Palaeoethnobotanical studies completed at the archaeological site of Mezber in Tigrai, Ethiopia, have led to important new insights on plant husbandry practices of the Pre-Aksumite Period (1600 cal bc to cal ad 25) in the Horn of Africa. The Mezber material record includes a transition from an agro-pastoralist economy in the Initial Phase (1600–900 cal bc) to a more sedentary agricultural way of life in the Early, Middle and Late Phases (825 cal bc–cal ad 25). Macrobotanical samples are dominated by Southwest Asian C₃ crops and weeds including emmer, barley, linseed, flax and Lolium, while microbotanical samples of phytoliths are dominated by plants belonging to the Chloridoideae and Panicoideae, indicative of African domesticates such as t’ef, finger millet, sorghum and wild grasses. The Mezber data constitute the earliest evidence to date for crops and plant use in the region, which are present by at least the mid-second millennium bc. In these early subsistence regimes, Southwest Asian crops likely formed one component of a complex plant husbandry system that also incorporated indigenous African C₄ plants. This mode of subsistence is analogous to those encountered in other late Holocene archaeological sites in northeastern Africa and has now been demonstrated for the Ethiopian highlands.

在埃塞俄比亚提格莱的梅兹贝尔考古遗址完成的古民族植物学研究为非洲之角前阿克苏姆时期（公元前 1600 年至公元 25 年）的植物饲养实践带来了重要的新见解。梅兹贝尔的物质记录包括从初始阶段（公元前 1600-900年）的农牧经济到早期、中期和晚期（公元前 825 年-公元25 年）更加定居的农业生活方式的转变。大型植物学样本以西南亚 C ₃作物和杂草为主，包括二粒小麦、大麦、亚麻籽、亚麻和黑麦草，而植硅体的微生物样本主要是属于 Chloridoideae 和 Panicoideae 的植物，表明非洲驯化植物，如 t'ef、小米、高粱和野草。梅兹贝尔的数据构成了迄今为止该地区农作物和植物使用的最早证据，这些证据至少存在于公元前二千年中期。在这些早期的生存制度中，西南亚作物可能构成了复杂的植物饲养系统的一个组成部分，该系统还包含了非洲本土的 C ₄植物。这种生存模式类似于非洲东北部其他全新世晚期考古遗址所遇到的生存模式，现在已在埃塞俄比亚高地得到证实。