Sunday, February 04, 2018

More on citrus in the the ancient Mediterranean

THE ANCIENT NEAR EAST TODAY: When Life Gives You Lemons: Tracking the Earliest Citrus in the Mediterranean (Dafna Langgut).
Citrus was first cultivated by humans at least four thousand years ago in Southeast Asia, and all cultivated species derive from a handful of wild ancestors. Several years ago I found the earliest archaeobotanical evidence of citrus within the Mediterranean in a royal Persian garden near Jerusalem dating to the fifth and fourth centuries BCE. In the course of research I traced the spread and diversification of citrus through a variety of historical information, including ancient texts, art, and artifacts such as wall paintings and coins, and by gathering all the available archaeobotanical remains: fossil pollen grains, charcoal, seeds, and other fruit remains.
Background here and links.

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