瓜瓞绵绵:甜西瓜在丝绸之路沿线的栽培与传播

Flourishing of Melons:The Cultivation and Dissemination of Sweet Watermelons along the Silk Road

甜西瓜是葫芦科植物,原产于非洲大陆,其人工栽培种出现于公元前3000年的埃及。公元前1200年,甜西瓜沿地中海沿岸传播,希伯来语avattiah、古希腊语pepon与拉丁语pepo均指代甜西瓜。公元8世纪,甜西瓜已向东传播至伊朗高原。公元9世纪中叶,甜西瓜出现在中亚费尔干纳盆地的布哈拉。目前中国已知最早的甜西瓜遗物出土于新疆巴楚县托库孜萨来遗址,年代为公元9世纪末至公元10世纪初,间接印证了《新五代史》《辽史·太祖本纪》中关于“契丹破回纥得瓜种”的记载。

Sweet watermelon is a cucurbitaceae plant,native to the African continent,and its cultivated species appeared in Egypt in 3000 BC.By 1200 BC,the sweet watermelon was spreading along the Mediterranean coast,where it became known as avattiah in Hebrew,pepon in ancient Greece,and pepo in Latin.By the 8th century,sweet watermelon had spread eastward to the Iranian plateau.In the middle of the 9th century,sweet watermelons ap⁃peared in Bukhara in the Fergana Basin of Central Asia.At present,the earliest known sweet watermelon remains in China were unearthed at the Tuokuzisalai site in Bachu County,Xinjiang,dating from the end of the 9th century to the beginning of the 10th century,which indirectly confirms the record of“the Khitan destroyed the Ouigour and ob⁃tained the melon seed”in the New Five Dynasties History and the Liao History Taizu Benji.