Journal
PLOS ONE
Volume 9, Issue 10, Pages -Publisher
PUBLIC LIBRARY SCIENCE
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0110177
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Funding
- Spanish National Research Council
- European Social Fund
- E. U. Marie Curie Intra-European Fellowship [273610]
- AHRC Research Grant [AH/K006193/1]
- AHRC [AH/K006193/1] Funding Source: UKRI
- ICREA Funding Source: Custom
- Arts and Humanities Research Council [AH/K006193/1] Funding Source: researchfish
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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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