Editing Coriander (section)

==Origin ==
Coriander grows wild over a wide area of Western Asia and Southern Europe, making it difficult to define where the plant is native and where it was only recently established.<ref name=ZoharyHopf>{{cite book |first1=Daniel |last1=Zohary |first2=Maria |last2=Hopf |title=Domestication of Plants in the Old World |edition=Third |location=Oxford, UK |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2000 |pages=205–206 |isbn=0-19-850357-1 }}</ref> Recent works suggest that wild coriander in Israel and Portugal might be an ancestor of cultivated coriander.<ref name="Arora-et-al-2021">{{cite journal | last1=Arora | first1=Vivek | last2=Adler | first2=Chen | last3=Tepikin | first3=Alina | last4=Ziv | first4=Gili | last5=Kahane | first5=Tali | last6=Abu-Nassar | first6=Jackline | last7=Golan | first7=Sivan | last8=Mayzlish-Gati | first8=Einav | last9=Gonda | first9=Itay | title=Wild coriander: an untapped genetic resource for future coriander breeding | journal=Euphytica | publisher=Springer | volume=217 | issue=7 | date=2021-06-09 | page=138 | issn=0014-2336 | doi=10.1007/s10681-021-02870-4 | bibcode=2021Euphy.217..138A | s2cid=236230461}} Article number 138.</ref>{{better source needed|date=April 2022}}<ref name="Lopes-et-al-2017">{{cite journal | last1=Lopes | first1=E. | last2=Farinha | first2=N. | last3=Póvoa | first3=O. | title=Characterization and evaluation of traditional and wild coriander in Alentejo (Portugal) | journal=Acta Horticulturae| issue=1153 | year=2017 | issn=0567-7572 | doi=10.17660/actahortic.2017.1153.12 | pages=77–84 | s2cid=133171354}}</ref>{{better source needed|date=April 2022}} They have low germination rates and a small vegetative appearance. Israeli coriander has an extremely hard fruit coat.<ref name="Arora-et-al-2021" />

In [[Israel]], fifteen desiccated [[mericarp]]s were found in the [[Pre-Pottery Neolithic B]] level (six to eight thousand years ago) of the [[Nahal Hemar]] Cave,<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Kislev |first=Mordechai E. |date=1988 |title=Early Agriculture and Paleoecology of Netiv Hagdud |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/283349626 |journal=An Early Neolithic Village in the Jordan Valley |via=ResearchGate}}</ref> and eleven from ~8,000–7,500 years ago in [[Pre-Pottery Neolithic C]] in [[Atlit-Yam]].<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Kislev |first1=Mordechai E |last2=Hartmann |first2=Anat |last3=Galili |first3=Ehud |date=2004-09-01 |title=Archaeobotanical and archaeoentomological evidence from a well at Atlit-Yam indicates colder, more humid climate on the Israeli coast during the PPNC period |url=https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0305440304000299 |journal=Journal of Archaeological Science |volume=31 |issue=9 |pages=1301–1310 |doi=10.1016/j.jas.2004.02.010 |bibcode=2004JArSc..31.1301K |issn=0305-4403|url-access=subscription }}</ref> If these finds do belong to these archaeological layers, they are the oldest find of coriander in the world.<ref name="Zohary-et-al-2012">{{cite book | last1=Zohary | first1=Daniel | last2=Hopf | first2=Maria | last3=Weiss | first3=Ehud | title=Domestication of Plants in the Old World: The origin and spread of domesticated plants in Southwest Asia, Europe, and the Mediterranean Basin | publisher=Oxford University Press|location=Oxford, UK | date=2012 | isbn=9780199549061 | oclc=784886646 | pages=xi+243+17 plates }}</ref>{{rp|page=163}}

About {{convert|500|ml|USoz}} of coriander mericarps were recovered from the tomb of [[Tutankhamen]]. As coriander does not grow wild in Egypt, this could be proof that coriander was cultivated by the [[ancient Egypt]]ians.<ref name=ZoharyHopf /> The [[Ebers Papyrus]], an Egyptian text dated around 1550 [[BCE]], mentioned uses of coriander.<ref name="pickersgill">{{cite book |editor1-last=Prance |editor1-first=Ghillean |editor2-last=Nesbitt |editor2-first=Mark |last1=Pickersgill |first1=Barbara |author-link=Barbara Pickersgill |date=2005 |title=The Cultural History of Plants |publisher=Routledge |page=161 |isbn=0415927463}}</ref>

Coriander may have been cultivated in Greece since at least the second millennium BCE. One of the [[Linear B]] tablets recovered from [[Pylos]] refers to the species as being cultivated for the manufacture of perfumes. It was used in two forms: as a spice for its seeds and as an herb for the flavour of its leaves.<ref name="Chadwick" /> This appears to be confirmed by archaeological evidence: the large quantities of coriander retrieved from an [[Early Bronze Age]] layer at [[Sitagroi]] in [[Macedonia (Greece)|Macedonia]] could point to cultivation of the herb at that time.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Fragiska |first=M. |year=2005 |title=Wild and Cultivated Vegetables, Herbs and Spices in Greek Antiquity |journal=Environmental Archaeology |volume=10 |issue=1 |pages=73–82 |doi=10.1179/146141005790083858 }}</ref>