BIBLIOGRAPHIC DATA SHEET

1883) on diet and plants in ancient Egypt; and research by Unger (1860) and
b6nig(1886) on the plants known, named, and used by the ancient Egyptians
(see also Darby et al., 1977, Vols. 1 and 2).
The aridity of the Nile valley protected t-b archaeological remains of
ancient plant foods and the dry zones of West Africa also provide a wealth
of information on Medieval African diet and the use of wild plants. Lewicki
(1963; 1974) identified early travel accounts by Arab geographers and physicians
noting use throughout much of West Africa wild grasses as human food, namely
Panicum turgidum, Sorghum virgatum, Poa abyssinica, Eragrostis spp., Cenchrus
echinatus, and Pennisetum distichum. Lewicki also notes Medieval use of se­
veral West African wild fruits, specifically Blighia sapida, Adansonia digitata,
Balanites aegyptica, Hyphaene thebaica, Ziziphus jujuba, Ziziphus mauritiana,
Ziziphus spina-Christi, Ziziphus mauritiana, Ampelocissus bakeri, wild forms of
Phoenix dactylifera, and numerous unidentified "truffles". Parallel data on
the use of domesticated and wild plants as food for the Egyptian Nile valley
have been gathered by Schweinfurth (1888; 1912).
Existing in the 20th century and forming a bridge between the archaeological
data on wild plants and any understanding of the shift from gathering to plant
domestication are numerous African societies still living as hunter-gatherers.
Hunter-gatherer ethnobotanical/dietary utilization of wild plants has attracted
botanists, physicians, and social scientists for nearly one hundred years, es­
pecially on the Bushman societies of southern Africa. Early research on wild
dietary plants use by Bushmen was conducted by Stow (1910, pp. 44-45, 54-61)
and Theal (1910, pp. 36-38), with subsequent notes by Dornan (1925, pp. 114­
123), Fourie (1928, pp. 98-103), Schapera (1930, pp. 91-102, 127-147), and
Dunn (1931, pp. 28-31). These early works, however, focused on nutritional
6.