bioRxiv preprint doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.07.08.193995; this version posted July 10, 2020. The copyright holder for this preprint (which was not certified by peer review) is the author/funder, who has granted bioRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. It is made available under aCC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 International license. Genetic, textual, and archaeological evidence of the historical global spread of cowpea (Vigna unguiculata [L.] Walp) Running title: Historic global spread of cowpea Ira A. Herniter1,2*, María Muñoz-Amatriaín1,3, Timothy J. Close1 1 Department of Botany and Plant Sciences, University of California, Riverside, CA. 2 Current address: Department of Plant Biology, Rutgers University, NJ 3 Current address: Department of Soil and Crop Sciences, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO. * Correspondence: Ira A. Herniter,
[email protected] Keywords: Vigna unguiculata, domestication, archaeobotany, textual analysis bioRxiv preprint doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.07.08.193995; this version posted July 10, 2020. The copyright holder for this preprint (which was not certified by peer review) is the author/funder, who has granted bioRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. It is made available under aCC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 International license. ABSTRACT Cowpea (Vigna unguiculata [L.] Walp.) was originally domesticated in sub-Saharan Africa but is now cultivated on every continent except Antarctica. Utilizing archaeological, textual, and genetic resources, the spread of cultivated cowpea has been reconstructed. Cowpea was domesticated in Africa, likely in both West and East Africa, before 2500 BCE and by 400 BCE was long established in all the modern major production regions of the Old World, including sub-Saharan Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, India, and Southeast Asia.