Macrobotanical and Microbotanical Evidence for Plant Use and Consumption at Gede, Kenya

Summary

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Over the last several decades, excavations at numerous Swahili period sites along the East African coast have yielded a wide variety of data on economic and cultural practices during the last millennium BP. The results of intensive flotation recovery of macrobotanical remains from pit latrine sediments at housing structures are presented, providing direct evidence of the consumption of a variety of plant types by elite populations at Gede during the 15th – 18th centuries CE. We further provide data from pollen/phytolith washes of ceramic remains associated with elite burials at Gede, which suggest not only the presence of goods interred with the dead during this period but also offer insight into the symbolic importance of specific food types in funerary practices at this location.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts   •
• Society for American Archaeology 89th Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA (2024)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 41533.0