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The first archaeobotanical evidence of Lagenaria siceraria from the territory of Hungary: histology, phytoliths and (a)DNA

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Abstract

Bottle gourd (Lagenaria siceraria (Molina) Standl.) is accepted as typical ‘New World’ cultivated economic plant. Currently, two subspecies are known: L. siceraria ((Molina) Standl.) ssp. siceraria has an African origin, whilst ssp. asiatica is recognized to be originating from Asian territories. It only seldom appears in European archaeological contexts, however finds from the Roman period appear sporadically. Part of a Late Middle Age (14th–15th century) settlement was excavated near the town of Pócspetri (SE Hungary) and one of the refuse pits contained waterlogged remains of several dozen dicot leaves and small sized branches (e.g. Populus sp.). In addition an entire dog skeleton and an apparently 10 cm by 7 cm bottle gourd pericarp fragment were also found in a well-preserved pot. This fortunate recovery accounts for the first evidence of bottle gourd in the archaeobotanical record of Hungary and Eastern Europe. Due to its favourable preservation not only precise morphological analysis could be undertaken, but ancient DNA (aDNA) extraction, PCR amplification and sequencing were used to identify more closely its possible origin and taxonomic relations. Different diagnostic phytolith morphotypes of the pericarp were matched to reference material phytolith assemblages. The macro-archaeobotanical record of the feature reflects the botanical elements of the natural environment of this medieval site and places the unique bottle gourd find in context.

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Acknowledgments

The excavation leader at Pócspetri-Bikaréti szivárgó was Vera Majerik (HNM NCCH), while Gergely Bóka, Nicklas Larsson and Kornél Sóskuti of the same institution were participating archaeologists in the project; the authors are thankful to all of them for the careful and open-eyed excavation work. The authors are also grateful to two anonymous reviewers whose comments helped to improve this paper. This work was partly undertaken with the support of Research Centre of Excellence at Szent István University (9878/2015/FEKUT).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Nature Conservation and Landscape Management, Szent István University, Páter Károly utca 1, Gödöllő, 2103, Hungary

    Ákos Pető

  2. Laboratory for Applied Research, Hungarian National Museum, National Heritage Protection Centre, Daróci út 3, Budapest, 1113, Hungary

    Ákos Pető, Árpád Kenéz & Marianna Molnár

  3. Department of Agricultural Botany and Crop Physiology, University of Debrecen, Böszörményi út 138, Debrecen, 4032, Hungary

    Zsuzsa Lisztes-Szabó

  4. Department of Botany, University of Debrecen, Egyetem tér 1, Debrecen, 4032, Hungary

    Gábor Sramkó & Levente Laczkó

  5. MTA-ELTE-MTM Ecology Research Group, Pázmány Péter stny. 1/C., Budapest, 1117, Hungary

    Gábor Sramkó

  6. Forster Gyula National Centre for Cultural Heritage Management, Daróci út 3, Budapest, 1113, Hungary

    Gergely Bóka

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  1. Ákos Pető
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Correspondence to Ákos Pető.

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Communicated by A. Chevalier.

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Pető, Á., Kenéz, Á., Lisztes-Szabó, Z. et al. The first archaeobotanical evidence of Lagenaria siceraria from the territory of Hungary: histology, phytoliths and (a)DNA. Veget Hist Archaeobot 26, 125–142 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00334-016-0566-y

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