Agricultural History of the Horn of Africa: New Archaeobotanical Evidence from Mezber

Summary

Archaeobotanical analysis of samples from the site of Mezber are underway with the goal of investigating the early agricultural history of northern highland Ethiopia. Mezber is a Pre-Aksumite site excavated by the Eastern Tigrai Archaeological Project (ETAP) with cultural deposits dating from 1600 BCE to CE 1, and occupied over four phases. In 2014-16, a total of 59 soil samples ranging in size from 1.8 to 7.5 liters was processed by manual flotation. Macrobotanical remains from light fractions were identified with the help of comparative collections at the Archaeology Laboratory, Addis Ababa University. Identified crop species include barley (Hordeum vulgare), emmer (Triticum dicoccum), lentil (Lens culinaris), linseed (Linum usitatissimum) and the indigenous staple crop tef (Eragrostis tef). Direct AMS dates were obtained on charred lentil and barley recovered from the earliest occupational phase, with determinations of 2810±30 BP (1050-895 cal BCE) and 2780±30 BP (1004-844 cal BCE), respectively. These AMS determinations constitute the earliest directly dated evidence for crops in the Horn of Africa. In addition, the extended occupational sequence at Mezber provides a window on changing agricultural practice throughout the Pre-Aksumite period.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 82nd Annual Meeting, Vancouver, BC (2017)   •
• An Historical Ecological Approach to the Investigation of Early Social Complexity in the Horn of Africa: First Steps

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 14736