2026-04-13T02:13:07Zhttps://recercat.cat/oai/request
oai:recercat.cat:10230/587332025-12-20T17:13:21Zcom_2072_6col_2072_452952
RECERCAT author Beldados, Alemseged author Ruiz-Giralt, Abel author Lancelotti, Carla author Meresa, Yemane author D’Andrea, A. Catherine 2024-01-16T09:59:49Z2025-12-18T23:45:58Z2023 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. This version of the article has been accepted for publication, after peer review (when applicable) and is subject to Springer Nature’s AM terms of use, but is not the Version of Record and does not reflect post-acceptance improvements, or any corrections. The Version of Record is available online at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00334-023-00949-7 info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess Palaeoethnobotany Agricultural history Mezber Pre-aksumite period Tigrai Ethiopia Pre-aksumite plant husbandry in the Horn of Africa info:eu-repo/semantics/article info:eu-repo/semantics/acceptedVersion