>  Over 60 species of grasses have been harvested for their
grains in Africa.
>  Most of these are famine or scarcity foods or are
harvested casually and
>  opportunistically. Several species, however, have
provided food on a
>  massive scale and have been staples for a number of
tribes.




If you had been living in a rural area as a child you would
know that grass stem tips and seeds such as oats were  foods
of opportunity that we ate as we walked along-    Therefore
our ancestors probably did the same.       AND  in times of
distress I feel that it would have made three meals a day
however scant!

So any seeds however small were probably eaten.  A  hungry
person is very inventive.  Ergo "Birds Nest Soup!".

The starving Irish were sometimes said to be found dead with
a green mouth from eating grass,   had they eaten seeds they
may have been found alive;  however  it was most probably a
time of year when there were no seeds.

It seems to me that to say cereal seed were not eaten on an
"as available" basis  long before cultivation;   ignores
reality.

Best Regards,   Lorenzo