On the Origins and Dissemination of Domesticated Sorghum and Pearl Millet across Africa and into India: a View from the Butana Group of the Far Eastern Sahel

Four decades have passed since Harlan and Stemler (1976) proposed the eastern Sahelian zone as the most likely center of Sorghum bicolor domestication. Recently, new data on seed impressions on Butana Group pottery, from the fourth millennium BC in the southern Atbai region of the far eastern Sahelian Belt in Africa, show evidence for cultivation activities of sorghum displaying some domestication traits. Pennisetum glaucum may have been undergoing domestication shortly thereafter in the western Sahel, as finds of fully domesticated pearl millet are present in southeastern Mali by the second half of the third millennium BC, and present in eastern Sudan by the early second millennium BC. The dispersal of the latter to India took less than 1000 years according to present data. Here, we review the middle Holocene Sudanese archaeological data for the first time, to situate the origins and spread of these two native summer rainfall cereals in what is proposed to be their eastern Sahelian Sudan gateway to the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean trade

Material cosmopolitanism: the entrepot of Harlaa as an Islamic gateway to eastern Ethiopia

This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from Cambridge University Press via the DOI in this record.The investigation of Islamic archaeology in Ethiopia has until recently been neglected. Excavations at Harlaa, a large urban centre in eastern Ethiopia, are now beginning to redress this lack of research attention. By establishing occupation and material sequences, and by assessing the chronology and material markers of Islamisation, recent work provides important new insight on the presence and role of Muslims and Islamic practice at Harlaa, and in the Horn of Africa more generally. The results challenge previous assumptions of cultural homogeneity, instead indicating the development of cosmopolitanism. They also suggest a possible historical identity for Harlaa: as Hubät/Hobat, the capital of the Hārlā sultanate.European Commissio

Filling the Gap: New Archaeobothanical Evidence for 3rd 1st Millennium BC Aricultural Economy in Sudan and Ethiopia

The article discuss the last archaeobothanical discoveries in Eastern Sudan and Northern Ethiopia giving new insights into the crop domestication process in those regions, with special attention paied to the cereals like sorghum and tef. The historical implications of these new discoveries are also outlined

Italian Archaeological Expedition to the Sudan of the University of Naples "L'Orientale". 2010 Field Season

Report of the 2010 field season of the Italian Archaeological Expedition to Eastern Sudan of the University of Naples "L'Orientale". With contributions by Alemseged Beldados Aleho, Alfredo Coppa and Vincenzo Zopp

Pre-aksumite plant husbandry in the Horn of Africa

Palaeoethnobotanical studies completed at the archaeological site of Mezber in Tigrai, Ethiopia, have led to important new insights on plant husbandry practices of the Pre-Aksumite Period (1600 cal BC to cal AD 25) in the Horn of Africa. The Mezber material record includes a transition from an agro-pastoralist economy in the Initial Phase (1600–900 cal BC) to a more sedentary agricultural way of life in the Early, Middle and Late Phases (825 cal BC–cal AD 25). Macrobotanical samples are dominated by Southwest Asian C3 crops and weeds including emmer, barley, linseed, flax and Lolium, while microbotanical samples of phytoliths are dominated by plants belonging to the Chloridoideae and Panicoideae, indicative of African domesticates such as t’ef, finger millet, sorghum and wild grasses. The Mezber data constitute the earliest evidence to date for crops and plant use in the region, which are present by at least the mid-second millennium BC. In these early subsistence regimes, Southwest Asian crops likely formed one component of a complex plant husbandry system that also incorporated indigenous African C4 plants. This mode of subsistence is analogous to those encountered in other late Holocene archaeological sites in northeastern Africa and has now been demonstrated for the Ethiopian highlands.ETAP palaeoethnobotanical investigations at Mezber were financially supported by two grants from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC), including Standard Research Grants 410-2007-2472 and 410-2011-1646. Further support was obtained from a SSHRC/SFU Institutional Grant from Simon Fraser University (PI of these grants D’Andrea). The work of CL and ARG was supported by the "RAINDROPS” Project, funded by the European Research Council (ERC) under the Horizon 2020 framework (ERC-Stg 759800, PI Lancelotti). We thank two anonymous reviewers for their constructive comments

Pre‑Aksumite and Aksumite agricultural economy at Ona Adi, Tigrai (Ethiopia): first look at a 1000‑year history

Data de publicació electrònica: 6 de març del 2024Archaeobotanical investigations at the site of Ona Adi in Tigrai were conducted during the 2013–2015 field seasons within the framework of the Eastern Tigrai Archaeological Project (ETAP). The site occupation spanned the Middle/Late Pre-Aksumite period (ca. 750/600 BCE) to the fall of the Aksumite Kingdom (ca. 700 CE), including the Pre-Aksumite to Aksumite transition (ca. 400 BCE–CE 1). The main objective of the study was to examine the agricultural economy in Eastern Tigrai during these periods and to evaluate the impact of social and cultural developments on the agricultural practices at Ona Adi. Recovered macrobotanical remains included wheat, barley, linseed, noog, lentil, and wild/weedy plants. In addition, evidence of finger millet was recovered along with tentative identifications of t’ef. The phytolith record shows evidence of grass processing, including morphotypes associated with Chloridoideae, Panicoideae, and Pooideae grasses. Results indicate that plants of both African and Southwest Asian origins were present in the region from the mid-eighth century BCE to the eighth century CE, but their relative importance varied throughout time in relation to socio-political changes at the regional level. Our data demonstrate a significant degree of continuity in the local agricultural economy, which remained largely unchanged even after the decline of Aksumite state

Pre-Aksumite Plant Husbandry in the Horn of Africa - Datasets

This repository contains the results datasets of the article Pre-Aksumite Plant Husbandry in the Horn of Africa published by the journal Vegetation History and Archaeobotany.We owe a debt of gratitude to our Ethiopian colleagues and field assistants who have participated in ETAP research at Mezber since 2007. In particular, we acknowledge Medhin Abate, the owner of the land upon which Mezber sits, and our many excavation assistants from the villages surrounding the site. We are grateful to Shannon Wood who completed site mapping, figures and participated in excavations, and Pamela Wadge who conducted flotation and preliminary archaeobotanical studies. Tesfay Gebremariam provided assistance with flotation. We thank Michael Tofollo for completing an initial analysis of Mezber phytoliths. Additional Mezber team members included Helina Woldekiros, Lynn Welton, Stephen Batuik, Steven Brandt, Andrea Manzo, Laurie Nixon-Darcus, Elizabeth Peterson, Michela Gaudiello, Aman Mohammed, Hagos Hailat and Stefano Biagetti. We thank the Authority for Research and Conservation of Cultural Heritage (ARCCH) and the Tigrai Bureau of Culture and Tourism (TBCT) for permission to excavate at Mezber, especially Kebede Amare and Dr. Yonas Beyene. We greatly appreciate the participation of ARCCH and TBCT Representatives including Habtamu Mekonnen, Abebe Mengistu, Endashash Awate and Giday Gebregziabhir. ETAP archaeobotanical investigations at Mezber were financially supported by two major grants from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC), including Standard Research Grants 410-2007-2472 and 410-2011-1646. Further support was obtained from a SSHRC/SFU Institutional Grant from Simon Fraser University. The work of CL and ARG was supported by the "RAINDROPS" Project, funded by the European Research Council (ERC) under the Horizon 2020 framework (ERC-Stg 759800)

Italian Archaeological Expedition to the Eastern Sudan of the University of Naples "L'Orientale". Report of the 2011 Field Season

Report of the excavations and survey conducted in the field season 2011 by the Archaeological Expedition to Eastern Sudan of the University of Naples "L'Orientale". Reports on pottery, lithics, malacology and vegetal remains are included as well

Italian Archaeological Expedition to the Sudan of the University of Naples "L'Orientale". 2010 Field Season

Report of the 2010 field season of the Italian Archaeological Expedition to Eastern Sudan of the University of Naples "L'Orientale". With contributions by Alemseged Beldados Aleho, Alfredo Coppa and Vincenzo Zopp