Microbotanical evidence of domestic cereals in Africa 7000 years ago - PubMed (original) (raw)

Microbotanical evidence of domestic cereals in Africa 7000 years ago

Marco Madella et al. PLoS One. 2014.

Abstract

The study of plant exploitation and early use of cereals in Africa has seen over the years a great input from charred and desiccated macrobotanical remains. This paper presents the results of one of the few examples in Africa of microbotanical analyses. Three grave contexts of phytolith-rich deposits and the dental calculus of 20 individuals were analysed from two Neolithic cemeteries in North and Central Sudan. The radiocarbon-dated phytoliths from the burial samples show the presence of Near East domestic cereals in Northern Sudan at least 7000 years ago. Phytoliths also indicate the exploitation of wild, savannah-adapted millets in Central Sudan between 7500 and 6500 years ago. The calculus samples contained starch grains from wheat/barley, pulses and millets, as well as panicoid phytoliths. This evidence shows that Near East domestic cereals were consumed in Northern Africa at least 500 years earlier than previously thought.

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Conflict of interest statement

Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Figures

Figure 1

Figure 1. Map showing the location of R12 and Ghaba, as well as other settlements in Egypt and Sudan mentioned in the text.

Figure 2

Figure 2. Silica skeletons from R12 compared to reference material.

(a–b) Wheat/barley silica skeletons from grave 46, (c) modern silica skeleton from lemma of Hordeum vulgare L. and (d) modern silica skeleton from lemma of Triticum turgidum ssp. dicoccon (Schrank) Thell. Scale bar 50 µm.

Figure 3

Figure 3. Silica skeletons from Ghaba compared to reference material.

(a) Brachiaria sp. silica skeleton from grave 295, (b) modern silica skeleton from the inner part of the inflorescence of Brachiaria ramosa (L.) Stapf., (c) Echinochloa sp. type a silica skeleton from grave 233, (d) modern silica skeleton from the inner part of the inflorescence of Echinochloa colona (L.) Link., (e) Echinochloa sp. type b silica skeleton from grave 295 and (f) modern silica skeleton from the outer part of the inflorescence of Echinochloa frumentacea Link. Scale bar 50 µm. See Table S1 for the detailed description of identification characters.

Figure 4

Figure 4. Starch grains recovered from dental calculi from Ghaba compared to reference material.

(a) Triticeae starch grain from the skeleton of grave 169, (b) modern starch grain of Triticum turgidum ssp. dicoccon (Schrank) Thell., (c) modern starch grain of Hordeum vulgare L., (d) Panicoideae starch grains from the skeleton of grave 297, (e) modern starch grain of Pennisetum glaucum (L.) R.Br., (f) modern starch grain of Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench., (g) Faboideae starch grain from the skeleton of grave 52, (h) modern starch grain of Lablab purpureus (L.) Sweet and (i) modern starch grain of Vigna unguiculata (L.) Walp. Scale bar 20 µm.

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Grants and funding

J. J. G. G. received a salary from a JAE Predoc scholarship from the Spanish National Research Council and the European Social Fund. W. A. O. received a salary from an E. U. Marie Curie Intra-European Fellowship (273610). P. R. received a salary from an AHRC Research Grant (AH/K006193/1). The authors received no specific research funding for this work. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.

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