Oldest crops in Africa from NE-Morocco
Our research at coastal sites of NE-Morocco has also included investigations of incipient agriculture in Northern Africa. Since 2010, all sediment excavated from our site at Ifri Oudadane has been processed (flotated).
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From the beginning of the Early Neolithic domesticated plant species appear. These include predominantly cereals (Hordeum vulgare, Triticum monococcum/dicoccum, Triticum durum and Triticum aestivum/durum) and pulses (Lens culinaris and Pisum sativum). One lentil has been radiocarbon dated to 7611±37 calBP. As such, this is the oldest known date for domesticated plant remains in Morocco, and by extension the whole of Africa. The earliest cereal, a wheat grain (Triticum sp.), has been dated to 7063±73 calBP (Beta-318608).
The contemporaneity of radiocarbon ages made on domesticated plant species from Neolithic contexts in Morocco and sites on the Iberian Peninsula is suggestive of a more or less coeval dispersal of agriculture along both shores of the Western Mediterranean. The results from our investigations will be published in the very near future [J. Morales, G. Pérez-Jordà, L. Peña-Chocarro, L. Zapata, M. Ruíz-Alonso, J.A. López-Sáez and J. Linstädter, J. (in press), The origins of agriculture in North-West Africa: macro-botanical remains from Epipalaeolithic and Early Neolithic levels of Ifri Oudadane (Morocco). Journal of Archaeological Science].
![]() Flotation. Photo: Jörg Linstädter |
![]() Photo: Jacob Morales |