COMPLICATIONS OF HERNIA SURGERY
6) Recurrence : It is the most important endpoint of any hernia surgery It
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pottery. This reduction in forest trees is thought to be the resultant effect of an increased human population having a greater impact on the forest vegetation. This is based on the assumption that a high pottery value is an index for high human population.
Thus both palynological and archaeological evidence combine in indicating a significant impact of humans on their environment and the intensified use of fire during this period. It can also be inferred that there probably was a change in diet, with more use made of the oil palm tree than hitherto. As said earlier, the people of this area are well noted for relishing palm wine tapped from the oil palm tree!
Palynological research in the Department of Archaeology and Anthropology, University of Ibadan, has shown that in southern Nigeria, humans created conditions which enhanced the proliferation of the oil palm, an important component of the subsistence economy during the second phase of the Late Stone Age in this region.
(Sowunmi 1981b, 1985; Oyelaran 1998). The human action entailed the creation of gaps in the forest for the cultivation of crops other than the oil palm itself, using the slash-and-burn farming technique. Though the oil palm itself was not likely to have been cultivated, it most probably was selectively protected. Sowunmi (1999: 205) went further to postulate that the `fossil pollen of Elaeis guineensis constitutes a very good indicator of anthropogenic forest disturbance or ‗an index of "palaeo-cultivation" in west and west central Africa…‘
In addition, Zeven (1964: 123) noted that in modern sediments the occurrence of oil palm pollen, which can be up to 30% of the total, "reflects the cultivation of the oil palm as well as methods of land use favourable to its spread." Indeed in the surface sample from the Niger delta the oil palm pollen was 38.7% of the pollen sum (Sowunmi 1981b, 1985).
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.
Depth(cm) Tree resources Pottery
100-90 25 114
80-70 47 222
60-50 143 293
40-30 387 423
30-20 91 781
20-10 59 429
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Fig. 5.4: A comparison of abundance of forest trees (forest resources) with pottery abundance (index of human population) from level 100-10cm
Percentage values of forest trees (range of 2.5%-38.7%) have been multiplied by 10 for ease of comparison with pottery figures which are in the range of 114-781. Series 1= % forest trees, Series 2=Pottery. Y axis= pottery abundance and % forest trees; X axis= depths.
0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800 900
100-90cm 80-70cm 60-50cm 40-30cm 30-20cm 20-10cm
Series1 Series2
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indigenous. The recovery of micro- and macro-fossils of exotic plants in certain areas has proved very useful in interpreting and resolving some palaeoenvironmental difficulties. For example, the recovery and identification of the pollen grains of Zea mays have helped in establishing the beginning of food production (agriculture) in certain areas of South America (Piperno et al. 1991). The correct identification of Casuarina pollen provided useful information for understanding, from a palynological point of view, the introduction of exotic species and the antiquity of humans in South East Asia (Haberle, 1994).
In the present study, three woody, exotic, ornamental species, i.e.
Lagerstroemia indica (Lythraceae) [native of Asia], Casuarina equisetifolia (Casuarinaceae) [native of Australia], and Delonix regia, (Caesalpiniaceae) [native of Madagascar], were recovered from different levels of the excavated trench. The recovery of the pollen of these plants becomes the earliest and first palynological evidence of ornamentals in Nigeria. Two of these plants – C. equisetifolia and D.
regia -- are trees while Lagerstroemia indica is a shrub. Of significant note is the fact that these plants are all found in the forest region of Southern Nigeria today. The pollen diagram (Plate 5:44) shows that L. indica and C. equisetifolia were present at the deepest level of the pit (98 cm) and they both constituted a very high percentage (72.4%) of the pollen sum at that level. L. indica, in particular (71.6%) was not only present but abundant within the catchment area of the excavated site. In view of its aesthetic attraction, this abundance is suggestive of some human intervention. This suggestion is further supported by the occurrence of Elaeis guineensis and weeds (Chromolaena odorata, Aspilia africana and Asteraceae) in appreciable quantities.
These weeds are known to be associated with human habitation (Sowunmi, 1981c).
Qualitative vegetation analysis carried out by (Oriejieme, per. Comm, 2011) in the forest areas of southwestern Nigeria confirms Sowunmi‘s (1981b) observation. The following weeds are some of the commonest found around homes and in disturbed areas in this part of Nigeria: Chromolaena odorata, Aspilia africana, Sida acuta, Ageratum conyzoides, and Tridax procumbens.
Several questions arise from the presence and the pattern of occurrence of the three exotic ornamentals. If they were cultivated, by who were they cultivated – the local people or foreigners (probably colonialists)? The inferred date of the levels where Lagerstroemia indica was most abundant is sometime soon after AD 1263.
This is very much earlier than the known arrival of Europeans in West Africa, i.e.
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between the 15th and 16th centuries. This seems to rule out European cultivators. The specific name of Lagerstroemia, i.e. indica, indicates that it is Indian in origin.
Furthermore some other botanical names often reflect the view that cultivated plants found in the African continent were transferred from India to Africa, for example, Tamarindus indica and Sesamum indicum (Blench, 2003), as well as Mangifera indica (the mango tree). However, as far as we know there are no records of the arrival of Asians in Nigeria prior to the 20th century. Is there any other possible way by which L. indica could have reached this part of Nigeria at such an early date?
Could they have been introduced through the influence of ―phantom voyagers‖ from Indonesia, whose coming to sub-Saharan Africa (including Nigeria) and Madagascar, according to Dick-Read (2005), much predated that of Europeans? The scholarly and comprehensive research work by Dick-Read (2005) only came to the attention of Professor Mrs. Sowunmi in a private discussion she had with Dr. Patrick Darling, recently at a conference in Britain. If the identification of L. indica pollen is correct, it would seem that the Ajaba people recognized its ornamental value and therefore planted and protected it for quite some time. The same explanation can be given for D. regia which also has very attractive flowers and which could have been brought by the ―phantom voyagers‖. Another possible source through which could have reached tis part of Africa ight be through migratory birds. Birds such as ‗pathtom voyagers‘
are known to have migrated from central Europ in early roosting in several parts of Nigeria including Soutwestern Nigeria before movng on in other directions. The occurrence of C. equisetifolia pollen in the fossil record at Ajaba is at the moment difficult to explain.
Though it may not be considered likely, it does not ruled out entirely the possibility that these three pollen types might belong to indigenous, forest species which is yet to be encountered in this palynological study. Their pattern of occurrence is similar to that of the indigenous forest species. As exemplified in the Combretaceae and Melatomaceae on the one hand and Chenopodiaceae and Amaranthaceae on the other, it is well known that certain species which belong to different families do have similar, virtually indistinguishable pollen grains.