The bottle gourd has been recovered from archaeological contexts in China and Japan dating to ca. 8,000–9,000 B.P. whereas in Africa, despite decades of high-quality archaeobotanical research, the earliest record of its occurrence remains the 1884 report of a bottle gourd being recovered from a 12th Dynasty tomb at Thebes dating to ca. 4,000 B.P. [https://www.pnas.org/content/102/51/18315#ref-14 When considered together, the genetic and archaeological information points toward L. siceraria being independently brought under domestication first in Asia, and more than 4,000 years later, in Africa. [https://www.pnas.org/content/102/51/18315#:~:text=The%20bottle%20gourd%20has%20been%20recovered%20from%20archaeological%20contexts%20in,to%20ca.%208%2C000%E2%80%939%2C000%20B.P.&text=siceraria%20being%20independently%20brought%20under,4%2C000%20years%20later%2C%20in%20Africa.