Starting ~9,000 BP, the Neolithic archaeological record of Upper Nubia offers a unique opportunity to examine cultural responses to fluctuating resource availability and impacts on subsistence diversity. The uptake of pastoral systems is well documented archaeologically, however, the role of wild plant resources and the beginnings of local crop production are less established and often discounted. Existing ‘pastoral’ Neolithic narratives can largely be attributed to regional site taphonomy and conflated associations between funerary symbolism and economic practice . While herding was a key adaptation to aridification in northeastern Africa, evidence from a growing number of sites is now demonstrating the importance of plants and suggests the variable integration of plant food production within existing economic systems. This paper will present new data for plant exploitation from microbotanical remains preserved within human dental calculus and dietary isotopic signatures from individuals from two cemeteries, Kadruka 1 and 21.

A multiproxy study of plant consumption, Kadruka 1 and Kadruka 21, Upper Nubia, Sudan