Nigella in the Mirror of Time: A Brief Attempt to Draw a Genus’ Ethnohistorical Portrait

Nigella (Ranunculaceae) is a small genus of annuals mainly of Irano-Turanian distribution, but some species also extending across most of Europe, northern Africa, and western Asia. The genus comprises several taxa of ethnopharmacological interest, as their seeds are used in a wide range of medicinal contexts – those of N. sativa have even developed into a plant drug of prime commercial interest. However, the historical dimension (the “traditional uses”) of Nigella species, nowadays used as a marketing tool and often a justification of modern use, has hardly ever been documented basing on the critical use of sources, and employing a multidisciplinary approach. The current paper now attempts to combine a wide range of written sources and the full archaeological record in order to find evidence of this genus’ possible use in history and prehistory, and to serve as an example of the combination and interlinking of research tools from historical botany and archaeobotany.