Origin and geographic distributionS

Origin and geographic distribution
Since antiquity, sesame has been used as a valued oil crop. Its origin has been disputed for more than a century. It has long been believed that it was domesticated in Africa, but interspecific hybridization and chemical evidence indicate that sesame was domesticated on the Indian subcontinent. Sesame seed found in an excavation at Harappa (Pakistan) was dated at 2000 BC. Sesame was taken to Mesopotamia in the Early Bronze Age and by 2000 BC it was a crop of great importance there. Mesopotamia became the main centre of distribution of sesame into the Mediterranean. By the second century BC it was a prominent oil crop in China. Its introduction into tropical Africa is poorly documented. Sesame was a valuable cargo in the trade between India and the Mediterranean along the southern Arabian and Red Sea coasts in the 2nd century BC and it must have been known by that time in the Horn of Africa.