caa a22 4500 445358998 CHVBK 20180317142909.0 cr unu---uuuuu 170323e20110501xx s 000 0 eng 10.1007/s00334-010-0279-6 doi (NATIONALLICENCE)springer-10.1007/s00334-010-0279-6 Plant use at an early Islamic merchant town in the West African Sahel: the archaeobotany of Essouk-Tadmakka (Mali) [Elektronische Daten] [Sam Nixon, Mary Murray, Dorian Fuller] We present archaeobotanical data from the early Islamic era (ca. a.d. 750-1400) obtained from excavations at Essouk-Tadmakka, an important trans-Saharan trading town site in the West African Sahel and an early centre of the Tuareg. The paper provides insight into a little researched area of arid zone medieval West Africa and presents practically the only substantive archaeobotanical evidence of the medieval Tuareg. The evidence firstly enables us to shed greater light on the Arabic historical references to traditions of wild cereal gathering at Essouk-Tadmakka. It also establishes the presence at the site of a range of important taxa, including pearl millet, date, balanites, cotton and linseed, as well as a host of other fruits, legumes (Fabaceae) and wild plants. Perhaps the most striking finding is the earliest and largest archaeobotanical data set for wheat in West Africa. In addition to providing the first archaeobotanically based discussion of Essouk-Tadmakka's gathering traditions, agriculture, and grain importation, we also seek to highlight certain evidence for change over time in the archaeobotany recovered. The data seems to suggest that towards the end of the site's occupation (ca. a.d. 1300) there was a shift to increased presence of fruit and legumes and more limited presence of cereals, and we attempt to relate this to wider shifts in Sahelian culture at this time. Springer-Verlag, 2011 Palaeoethnobotany nationallicence Agriculture nationallicence Wild cereal gathering nationallicence Triticum nationallicence Tuareg nationallicence Saharan Berber nationallicence Nixon Sam Institute of Archaeology, University College London, 31-34 Gordon Square, WC1H 0PY, London, UK aut Murray Mary Institute of Archaeology, University College London, 31-34 Gordon Square, WC1H 0PY, London, UK aut Fuller Dorian Institute of Archaeology, University College London, 31-34 Gordon Square, WC1H 0PY, London, UK aut Vegetation History and Archaeobotany Springer-Verlag 20/3(2011-05-01), 223-239 0939-6314 20:3<223 2011 20 334 https://doi.org/10.1007/s00334-010-0279-6 text/html Onlinezugriff via DOI 1 research-article jats NATIONALLICENCE 856 40 https://doi.org/10.1007/s00334-010-0279-6 text/html Onlinezugriff via DOI NATIONALLICENCE 700 1- Nixon Sam Institute of Archaeology, University College London, 31-34 Gordon Square, WC1H 0PY, London, UK aut NATIONALLICENCE 700 1- Murray Mary Institute of Archaeology, University College London, 31-34 Gordon Square, WC1H 0PY, London, UK aut NATIONALLICENCE 700 1- Fuller Dorian Institute of Archaeology, University College London, 31-34 Gordon Square, WC1H 0PY, London, UK aut NATIONALLICENCE 773 0- Vegetation History and Archaeobotany Springer-Verlag 20/3(2011-05-01), 223-239 0939-6314 20:3<223 2011 20 334 Metadata rights reserved Springer special CC-BY-NC licence nationallicence BK010053 XK010053 XK010000 NATIONALLICENCE NATIONALLICENCE NL-springer