Cloud Forests and Deep Time: What Ancient Food Webs Reveal About Agricultural Resilience in Highland Ethiopia
Kaffa, Ethiopia is home to one of Africa's UNESCO-protected Afromontane cloud forests and to agricultural systems of remarkable time depth. This talk draws on the Kaffa Biocultural Landscape Archaeology Project, which combines archaeology, ethnography, food web ecology, and livestock genomics to ask how highland Ethiopian communities have sustained resilient agricultural systems over the long term. Comparing Kaffa's contemporary food networks with ancient subsistence systems shows that network structure, particularly connectivity and dietary diversity, predicts whether a system proves durable or fragile. Kaffa's food web is more connected than comparative archaeological cases, reflecting a deliberately designed multi-story agroforestry system that integrates tree crops, enset, cereals, livestock, and gathered wild foods under the forest canopy. The research also documents striking genetic adaptations in indigenous livestock, now under pressure from agricultural intensification and crossbreeding.
Kassandra Dineen
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