Plant use and the creation of anthropogenic landscapes

Human-plant relationships are at the forefront of many questions driving archaeological research in eastern Africa. Agricultural expansion to the region, local and oceanic exchange, production and consumption patterns, urbanisation and climate change can all be elucidated in part through archaeobotanical inquiry. Botanical methods are relatively new to the coast, with the first systematic flotation being conducted in 2002 (Walshaw 2005) and the first phytolith study a few years later (Sulas and Madella 2012). However, the discipline is now building foundational knowledge using current – and at times ground-breaking – methods.