The first major synthesis of African archaeobotany in decades, Archaeology of African Plant Use focuses on Paleolithic archaeobotany and the relationship between agriculture and social complexity. It explores the effects that plant life has had on humans as they evolved from primates through the complex societies of Africa, including Egypt, the Buganda Kingdom, southern African polities, and other regions. With over 30 contributing scholars from 12 countries and extensive illustrations, Archaeology of African Plant Use is an essential addition to our knowledge of humanity's relationship with plants.
1. African Archaeobotany Expanding, Dorian Q Fuller, Sam Nixon, Chris J. Stevens and Mary Anne Murray
2. Primate Archaeobotany: The Potential for Revealing Nonhuman Primate Plant-Use in the African Archaeological Record, Michael Haslam
3. Dietary Diversity: Our Species-Specific Dietary Adaptation, Gordon Hillman and Michele Wollstonecroft
4. Seeds at Sibudu: A Glimpse of Middle Stone Age Vegetation at Sibudu Cave, Kwazulu-Natal, South Africa, Christine Sievers
5. Understanding Late and Terminal Pleistocene Vegetation Change in The Western Cape, South Africa: The Wood Charcoal Evidence from Elands Bay Cave, Caroline Cartwright, John Parkington and Richard Cowling
6. Early Millet Farmers in the Lower Tilemsi Valley, Northeastern Mali, Katie Manning and Dorian Q Fuller
7. Holocene Vegetation Change and Land Use at Ounjougou, Mali, Barbara Eichhorn and Katharina Neumann
8. Early Agro-Pastoralism in The Middle Senegal Valley: The Botanical Remains from Walalde, Shawn Sabrina Murray and Alioune Deme
9. Humans and the Mangrove in Southern Nigeria, Emuobosa Akpo Orijemie and M. Adebisi Sowunmi
10. Plant and Land Use in Southern Cameroon Between 400 BC and AD 400, Stefanie Kahlheber, Alexa HAhn and Katharina Neumann
11. Wild Trees in the Subsistence Economy of Early Bantu Speech Communities: A Historical-Linguistic Approach, Koen Bostoen
12. Archaeobotany of Two Middle Kingdom Cult Chambers at North Saqqara, Egypt, Ahmed Gamal-El-Din Fahmy, Nozomu Kawai and Sakuji Yoshimura
13. Botanical Insights into the Life of an Ancient Egyptian Village: Excavation Results from El-Amarna, Chris J. Stevens and Alan J. Clapham
14. Agricultural Innovation and State Collapse in Meroitic Nubia: The Impact of the Savannah Package, Dorian Q Fuller
15. Islands of Agriculture on Victoria Nyanza, Andrew Reid and Ceri Ashley
16. Archaeobotanical Investigations of the Iron Age Lundu State, Malawi, Ingrid Heijen
17. Prehistoric Plant Use on La Palma Island (Canary Islands, Spain): An Example of the Disappearance of Agriculture in an Isolated Environment, Jacob Morales, Amelia Rodriguez and Aguedo Marrero
18. Patterns in the Archaeobotany of Africa: Developing a Database for North Africa, the Sahara and The Sahel, Ruth Pelling
19. The Archaeobotany of Farming Communities in South Africa: A Review, Alexander Antonites, Annie Raath Antonites
20. Linguistic Evidence and the Origins of Food Production in Africa: Where Are We Now?, Christopher Ehret
21. African Agricultural Tools: Implications of Synchronic Ethnography for Agrarian History, Roger Blench
22. Leaving a Lasting Impression: Arable Economies and Cereal Impressions in Africa and Europe, Meriel McClatchie and Dorian Q Fuller
23. The Use of Plants In Iron Production: Insights from Smelting Remains from Buganda, Louise Iles
Index
Dorian Q. Fuller is Professor of Archaeobotany at the Institute of Archaeology, University College London. He is joint Editor-in-Chief of Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences and sits on the editorial boards of Genetic Resources and Crop Evolution, PLoSOne, Springer Briefs in Earth Sciences, and Oxford Research Reviews for Archaeology. He is a section editor of the Encyclopedia of Global Archaeology (Springer) and co-author of Trees and Woodlands of South India (Left Coast 2008).
Chris J. Stevens is an archaeologist with Wessex Archaeology, Salisbury. Sam Nixon is a postdoctoral researcher at Sainsbury Research Unit for the Arts of Africa, Oceania & the Americas, University of East Anglia. Mary-Anne Murray is a research associate at the Institute of Archaeology, University College London.