Analysis of Early Iron Age (2500 BP) and modern period (150 BP) starch grains in Western Central Africa

Starch grain analysis carried out on 23 ceramic sherds from 6 refuse pits from the site of Nachtigal in central Cameroon is shedding light on a longstanding debate regarding ancient diets in Central Africa during the Iron Age (IA, 2500 years BP) but also more recently during the Modern Period (ca. 1...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Cagnato, Clarissa, Nlend, Pascal, Ngouoh, François, Oslisly, Richard, de Saulieu, Geoffroy
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Nature Publishing Group UK 2022
Materias:
Article
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9643481/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36347970
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-23442-z
_version_ 1784826537322741760
author Cagnato, Clarissa
Nlend, Pascal
Ngouoh, François
Oslisly, Richard
de Saulieu, Geoffroy
author_facet Cagnato, Clarissa
Nlend, Pascal
Ngouoh, François
Oslisly, Richard
de Saulieu, Geoffroy
author_sort Cagnato, Clarissa
collection PubMed
description Starch grain analysis carried out on 23 ceramic sherds from 6 refuse pits from the site of Nachtigal in central Cameroon is shedding light on a longstanding debate regarding ancient diets in Central Africa during the Iron Age (IA, 2500 years BP) but also more recently during the Modern Period (ca. 150 BP). The results indicate a varied, but balanced diet, consisting of cereals, legumes, oil-rich seeds, and tubers; the latter being very rarely documented in the region. Moreover, we underscore the presence of taxa still consumed today, or in recent times. Rescue archaeology, and the application of specialized methodologies, are critical to better nuancing past dietary practices in this region.
format Online
Article
Text
id pubmed-9643481
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2022
publisher Nature Publishing Group UK
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-96434812022-11-15 Analysis of Early Iron Age (2500 BP) and modern period (150 BP) starch grains in Western Central Africa Cagnato, Clarissa Nlend, Pascal Ngouoh, François Oslisly, Richard de Saulieu, Geoffroy Sci Rep Article Starch grain analysis carried out on 23 ceramic sherds from 6 refuse pits from the site of Nachtigal in central Cameroon is shedding light on a longstanding debate regarding ancient diets in Central Africa during the Iron Age (IA, 2500 years BP) but also more recently during the Modern Period (ca. 150 BP). The results indicate a varied, but balanced diet, consisting of cereals, legumes, oil-rich seeds, and tubers; the latter being very rarely documented in the region. Moreover, we underscore the presence of taxa still consumed today, or in recent times. Rescue archaeology, and the application of specialized methodologies, are critical to better nuancing past dietary practices in this region. Nature Publishing Group UK 2022-11-08 /pmc/articles/PMC9643481/ /pubmed/36347970 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-23442-z Text en © The Author(s) 2022 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) .
spellingShingle Article
Cagnato, Clarissa
Nlend, Pascal
Ngouoh, François
Oslisly, Richard
de Saulieu, Geoffroy
Analysis of Early Iron Age (2500 BP) and modern period (150 BP) starch grains in Western Central Africa
title Analysis of Early Iron Age (2500 BP) and modern period (150 BP) starch grains in Western Central Africa
title_full Analysis of Early Iron Age (2500 BP) and modern period (150 BP) starch grains in Western Central Africa
title_fullStr Analysis of Early Iron Age (2500 BP) and modern period (150 BP) starch grains in Western Central Africa
title_full_unstemmed Analysis of Early Iron Age (2500 BP) and modern period (150 BP) starch grains in Western Central Africa
title_short Analysis of Early Iron Age (2500 BP) and modern period (150 BP) starch grains in Western Central Africa
title_sort analysis of early iron age (2500 bp) and modern period (150 bp) starch grains in western central africa
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9643481/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36347970
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-23442-z
work_keys_str_mv AT cagnatoclarissa analysisofearlyironage2500bpandmodernperiod150bpstarchgrainsinwesterncentralafrica
AT nlendpascal analysisofearlyironage2500bpandmodernperiod150bpstarchgrainsinwesterncentralafrica
AT ngouohfrancois analysisofearlyironage2500bpandmodernperiod150bpstarchgrainsinwesterncentralafrica
AT oslislyrichard analysisofearlyironage2500bpandmodernperiod150bpstarchgrainsinwesterncentralafrica
AT desaulieugeoffroy analysisofearlyironage2500bpandmodernperiod150bpstarchgrainsinwesterncentralafrica

Ejemplares similares