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Humans in Africa were harvesting and eating cereals 7,000 years ago - several centuries earlier than previously thought.

The discovery was made after researchers found ancient barley and wheat residues on teeth of skeletons from two Neolithic cemeteries in Central Sudan and Nubia.

It is believed wheat was first cultivated in the Middle East about 10,500 years ago and spread out from there to Central and South Asia as well as to Europe and North Africa - the latter faster than expected.

Humans in Africa were harvesting and eating cereals 7,000 years ago - several centuries earlier than previously thought. Pictured is one of the graves at the Neolithic cemetery in Nubia (Sudan), containing a skeleton and plant material deposited behind the skull (white structure at the left of the image)

'With our results we can verify that people along the Nile did not only exploit gathered wild plants and animals, but even crops of barley and wheat,' said Dr Welmoed Out from Kiel University.

'The diversity of the diet was much greater than previously assumed,' he added.

'The fact that grains were placed in the graves of the deceased implies that they had a special, symbolic meaning.'

Mineral plant particles, dubbed phytoliths, survive over thousands of years, even when other plant remains have been destroyed.

Plant particles found during the excavation of this Neolithic cemetery in Nubia (Sudan) turned out to be traces of domestic cereals when analysed in a lab

After discovering these particles, the research team used, among other things, a special high-quality light microscope as well as radiocarbon analysis to determine their age.

'The finds reveal new information on the diet of these human groups, indicating a diverse intake of grains, cereals, various millets and legumes,' explained the researchers. 

'[The area] is dominated by domestic Near East cereals and provides rare evidence of the cultivation of crop plants in a society whose economy has been considered mainly pastoral.' 

They added that the cemetery also provides the first evidence in Africa for the use of the near-eastern wheat and barley crop use.

The study follows separate research, earlier this year, which found that ancient Egyptians ate a diet composed largely of vegetables, fruit, wheat and barley.

A team of researchers from the University of Lyon studied carbon atoms in 45 mummies of people that lived in Egypt between 3,500BC and 600AD.

They found that they ate a lot of barley and wheat over the long period, suggesting that they adapted to the region incredibly well.

The finding also echoes many paintings in Egyptian tombs that show people working the land and harvesting wheat to make loaves of bread, which are often offered to the god of the afterlife, Osiris. 

The discovery was made after researchers found ancient wheat (left) and barley (right) residues on teeth of skeletons from two Neolithic cemeteries in Central Sudan and Nubia

Map shows some of the locations in Egypt and Sudan that were excavated. This study focused on R12 and Ghaba.  'With our results we can verify that people along the Nile did not only exploit gathered wild plants and animals but even crops of barley and wheat,' said Dr Welmoed Out from Kiel University