Fonio at Nok sites - hungry rice or chief’s food?

A growing number of test excavations and surveys in Central Nigeria conducted in the current project “Development of complex societies in sub- Saharan Africa: The Nigerian Nok Culture” furnishes new data on the context in which the well-known Nok terracotta art developed. Information gained so far by archaeobotanical studies shows a great uniformity concerning plant food production and plant use as well as the vegetation in the surroundings. The sites, which date between 800 and 200 cal. BC and scatter in an area of thousands of square kilometres, give evidence for the cultivation of pearl millet (Pennisetum glaucum) and cow pea (Vigna unguiculata), presumably accomplished in mixed cropping systems. The finds of fruits and seeds of wild trees suggest an intensive exploitation of the natural environment that consisted mostly of woodlands, complementing the cereal and pulse based diet. Although the uniformity of these results might be partly attributed to the poor organic preservation and the small number of species represented, new data of late Nok sites of the first centuries AD indicate that there might be a temporal pattern in plant use. Thus, the site of Janruwa C provides evidence for fonio (Digitaria exilis), AMS-dated to cal. AD 120-330, in addition to the formerly known crops. This paper presents the results of detailed examinations of fonio and looks at the meaning of this smallgrained cereal and its role in food production and nutrition.