Cowpea and oil palm cultivation (Kintampo complex)
Cultivo del caupí y la palma aceitera (complejo de Kintampo)
- Date
- c. 1800 BCE · confidence medium
- Place
- Kintampo, Bono East, Ghana
- Credited to
- Kintampo culture
- Field
- Life & health
What it is
Settled villages of the forest-savanna belt with domesticated cowpea, oil-palm fruit, pearl millet and goats. It is the earliest food-producing economy of the humid West African forest zone.
D'Andrea et al. (2007) dated charred cowpea to around 1800 BCE; Birimi (northern Ghana) yielded domestic pearl millet of a similar date.
What it led to
- settled occupation of the tropical forest margin
- a combination of African crops that still dominates the region
- terracotta scrapers and grinding stones for processing food