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Birimi Site and Kintampo Subsistence

Figure 1. Map of West Africa showing the location of Birimi. Map produced by S. Wood, Simon Fraser University.

Recent palaeoethnobotanical investigations in northern Ghana have focussed on the Kintampo site of Birimi (Figures 1 and 2), in collaboration with Dr. Joanna Casey (University of South Carolina). The origin of agriculture in sub-Saharan West Africa has been associated with the Kintampo, a ceramic Late Stone Age (LSA) cultural complex dating to the fourth millennium BP. Although often described as the earliest settled agriculturalists of West Africa, the nature of Kintampo subsistence has been the object of speculation since the early 1960s. Available evidence indicates that Kintampo peoples utilised and possibly managed tropical forest margin species, such as oil palm (Elaeis guineensis), incense tree (Canariam schweinfurthii) and hackberry (Celtis).

Figure 2. View of excavations at Birimi, 1996. Photo taken by Joanna Casey.
Figure 3. Pearl millet growing near Birimi 1996. Photo taken by Cathy D'Andrea.
Figure 4. Scanning electron micrograph (SEM) of pearl millet grain recovered from Birimi. Taken by Dr. Ann Butler, University College London.
Figure 5. Grains of Birimi pearl millet showing dorsal, lateral, and cross-section views. Drawn by Cheryl Takahashi, Simon Fraser University.

Analysis of Birimi archaeobotanical samples have confirmed the association of domesticated pearl millet (Pennisetum glaucum) with the Kintampo (Figures 3, 4 and 5). Two pearl millet grain samples were submitted for radiocarbon dating by accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) to the IsoTrace Laboratory, University of Toronto, and produced determinations of 2960±370 (TO-8173) and 3460±200 (TO-8172).

Figure 6. Flotation at Birimi, 1996. Photo taken by Cathy D'Andrea.
Figure 7. Charred macroscopic plant remains recovered at Birimi.

The site was sampled for charred macrobotanical remains using a manual flotation technique (Figure 6).

Samples are dominated by a small-grained form of pearl millet, wild grasses, other wild plants, and indeterminate seeds (Figure 7).

These findings represent the earliest occurrence to date of pearl millet in sub-Saharan Africa. The small-grained types cultivated by Kintampo peoples have no apparent modern analogues, and it is likely that in the domestication of this cereal, grain shape was established before substantial size increases took place. These results also demonstrate that Kintampo populations developed effective adaptations to savannas as well as tropical forest habitats. A picture is now emerging of Kintampo peoples partaking in a broad range of subsistence activities that cross-cut the complex ecology of West Africa. This underscores the impressive range of ecological knowledge Kintampo peoples must have had about survival in the varied landscapes at their disposal.

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