Making the invisible visible: tracing the origins of plants in West African cuisine through archaeobotanical and organic residue analysis
Making the invisible visible: tracing the origins of plants in West African cuisine through archaeobotanical and organic residue analysis
复制标题
DOI：
10.1007/s12520-021-01476-0
复制
发表时间：
2022-01-01
影响因子：
2.2
通讯作者：
Evershed, Richard P.
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Dunne, Julie;Hoehn, Alexa;Evershed, Richard P.
西非菜肴长期以来一直以其独特的配料和味道而闻名，经常通过添加大量和多样化的植物食物来增强。传统的一顿饭包括在锅里煮的淀粉主食，配上用蔬菜、鱼和/或肉制成的酱汁，通常伴随着豆类。然而，利用考古植物学遗骸重建西非古代人民使用的各种植物的古代情况是具有挑战性的，因为它们的性质有些脆弱。因此，人们强烈倾向于在烧焦的条件下存活的食用植物，使那些容易腐烂的植物看不见，如多叶植物和块茎。在这里，我们结合了对458艘史前船只的有机残留物分析，以及来自尼日利亚史前诺克文化十个遗址的考古植物学证据，这些文化跨越了大约1500年的时间，大约从公元前二千年中期开始，到公元前上个世纪结束。我们的结果揭示了一系列高度多样化和复杂的脂肪分布，表明各种植物类型的准备和加工，包括叶类蔬菜或绿色蔬菜、谷类、豆类和地下储存器官，可能是山药。在这里，我们呈现了以前无法识别的叶子植物的用途，并提出了现代西非菜肴中植物成分的早期起源。
West African cuisine has long been known for its distinct ingredients and flavours, often enhanced by the addition of a large and diverse range of plant foods. A traditional meal comprises a starchy staple cooked in a pot and served with a sauce prepared from vegetables, fish and/or meat, often accompanied by pulses. However, reconstructing the antiquity of the full range of plant use by ancient peoples, using archaeobotanical remains, in West Africa is challenging due to their somewhat fragile nature. Hence, there is a strong bias toward food plants that survive in charred condition, rendering invisible those that easily decompose, such as leafy plants and tubers. Here, we combine organic residue analysis of 458 prehistoric vessels, with archaeobotanical evidence from ten sites of the prehistoric Nok culture, Nigeria, spanning a period of around 1500 years, beginning around the middle of the second millennium BC and terminating in the last century BC. Our results reveal a range of highly diverse and complex lipid distributions denoting the preparation and processing of various plant types, including leafy vegetables or 'greens', cereals, pulses and underground storage organs, possibly yams. Here, we render previously unidentifiable leafy plant use visible and suggest an early origin for the plant component of modern-day West African cuisine.