How the most important plant for Prehistoric Man migrated across the planet

The bottle gourd, otherwise known as the calabash plant, was prehistoric man’s most useful plant. It is believed to be the first cultivated plant in the world, and may have been domesticated even earlier than food crops and livestock.  Its’ hard-skinned fruit was used to make water bottles, spoons, pipes, containers, musical instruments, and ornaments. They were also used to make pontoons in ancient Egypt, swimming aids by the Romans, birdhouses by Native Americans, and more recently as motorcycle helmets in Nigeria. It is the only known plant whose use by humans spanned prehistoric cultures across the entire globe, but one thing that has puzzled scientists was how – given its African origins – it came to be so widely used in Asia and the Americas at least 8,000 – 10,000 years ago.