Missing Plant Foods? Where is the Archaeobotanical Evidence for Sorghum and Finger Millet in East Africa?

Abstract

Although maize is the most common dietary staple in East Africa today, sorghum and finger millet were important in the past. Nevertheless, direct archaeobotanical evidence for their contribution to prehistoric diet has been elusive. Very small quantities of plant macroremains have been recovered from excavations when systematic attempts have been made at retrieval. In general there is reasonable preservation of wood charcoal, sometimes the seeds of wild plants have been found, but at low densities, and very few charred cereals have been retrieved from any sites. Archaeobotanical data from the late iron age site of Munsa in south-west Uganda repeat the general pattern. The lack of charred cereal debris at this site and elsewhere in the region is discussed in terms of crop processing models, site and context function and soil biogeochemistry.