Abel Ruiz-Giralt, Alemseged Beldados, Stefano Biagetti, Francesca D’Agostini, A. Catherine D’Andrea, Yemane Meresa, Carla LancelottiPlease use the format "First name initials family name" as in "Marie S. Curie, Niels H. D. Bohr, Albert Einstein, John R. R. Tolkien, Donna T. Strickland"
<p>For centuries, finger millet (<em>Eleusine coracana</em> Gaertn.) and sorghum (<em>Sorghum bicolor</em> (L.) Moench) have been two of the most economically important staple crops in the northern Horn of Africa. Nonetheless, their agricultural history is poorly documented due to preservation issues faced by macrobotanical remains and the small number of systematic archaeobotanical research programs in the region. In this paper, we explore the potential extent of finger millet and sorghum agriculture in the northern Horn of Africa region during the Aksumite Kingdom (ca. 50 BCE-CE 800), that is, the period when finger millet and sorghum are first documented in the macrobotanical record. To do so, we employ a methodology that combines cross-cultural modelling, ethnoarchaeology and phytolith analysis. Together, these proxies allow us to propose and test hypotheses about past agricultural practices in the northern Horn. According to our models, the agriculture of finger millet and sorghum was possible around the main Aksumite sites in the region, likely under extensive-rainfed cultivation regimes. These results are supported by the phytolith assemblage from Ona Adi, which records the presence of water-stressed Panicoideae and Chloridoideae grasses since the beginning of the site’s occupation during the Late Pre-Aksumite period (ca. 600-400 BCE).</p>
C4 agriculture, cross-cultural modelling, ethnoarchaeology, phytoliths, Kingdom of Aksum, Horn of Africa.
Africa, Archaeobotany, Computational archaeology, Protohistory, Spatial analysis