| 1. |
- Fleisher, Jeffrey, et al.
(författare)
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When Did the Swahili Become Maritime?
- 2015
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Ingår i: American Anthropologist. - : Wiley. - 0002-7294 .- 1548-1433. ; 117:1, s. 100-115
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- In this article, we examine an assumption about the historic Swahili of the eastern African coast: that they were a maritime society from their beginnings in the first millennium C.E. Based on historical and archaeological data, we suggest that, despite their proximity to and use of the sea, the level of maritimity of Swahili society increased greatly over time and was only fully realized in the early second millennium C.E. Drawing on recent theorizing from other areas of the world about maritimity as well as research on the Swahili, we discuss three arenas that distinguish first- and second-millennium coastal society in terms of their maritime orientation. These are variability and discontinuity in settlement location and permanence; evidence of increased engagement with the sea through fishing and sailing technology; and specialized architectural developments involving port facilities, mosques, and houses. The implications of this study are that we must move beyond coastal location in determining maritimity; consider how the sea and its products were part of social life; and assess whether the marine environment actively influences and is influenced by broader patterns of sociocultural organization, practice, and belief within Swahili and other societies.
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| 2. |
- Rødland, Henriette, et al.
(författare)
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No such thing as invisible people : toward an archaeology of slavery at the fifteenth-century Swahili site of Songo Mnara
- 2020
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Ingår i: Azania. - : ROUTLEDGE JOURNALS, TAYLOR & FRANCIS LTD. - 0067-270X .- 1945-5534. ; 55:4, s. 439-457
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This paper seeks to challenge the notion of the invisible slave in the archaeological record and investigates the way in which material culture may reflect the movements and practices of enslaved labourers on the East African Swahili coast. Archaeological approaches to enslavement have revealed the nuanced and complex experiences of a group of people often under-represented or absent in historical records, while also grappling with the challenges presented by the ambiguity of the material evidence. This paper presents a case study from the fifteenth-century Swahili site of Songo Mnara in Tanzania, an architecturally and materially wealthy stone town in the Kilwa archipelago. It focuses on the context, use, and spread of beads across the site, and considers the possibility of interpreting some classes - such as locally made terracotta beads - as proxies for the underclass and enslaved in an otherwise wealthy settlement. It presents a key study towards the aim of building a highly necessary methodology for the archaeology of slavery in East Africa and beyond, and suggests that certain types of material culture might be used to explore the activities of enslaved and/or underclass individuals.
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| 3. |
- Sulas, Federica, et al.
(författare)
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Geoarchaeology of urban space in tropical island environments : Songo Mnara, Tanzania
- 2017
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Ingår i: Journal of Archaeological Science. - : Elsevier BV. - 0305-4403 .- 1095-9238. ; 77, s. 52-63
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Past urban settlements in tropical island environments offer particularly challenging sites for mainstream archaeology. Often associated with shallow stratigraphic sequences, archaeological sediments and soils in these sites are strongly influenced by local geology and seawater. This study discusses the advantages and challenges of developing an integrated geoarchaeological programme to examine the use of space at the Swahili stonetown of Songo Mnara Island, Tanzania. This exceptionally well preserved site, occupied for less than two centuries (C14th-16th AD), comprises a complex urban layout with stone built houses, wattle-and-daub structures, funerary complexes, activity areas such as wells, and open areas. The programme has combined geoarchaeological (soil macro-and micromorphology, ICP-AES, pH, EC), geophysical (magnetic susceptibility) and archaeological (large excavations, test trenches, artefact distribution mapping) techniques to investigate the use of space across different contexts. Initial geoarchaeological prospection and opportunistic soil sampling have allowed framing of the island's environmental settings and archaeological deposits as well as outlining open spaces in between buildings. Subsequent research applied a systematic sampling strategy to map geochemical and artefact distributions in conjunction with context-specific soil micromorphology. The results provide a means to map out the impact of occupation across the site as well as to differentiate between open, roofed and unroofed spaces. ICP-AES results, for example, demonstrate that measurements of Ca, Mg, P, S and Sr levels can help discriminate occupation/activity areas in tropical island environments. They also indicate that the depletion of certain elements (e.g. Na, K, and Ni) should be considered as a means of differentiating between roofed and unroofed spaces. The combination of different methodologies demonstrates the importance of addressing discrepancies as well as correlations between multiple datasets for deciphering features within urban spaces in tropical environments and interpreting ancient activities that occurred within them.
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| 4. |
- Wynne-Jones, Stephanie, et al.
(författare)
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Fifty years in the archaeology of the eastern African coast : a methodological history
- 2015
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Ingår i: Azania. - 0067-270X .- 1945-5534. ; 50:4, s. 519-541
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Research on the archaeology of the coast of eastern Africa is closely associated with the earliest days of the British Institute in Eastern Africa and in many ways quickly became synonymous with the Institute's journal - Azania. This is not surprising given that Neville Chittick, the first Director of the Institute and initial editor of Azania, was most actively engaged with research on the eastern African Swahili coast. Since those early years, many researchers have described the changing paradigms of coastal archaeology, often through the lens of wider political and theoretical changes and framed with reference to periods of colonialism, independence and post-colonialism. In this paper, we seek instead to document and describe the methodological and analytical changes that have occurred in the archaeology of eastern Africa over the decades that Azania has been published. We focus on three broad methodological areas and chart their emergence, use and transformation over time: urban archaeology, ceramics and typology and survey and reconnaissance. We then offer a discussion of the diversity of current methodologies and the introduction of scientific techniques and how they have served to shape the type of questions that can be asked and answered. Finally, we call for a continued commitment to local dissemination for coastal researchers: a job for which Azania retains its important role.
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| 5. |
- Wynne-Jones, Stephanie, et al.
(författare)
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The multiple territories of Swahili urban landscapes
- 2016
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Ingår i: World archaeology. - : Routledge. - 0043-8243 .- 1470-1375. ; 48:3, s. 349-362
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Houses are linked to the urban landscape in multiple ways. They provide urban form, and shape movement and interaction. This article analyses these connections through the concept of territories, defined as areas linked to particular activities and/or groups, at the fourteenth–sixteenth-century Swahili town of Songo Mnara. Detailed excavation and survey at the site has provided information on ritual and economic activity within and between households. Here we use these data to identify inclusive territories, which served to delineate some of the communal spaces of the town and to link these with exterior landscapes and more exclusive territories linked to particular families and houses. Finally, we discuss a series of economic territories linked to production, which crosscut some of the divisions evident between elite and non-elite activities. We argue that the urban landscape can be defined and understood through the ways these territories combined and overlapped.
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| 6. |
- Yu, He, et al.
(författare)
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Palaeogenomic analysis of black rat (Rattus rattus) reveals multiple European introductions associated with human economic history
- 2022
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Ingår i: Nature Communications. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 2041-1723. ; 13:1
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The distribution of the black rat (Rattus rattus) has been heavily influenced by its association with humans. The dispersal history of this non-native commensal rodent across Europe, however, remains poorly understood, and different introductions may have occurred during the Roman and medieval periods. Here, in order to reconstruct the population history of European black rats, we first generate a de novo genome assembly of the black rat. We then sequence 67 ancient and three modern black rat mitogenomes, and 36 ancient and three modern nuclear genomes from archaeological sites spanning the 1st-17th centuries CE in Europe and North Africa. Analyses of our newly reported sequences, together with published mitochondrial DNA sequences, confirm that black rats were introduced into the Mediterranean and Europe from Southwest Asia. Genomic analyses of the ancient rats reveal a population turnover in temperate Europe between the 6th and 10th centuries CE, coincident with an archaeologically attested decline in the black rat population. The near disappearance and re-emergence of black rats in Europe may have been the result of the breakdown of the Roman Empire, the First Plague Pandemic, and/or post-Roman climatic cooling. 'Archaeogenetic analysis of black rat remains reveals that this species was introduced into temperate Europe twice, in the Roman and medieval periods. This population turnover was likely associated with multiple historical and environmental factors.'
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