The oldest pumpkin seeds were found in Mexico and are an estimated 14.000 years old. Both corn and beans were cultivated much later by Central America's original inhabitants, and so the pumpkin is the country's oldest cutural plant. From the Canadian - to the South America Indians the three vegetables together made up the American inhabitants' major vegetarian source of food.
Advanced civilizations like the Mayas and Aztecs hit upon not only culinary but also medical fields of application they could use the various kinds of pumpkins for. Out of the pumpkin fruits many peoples made jars that were later replaced by ceramic tanks (nevertheless they kept the pumpkin's typical shape).
In many places the pumpkin in his numerous shapes was also used for making masks and music instruments. In the form of rattles, flutes and horns the pumpkin found its way into the rituals of many peoples as the plant did in different forms into cooking and pharmacology already before.
Following the plant's fruitfulness Central Americans still call pregnant women "pumpkin".
On December 3, 1492 Christopher Columbus discovered the first pumpkin fields .
27 years later Gaspar de Espinosa wrote in his travel reports about Panama: "... the South American Indians' melons I found are bigger and more delicious than the ones I've seen in all kingdoms before...". So the pumpkin was the first vegetable to come to Europe from overseas. Corn, tomatoes, potatoes and other fruits found their way to the "Old World" much later.
Yet only recently the pumpkin has stopped living in the shadows and has become integrated into our home cuisine and acknowledged by modern medicine too.