TY  - JOUR
A1  - Neumann, Katharina
A1  - Eichhorn, Barbara
A1  - Wotzka, Hans-Peter
T1  - Iron Age plant subsistence in the Inner Congo Basin (DR Congo)
T2  - Vegetation history and archaeobotany
N2  - Around 400 BC, pottery- and iron-producing populations immigrated into the Inner Congo Basin (ICB) and subsequently spread upstream some major tributaries of the Congo River. Until recently, their subsistence was almost completely unknown. We present an archaeobotanical study of three sites in the ICB covering parts of the Early Iron Age (ca. 400 BC-AD 650) and of the Late Iron Age (LIA) as well as subrecent times (ca. AD 1300–2000). We studied 82 flotated samples of botanical macroremains, and 68 soil phytolith samples, recovered from the terra firme sites Iyonda and Mbandaka, and the floodplain fishing camp site of Bolondo. The EIA assemblage from Iyonda yielded domesticated Cenchrus americanus (pearl millet), Vigna unguiculata (cowpea), Canarium schweinfurthii, Elaeis guineensis (oil palm), several wild plants, and parenchyma fragments tentatively attributed to Dioscorea sp. (yams). The exploitation of these plants originated in the savannas and forest-savanna ecotones of West Africa. The presence of C. americanus in LIA contexts at Bolondo and Mbandaka, dated to ca. AD 1350–1550, indicates that its cultivation is not dependent on a seasonal climate with a distinct dry season, contrary to previous views. The role of C. americanus as a staple is difficult to assess; it might have been used for special purposes, e.g. beer brewing. In spite of extensive screening, we did not detect any banana phytoliths in the EIA samples. Musa phytoliths were only present in LIA contexts after ca. AD 1400, leaving room for the possibility that the introduction and spread of Musa  spp. AAB ‘Plantain’ in the ICB was a late phenomenon.
KW  - Archaeobotany
KW  - Central African rainforest
KW  - Human nutrition
KW  - Musa
KW  - Cenchrus americanus
KW  - Vigna unguiculata
KW  - Bantu expansion
Y1  - 2022
UR  - http://publikationen.ub.uni-frankfurt.de/frontdoor/index/index/docId/69581
UR  - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:hebis:30:3-695818
SN  - 1617-6278
N1  - Open Access funding enabled and organized by Projekt DEAL. Project Iron Age human subsistence, environment, and climate in the Inner Congo Basin, funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG).
VL  - 31
IS  - 5
SP  - 481
EP  - 509
PB  - Springer
CY  - Berlin ; Heidelberg [u.a.]
ER  -