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Taking Stock of Foodplants Growing in the Cradle of Humankind Fossil Hominin Site, South Africa

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Abstract

Despite a century’s work in the UNESCO Cradle of Humankind World Heritage Site in South Africa, there has been no systematic consideration of the area’s full foodplant regime when palaeo-scientists try to reconstruct past hominin dietary ecologies. Here we present the first inventory of human-foraged foodplants currently growing in the Cradle of Humankind and discuss the time depth of the relative biomes, showing that some of the plant regimes may well have been available for hominin foraging throughout the Quaternary. We list 223 taxa, highlighting the most species-rich foodplant families in the Cradle, such as the Poaceae, Apocynaceae, and Fabaceae. Our results show an almost equal availability of edible fruits, leaves, and underground/underwater storage organs (USOs) in the Cradle’s foodplant population, supporting work suggesting diet specialization or flexible foraging strategies for the Cradle’s hominins. Whereas it was thought that human geophyte and/or USO consumption was particularly high on the Cape Fynbos landscape during the middle-late Pleistocene, the richness of USO plant foods growing in the Cradle—most of them non-geophytic in their growth forms (thus without specialized/modified storage systems such as tubers, corms, rhizomes or bulbs)—demonstrates that such resources were probably also abundantly available to inland hominin populations. We suggest that future dietary reconstructions for the Cradle’s hominins may benefit from working with the known foodplant population presented here.

Résumé

Malgré un siècle de travail sur le site du patrimoine mondial du berceau de l'humanité de l'UNESCO en Afrique du Sud, il n'y a eu aucune considération systématique du régime complet des plantes alimentaires de la région lorsque les paléo-scientifiques tentent de reconstruire les écologies alimentaires des hominidés du passé. Nous présentons ici le premier inventaire des plantes alimentaires récoltées par l'homme qui poussent actuellement dans le berceau de l'humanité et discutons de la profondeur temporelle des biomes relatifs, montrant que certains des régimes végétaux pourraient bien avoir été disponibles pour la recherche de nourriture par les hominidés tout au long du Quaternaire. Nous listons 223 taxons, mettant en évidence les familles de plantes alimentaires les plus riches en espèces du Berceau telles que les Poaceae, les Apocynaceae et les Fabaceae. Nos résultats montrent une disponibilité presque égale de fruits comestibles, de feuilles et d'organes de stockage souterrains/sous-marins (USO) dans la population de plantes alimentaires du berceau, soutenant les travaux qui suggèrent une spécialisation du régime alimentaire ou des stratégies de recherche de nourriture flexibles pour les hominidés du berceau. Alors que l’on pensait que la consommation de géophytes et/ou d'USO était particulièrement élevée dans le paysage du Cap Fynbos pendant le Pléistocène moyen-tardif, la richesse des aliments végétaux USO poussant dans le berceau - la plupart d'entre eux non géophytiques dans leurs formes de croissance (donc sans systèmes de stockage spécialisés/modifiés tels que tubercules, bulbes, rhizomes ou bulbes) - démontre que ces ressources étaient probablement aussi disponibles en abondance pour les populations d'hominidés de l'intérieur. Nous suggérons que les futures reconstructions alimentaires pour des hominidés du berceau pourraient bénéficier du travail avec la population de plantes alimentaires connue présentée ici.

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Acknowledgments

We thank Ashton Welcome-Ruiters (South African National Biodiversity Institute) for her assistance in compiling the database for the foodplants of the Cradle of Humankind, Louis Scott (University of the Free State, Bloemfontein) for reading and commenting on an early version of the manuscript, and Stephanie Baker and Matt Caruana for discussion on Cradle research in general.

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  1. Palaeo-Research Institute, University of Johannesburg, P.O. Box 524, Auckland Park, 2006, South Africa and Stellenbosch Institute for Advanced Study, Wallenberg Research Centre at Stellenbosch University, Stellenbosch, South Africa

    Marlize Lombard

  2. Department of Plant Sciences, Faculty of Natural and Agricultural Sciences, University of the Free State, Bloemfontein, South Africa

    Andri C. van Aardt

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  1. Marlize Lombard
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  2. Andri C. van Aardt
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Correspondence to Marlize Lombard.

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Lombard, M., van Aardt, A.C. Taking Stock of Foodplants Growing in the Cradle of Humankind Fossil Hominin Site, South Africa. Afr Archaeol Rev 39, 59–77 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10437-021-09470-6

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