ABSTRACT
A frica is a large continent, some 30.34 million square kilometres, dwarfed only by Asia (Times Atlas 2011). It stretches from the subtropics of the southern hemisphere (>34°S) to the subtropics of the north (>36°N). Th e Mediterranean environments of North Africa have their ecological parallel in parts of the southern Cape fl ora. Bordering these zones are deserts, the vast Sahara in the north, and the Namib and Kalahari deserts of the south. Between these deserts are diverse tropical environments of sub-Saharan Africa; savannahs, dry tropical woodlands, and moist rainforests. Although these environments boast the longest history of human occupation, as the cradle of hominid evolution during the Pliocene and Pleistocene they have received far less attention in terms of the documentation of past human plant use and archaeobotanical research. Th ere are some 50 countries in Africa in addition to nearby Madagascar and the Canary Islands of Spain; however, half of these countries can speak of no archaeobotanical evidence at all. In this book, some 11 countries are represented by specifi c studies, which in itself refl ects the slow, yet uneven advance of archaeobotanical research in Africa.
