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Encyclopedia of Global Archaeology pp 3107–3111Cite as

Grapes: Origins and Development

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It is difficult to discern the true wild ancestor of cultivated grape (Vitis vinifera L.) because the Mediterranean Basin has a wide variety of wild forms. These include escapees and seed-propagated weedy types growing in natural habitat, occurring mainly in disturbed surroundings and cultivated clones of the grapevine (Zohary & Hopf 2001: 152). Recent genetic studies have proven that cultivated grapevines growing in different regions have genetic diversity and heterozygosity which can only have been established through an influx of genes from nearby wild V. sylvestris populations (Imazio et al. 2006: 1009). Vitis sylvestris C. C. Gmelin is now considered to be the wild race of the cultivated grape and is indigenous to southern Europe, the Near East, and the southern Caspian belt (Zohary & Hopf 2001: 152).

Vitis vinifera (L.) (grape) is the sole Mediterranean representative of the genus Vitis (Zohary & Hopf 2001: 155). The plants are monosexual with the...

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Further Reading

  • Borgongino, M. 1999. Suburban agriculture, in A. Ciarallo & E. De Carolis (ed.) Pompeii: life in a Roman town:89-91. Milan: Electa.

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  • Ciarallo, A., 2000. Gardens of Pompeii. Rome: L'Erma di Bretschneider.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Archaeology, University College London, London, UK

    Charlene Murphy

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  1. Charlene Murphy
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Correspondence to Charlene Murphy .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Archaeology, Flinders University, Adelaide, SA, Australia

    Claire Smith

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Murphy, C. (2014). Grapes: Origins and Development. In: Smith, C. (eds) Encyclopedia of Global Archaeology. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-0465-2_2178

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-0465-2_2178

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