User:Jrblinkoo/History of the potato/Ell.S.'22 Peer Review

General info

 * Whose work are you reviewing?

Jrblinkoo


 * Link to draft you're reviewing
 * Link to the current version of the article (if it exists)
 * History of the potato
 * History of the potato

Evaluate the drafted changes
I really like your choice of article - it seems like there is a lot you can do with both food remains and ancient representations of potatoes. I didn't see anything drafted in your sandbox, so this review will give my thoughts on the existing article and some suggestions for aspects of it you could work on. The lead of the article is very thorough, but I think it could actually benefit from being more concise. I think it would make sense to save quotations for the body of the article and instead focus the lead on the biggest overarching points. The content looks relevant and up to date with many reliable sources. However, there seems to be an imbalance in the space taken up by European history and potatoes in Africa, Asia, and North America. These latter sections could stand to be expanded. I don't see any big issues with missing citations or bias in the writing (although I am really focusing on the sections about the Americas which I'm assuming will be the most relevant for your work). With that in mind, I have a couple of suggestions for things you could work on if you are still looking for edits to make. First, the lead says that potato remains are difficult to identify because they do not preserve well, but the South America section talks about how how remains were found at many sites. Is this because those sites are more recent than the oldest possible date? If so, how did archaeologists come up with the 10,000 year estimate? Further, is there anything special about the sites that allowed the potatoes to remain preserved? It could be interesting to look more into those three sites and expand on the excavations, especially the context in which potatoes were found (was it near a fire source that indicates cooking?). In terms of the North America section, it seems like archaeology is generally overlooked. This could be because the dates are more recent, but we have read a lot about the importance of historical archaeology, so I would be interested in if there are any more recent North American archaeological finds relating to potatoes. This could potentially open the door to some really interesting information about agriculture, the incorporation of potatoes into diet as evidence of colonial interaction, and other North American food practices.

Hopefully this gives you some good advice for future edits. Let me know if you want me to take a look at your draft when you have it!