Pearl Millet Domestication in Northern Mali

[mansamusa33]

Evidence of plant domestication beginning from 4000 BC in Mali based on imprints on ceramics.



"Transition From Wild to Domesticated Pearl Millet (Pennisetum glaucum) Revealed in Ceramic Temper at Three Middle Holocene Sites in Northern Mali



Imprints of domesticated pearl millet (Pennisetum glaucum (L.) R. Br.) spikelets, observed as temper in ceramics dating to the third millennium BC, provide the earliest evidence for the cultivation and domestication process of this crop in northern Mali. Additional sherds from the same region dating to the fifth and fourth millennium BC were examined and found to have pearl millet chaff with wild morphologies. In addition to studying sherds by stereomicroscopy and subjecting surface casts to scanning electron microscopy (SEM), we also deployed X-ray microcomputed tomography (microCT) on eleven sherds. This significantly augmented the total dataset of archaeological pearl millet chaff remains from which to document the use of the wild pearl millet as ceramic temper and the evolution of its morphology over time. Grain sizes were also estimated from spikelets preserved in the ceramics. Altogether, we are now able to chart the evolution of domesticated pearl millet in western Africa using three characteristics: the evolution of nonshattering stalked involucres; the appearance of multiple spikelet involucres, usually paired spikelets; and the increase in grain size. By the fourth millennium BC, average grain breadth had increased by 28%, although spikelet features otherwise resemble the wild type. In the third millennium BC, the average width of seeds is 38% greater than that of wild seeds, while other qualitative features of domestication are indicated by the presence of paired spikelets and the appearance of nondehiscent, stalked involucres. Nonshattering spikelets had probably become fixed by around 2000 BC, while increases in average grain size continued into the second millennium BC. These data now provide a robust sequence for the morphological evolution of domesticated pearl millet, the first indigenous crop domesticated in western Africa."



link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12520-021-01293-5

[mansamusa33]

A description of the domestication process underwent by these grains as compared to grain domestication in SW Asia. Nonshattering refers to a trait in domesticated grains that prevent them from being shaken loose off the sheath by wind or animals after ripening, so they need humans to spread or plant them:



"The archaeobotanical evidence from MK36 suggests an ongoing domestication process. The insights from the better-studied regions like southwest Asia indicate that the MK36 materials were in the “Entrenched Pre-Domestication Cultivation” phase. During this period, domestication traits like nonshattering occur at a rate of 20–80% in the cereal population, and grain sizes increase on average by 20–40% (Fuller et al. 2018). Based on such southwest Asian comparisons, we can hypothesize that cultivation had likely begun approximately 1000–1500 years earlier, by ~4000 BC, possibly overlapping with or just postdating the AZ22 evidence."

[mansamusa33]

[snakepit]

Pearl Millet along with Sorghum is a staple crop among my people in Namibia also.