Watermelon (Citrullus lanatus) domestication
Domesticación de la sandía (Citrullus lanatus)
- Date
- c. 2000 BCE · confidence low
- Place
- Nile Valley, Egypt
- Credited to
- Farmers of the Nile Valley and Nubia
- Field
- Life & health
⚠️ Disputed: the sources disagree.
What it is
The watermelon was domesticated in north-east Africa from bitter-fleshed wild melons; seeds from Libyan sites and Middle Kingdom Egypt, and seeds in Tutankhamun's tomb, show its ancient use. It was a source of water and sugar in arid climates.
The oldest remains (seeds from Uan Muhuggiag, Libya, and Middle Kingdom finds) do not prove domestication by themselves. Recent genomic studies place the ancestor of the sweet melon in north-east Africa (Sudan, Kordofan), so the place and date of domestication are debated.
What it led to
- a source of water and sugar in the arid lands of the Nile and the Sahara
- spread across the Mediterranean, Asia and, centuries later, the Americas
- today's sweet red-fleshed varieties