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Article: BOTTLE GOURD DOMESTICATED EARLY IN THE NEW WORLD
- Article from:
- The Boston Globe (Boston, MA)
- Article date:
- December 26, 2005
- Author:
CopyrightCopyright 2005 The Boston Globe. Provided by ProQuest LLC. (Hide copyright information)
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If the dog is man's best friend, then the bottle gourd, perhaps,
is second best. A new scientific analysis of the gourd has concluded
that this unglamorous plant was brought to the Americas, along with
the dog, from Asia. The research, led by Noreen Tuross of the Harvard
University department of anthropology, suggests that the gourd, which
was prized as a strong, light-weight container, was one of the first
domesticated species in the New World, at least 10,000 years ago. The
team used a wide range of tests, including a genetic analysis, to
show that the gourds were domesticated in Asia and ...