 Remains of "Z. zerumbet" have been identified at the Kuk Swamp archaeological site of New Guinea at the Phase 1 layers dated to 10,220 to 9,910 BP.However, whether it was cultivated or merely exploited from the wild is unknown.Like the ginger, the earliest evidence of its cultivation is from the Austronesian peoples who carried it with them during the Austronesian expansion (c. 5,000 BP) as canoe plants, reaching as far as Remote Oceania.

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