Making the invisible visible: tracing the origins of plants in West African cuisine through archaeobotanical and organic residue analysis

West African cuisine has long been known for its distinct ingredients and flavours, often enhanced by the addition of a large diverse range plant foods. A traditional meal comprises starchy staple cooked in pot served with sauce prepared from vegetables, fish and/or meat, accompanied pulses. However, reconstructing antiquity full use ancient peoples, using archaeobotanical remains, Africa is challenging due to their somewhat fragile nature. Hence, there strong bias toward food plants that survive charred condition, rendering invisible those easily decompose, such as leafy tubers. Here, we combine organic residue analysis 458 prehistoric vessels, evidence ten sites Nok culture, Nigeria, spanning period around 1500 years, beginning middle second millennium BC terminating last century BC. Our results reveal highly complex lipid distributions denoting preparation processing various types, including vegetables or ‘greens’, cereals, pulses underground storage organs, possibly yams. render previously unidentifiable visible suggest an early origin component modern-day cuisine.