4500-Year old domesticated pearl millet (Pennisetum glaucum) from the Tilemsi Valley, Mali: new insights into an alternative cereal domestication pathway

We report here new evidence from the Lower Tilemsi Valley in northeastern Mali, which constitutes the earliest archaeobotanical evidence for domesticated pearl millet (Pennisetum glaucum), predating other finds from Africa or India by several centuries. These materials provide further morphological details on the earliest cultivated pearl millet. Our results demonstrate that pearl millet non-shattering evolved earlier than the start of grain size increases and that once domesticated, pearl millet spread widely and rapidly. Additional attention is given to the dating of these materials, highlighting potential flaws in the use of organic chaff tempered pottery to date occurrences of pearl millet. A revised chronology, based on detailed Bayesian modelling, is presented for the Lower Tilemsi region.