The Holocene Archaeology of Southwest Ethiopia: New Insights from the Kafa Archaeological Project

Hildebrand, Elisabeth; Brandt, Steven A.; Lesur-Gebremariam, Joséphine

doi:10.1007/s10437-010-9079-8

Cited by 45 publications

(17 citation statements)

References 36 publications

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“…Although it is not known when humid agriculture farming traditions commenced along the Ethiopian escarpment, the region does show the currently earliest agriculture in sub-Saharan Africa at c. 500 BC, and relatively early pastoralism from 1500 BC (Boardman 1999). An unspecific Musaceae leaf found at Kumali dated to two thousand years ago may hint that enset or banana was already important by the time Asian crops may have begun to diffuse through Ethiopia (Hildebrand et al 2010).…”

Section: Route D: Circum-indic Routementioning

confidence: 99%

Asian Crop Dispersal in Africa and Late Holocene Human Adaptation to Tropical Environments

et al. 2019

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Occupation of the humid tropics by Late Holocene food producers depended on the use of vegetative agricultural systems. A small number of vegetative crops from the Americas and Asia have come to dominate tropical agriculture globally in these warm and humid environments, due to their ability to provide reliable food output with low labour inputs, as well as their suitability to these environments. The prehistoric arrival in Africa of Southeast Asian crops, in particular banana, taro and greater yam but also sugar cane and others, is commonly regarded as one of the most important examples of transcontinental exchanges in the tropics. Although chronologies of food-producer expansions in Central Africa are increasingly gaining resolution, we have very little evidence for the agricultural systems used in this region. Researchers have recovered just a handful of examples of archaeobotanical banana, taro and sugar cane remains, and so far none from greater yam. Many of the suggested dispersal routes have not been tested with chronological, ecological and linguistic evidence of food producers. While the impact of Bantu-speaking people has been emphasised, the role of non-Bantu farmers speaking Ubangi and Central Sudanic languages who have expanded from the (north)east has hardly been considered. This article will review the current hypotheses on dispersal routes and suggest that transmissions via Northeast Africa should become a new focus of research on the origins of Asian vegeculture crops in Africa.

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Section: Route D: Circum-indic Routementioning

confidence: 99%

Asian Crop Dispersal in Africa and Late Holocene Human Adaptation to Tropical Environments

et al. 2019

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“…The magnitude of these climate shifts is also important, determining whether they would have allowed relatively moist refugia during dry intervals. The southwestern Ethiopian highlands and the adjacent Chew Bahir and Turkana basins might have formed refugia for human populations during past arid phases (Ambrose, 1998;Hildebrand et al, 2010;Joordens et al, 2011), hosting small but culturally diverse populations of hunteregatherers, and favoring the development of new foodgathering technologies and cultural skills. If wet phases like the AHP did not occur synchronously in various locations, they could have created refugia for humans and other biota, thus having a major influence on the spatial distribution, size, and movement of human populations.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Climatic change recorded in the sediments of the Chew Bahir basin, southern Ethiopia, during the last 45,000 years

Foerster

Junginger

Langkamp

et al. 2012

Quaternary International

118

183

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“…We sought to understand the demographic impact of the expanding Neolithic in Southwest Ethiopia, a region of high ethnic and linguistic diversity that is home to several of the world’s remaining hunter-gatherer groups, but has a relatively sparse archaeological record ( 11 ). We present new genomic data from the Chabu hunter-gatherers and their immediate neighbors, the Majangir and Shekkacho, which we analyze together with other East African populations.…”

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confidence: 99%

Hunter-gatherer genomes reveal diverse demographic trajectories following the rise of farming in East Africa

Berl

Belbin

Gignoux³

et al. 2019

Preprint

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19A major outstanding question in human prehistory is the fate of hunting and gathering populations 20 following the rise of agriculture and pastoralism. Genomic analysis of ancient and contemporary 21Europeans suggests that autochthonous groups were either absorbed into or replaced by expanding 22 farmer populations. Many of the hunter-gatherer populations persisting today live in Africa, perhaps 23 because agropastoral transitions occurred later on the continent. Here, we present the first genomic 24 data from the Chabu, a relatively isolated and marginalized hunting-and-gathering group from the 25 Southwestern Ethiopian highlands. The Chabu are a distinct genetic population that carry the highest 26 levels of Southwestern Ethiopian ancestry of any extant population studied thus far. This ancestry has 27 been in situ for at least 4,500 years. We show that the Chabu are undergoing a severe population 28 bottleneck which began around 40 generations ago. We also study other Eastern African populations 29 and demonstrate divergent patterns of historical population size change over the past 60 generations 30 between even closely related groups. We argue that these patterns demonstrate that, unlike in Europe, 31Africans hunter-gatherers responded to agropastoralism with diverse strategies. 32 33Since the beginning of the Holocene 12,000 years ago (ya), the dominant mode of human subsistence 34 has shifted from hunting and gathering to agriculture through a process known as the Neolithic 35 transition. Whether this transition occurred primarily through the mass movement of people from 36 centers of domestication (demic diffusion) or through the cultural transmission of agricultural practices 37 (cultural adoption) is still debated in archaeology, genetics and anthropology (1, 2). As this transition 38 largely concluded by 4,000 ya in Europe and Asia, there remains little direct evidence of on-the-ground 39 interaction between hunter-gatherers and agriculturalist migrants. Theoretically, in the face of 40 displacement and conflict over resources, hunter-gatherer populations might respond in a variety of 41 ways: 1) intermarry with the migrant group and adopt their agropastoral subsistence practices 42 (substantial genetic exchange); 2) adopt the subsistence practices of the migrants without intermarriage 43 (limited genetic exchange); 3) reduce their geographic range or resource acquisition (leading to a decline 44 in population size); 4) enter into an economic-symbolic exchange relationship with the migrant group; or 45 5) move to an ecological region that is marginal for pastoralism or agriculture (3, 4). These are not 46 mutually exclusive; the history of any particular hunter-gatherer group may involve multiple modes of 47

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The Holocene Archaeology of Southwest Ethiopia: New Insights from the Kafa Archaeological Project

Cited by 45 publications

References 36 publications

Asian Crop Dispersal in Africa and Late Holocene Human Adaptation to Tropical Environments

Asian Crop Dispersal in Africa and Late Holocene Human Adaptation to Tropical Environments

Climatic change recorded in the sediments of the Chew Bahir basin, southern Ethiopia, during the last 45,000 years

Hunter-gatherer genomes reveal diverse demographic trajectories following the rise of farming in East Africa

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