A small rock shelter near Axum in northern Ethiopia which has yielded a stratified sequence covering the last 12,000 years. The earliest occurrence was of large blades, followed c 8000 BC by an industry dominated by backed microliths. Pottery first appeared at a level tentatively dated to the 3rd millennium BC. The seeds of cultivated finger millet (Eleusine coracana) are dated to between 7000-5000 years ago. This find, if correctly associated with these dates, would be the earliest-known evidence for an indigenous African crop. The latest stone industry was a specialized one of small steep scrapers.