ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the direct evidence of agriculture that is cereal pollen grains from secure archaeological contexts, and puts into a broader interpretative context by multiple lines of indirect evidence. Urewe culture in the Great Lakes region has a strategic place both chronologically and geographically. The culture marks the oldest evidence of the Early Iron Age (EIA) south of the equator, dates from the first millennium BC, and is the cradle' for the subsequent spread of EIA-cultures, and of agriculture, eastwards in Southeast Africa up to the Limpopo River. Rwanda and Burundi are situated in East-Central Africa, just below the equator. The huge differences in elevation across this relatively small area create a remarkable diversity of natural regions. Protohistoric studies suggest past subsistence practices included hunting and fishing, gathering and cattle breeding, as well as agriculture. Multidisciplinary research has provided direct and indirect evidence that the Urewe culture was based on mixed farming.
