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Sorghum

30 September 2017
Archaeology

Sorghum is a native sub-Sahara grass that has been utilised for thousands  of years by hunter gatherers as well as farming communities. It emerged as an important cereal crop along with rice, wheat, barley and maize and it is thought Africans may have domesticated sorghum in areas south of Egypt (where wheat and barley cereals dominated). The discovery, in modern Sudan, that people in the 4th millennium BC (3500 to 3000BC) had domesticated sorghum is the earliest archaeological evidence so far. The evidence comes from pottery residues of the Butana culture people of eastern Sudan. It is also worth noting that domesticated strains of millet are also known from Mali by 2500BC. See https://phys.org/print425783754.html

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