WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind., Sept. 4 (UPI) -- What do walnuts have in common with the earliest human languages and the first trade routes? A lot, according to scientists at Purdue University.
When you map the evolution of language and the evolution of the walnut tree, you find a wide overlap stretching across much of Eurasia. These overlaps highlight the routes of early spice traders who, traveling along the Silk Roads, first connected Europe, Africa and Asia.