Four thousand years of plant exploitation in the Chad Basin of NE Nigeria II: discussion on the morphology of caryopses of domesticated Pennisetum and complete catalogue of the fruits and seeds of Kursakata.

This paper continues the presentation of archaeobotanical remains from Kursakata, northeast Nigeria, with a more detailed discussion on Pennisetum (part 1) and the catalogue of the fruits and seeds (part 2). The settlement mound of Kursakata was introduced in an earlier publication (Klee et al. 2000). An important topic is the morphological criteria for separating domesticated pearl millet grains from those of wild species. Very small naked grains of Pennisetum glaucum (L.) R. Br. (pearl millet ) were noticeable among the rich archaeobotanical remains in deposits at least from 800 cal B.C. and younger. The question is raised whether these grains really derived from domesticated Pennisetum glaucum or from wild Pennisetum species. The club-shaped outline and the thickness to breadth (T/B) index which correspond to modern domesticated caryopses are the main features which led to the conclusion that they belong to a domesticated type. The catalogue comprises all identified taxa from this archaeological site. As descriptions are rarely available for most of these West African species, it gives their morphological portraits which are particularly outstanding in African archaeobotany. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]