Pearl millet domestication
Domesticación del mijo perla
- Date
- c. 2500 BCE · confidence medium
- Place
- Karkarichinkat, Tilemsi Valley, Gao, Mali
- Credited to
- Pastoralist-farmers of the western Sahel
- Field
- Life & health
What it is
Grains of pearl millet (Pennisetum glaucum) with domestic traits impressed on pottery. It is the cereal most resistant to drought and heat, and it still underpins Sahelian agriculture today.
Manning et al. (Antiquity, 2011) identified the impressions; genetics points to domestication in the western Sahel around 3000-2500 BCE.
What it led to
- rain-fed agriculture in the Sahel
- the arrival of pearl millet in India around 2000 BCE
- the food base of Sahelian states