Sorghum was domesticated from wild grasses in the Sahel and savanna belt of northeastern Africa, in the region spanning modern Sudan and Ethiopia, several thousand years ago, becoming one of the founding crops of indigenous African agriculture independent of the Fertile Crescent and East Asian centers of domestication further north and east. Its drought tolerance made it a staple grain across sub-Saharan Africa' s semi-arid regions, and it later spread to South Asia and, following the Atlantic slave trade, to the Americas, where it remains an important grain, forage and biofuel crop.
Facts
WhenMore than 5,000 years ago 1 LocationEastern Sudan, area of the Rivers Atbara and Gash 1 Classification
Type/ClassificationAgricultural Revolution or Transformation 1 Connections
Associated With
Sorghum, Crops This milestone records the domestication event of the sorghum crop it is directly named for.
In the Other Atlases
- Also in Geography Atlas: Sudan, found in there.
Sources
1. Sorghum (Wikipedia)
Wikimedia FoundationDomestication section, first sentence
S. bicolor was domesticated from its wild ancestor more than 5,000 years ago in Eastern Sudan in the area of the Rivers Atbara and Gash.
Domestication section, archaeological site paragraph
It has been found at an archaeological site near Kassala in eastern Sudan, dating from 3500 to 3000 BCE, and is associated with the Neolithic Butana Group culture.
lead description (milestone-kind)
Sorghum was domesticated from wild grasses in the Sahel and savanna belt of northeastern Africa, in the region spanning modern Sudan and Ethiopia, several thousand years ago, becoming one of the founding crops of indigenous African agriculture independent of the Fertile Crescent and East Asian centers of domestication further north and east.
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