Nuts for dinner? Cladium mariscus in the Middle Stone Age at Sibudu, South Africa

Abstract

The sedge, Cladium mariscus, has been identified in Middle Stone Age deposits at the shelter Sibudu, South Africa, where the leaves were used as “bedding” – an informal floor covering for various activities. Cladium mariscus nutlets were recovered from layers 73 000–39 000 years old and are likely to have entered the shelter on the plants harvested for bedding. This paper explores the possibility that, in addition to the use of Cladium mariscus leaves for bedding, the nutlets were collected for food. The underground storage organs and nutlets of many sedge species are eaten by contemporary people and they are known to have been eaten in the past at other sites. Nutritional analysis of the nutlets and rhizomes of Cladium mariscus indicates their potential as a food source, notwithstanding the small size of the nutlets. Although there is no evidence for the preparation of Cladium mariscus for consumption at Sibudu, the abundant nutlets produced by the plants, their nutritional value and the ease of harvesting the nutlets indicate that they could have been a useful dietary item. At Sibudu, as early as 70 000 years ago, the complicated mastic recipes for hafting stone tools indicate that the shelter inhabitants possessed advanced pyrotechnological skills and sophisticated knowledge of the chemical properties of materials. It is possible that these abilities were applied to the processing of Cladium mariscus nutlets. Such activities could imply an early example of intensive collection and possible processing of a particular plant food.

Keywords:

• plant food
• Middle Stone Age
• sedge nutlets and rhizomes
• Cladium mariscus
• Sibudu Cave

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I thank Lyn Wadley for support of this research, including payment to the CSIR Food and Beverage Laboratory for the nutritional analysis. I journeyed to collected the sedges during my PhD research, which was supported by grant-holder-linked (Lyn Wadley) National Research Foundation funding and the Palaeontological Scientific Trust. I thank them and I thank the University of the Witwatersrand for the short-term post-doctoral fellowship, which provided the opportunity to prepare this research for publication. Permission to collect at Rondevlei Nature Reserve was granted by Cliff Dorse, biodiversity co-ordinator of the City of Cape Town and Tamaryn Allan, Reserve Manager at Rondevlei and I thank Jo Sievers for help with harvesting. Sipho Nxumalo facilitated the access and harvesting on the northern banks of Lake Mgobeseleni. Michael Waldner of the CSIR laboratory kindly provided advice on calculation of nutrient values. The opinions expressed here are my own.