans, judging by hair color and bone structure
have startling implications.  The materials found in the graves indicates an
active commerce and travel between that area on the northern side of the
Himalayas and western Europe.  Some of the wool has been identified as having
been from sheep in western Europe using some sophisticated analyses.  The
tartan patterns also show kinship to some found much later in Celtic Europe.

It would not be surprising that iris rhizomes traveled the same "highways" as
the woolens.  One can imagine grave sites scattered over those long distances
blooming brightly in spring with clumps of white and purple irises giving
honor to those whose bodies had been buried there.  Perhaps some of those
sterile hybrids even arose by deliberate human hybridization.  Those folk
thousands of years ago had the same powers of observation and imagination we
do. They certainly were involved in selective animal breeding. Who knows what
they may have attempted with fruits, vegetables and flowers?

Neil Mogensen  z 7 western NC

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