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Author

Neville H Chittick

Title

Letter: Items sent to the Institute of Archaeology, London.

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Unknown

Abstract

List of items sent to the Institute of Archaeology, London from the British Institute in Eastern Africa. From Chittick, Neville H to Black, James. (2 Page). Source: British Institute in Easter Africa in Eastern Africa, OPN CHITTICK.

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British Institute in Eastern Africa Image Archive

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The British Institute in Eastern Africa promotes research into the archaeology, history, linguistics, and anthropology of eastern Africa, broadly defined. It is based in Nairobi where it maintains a library and research facilities. The Institute undertakes and supports research in countries throughout the region, from Zimbabwe to the Sudan.

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Dilemma of local socio economic perspectives in management of historic ruins in Kilwa Kisiwani World Heritage Site Tanzania

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CVI Kilwa KIsiwani and Songo Mnara Report  - Eng-min

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CyArk is a non profit organization founded in 2003 to digitally record, archive and share the world’s cultural heritage and ensure that these places continue to inspire wonder and curiosity for decades to come.

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The Swahili coast features a rich tradition of vernacular architecture, centred on the 'stonetowns' that were founded along the Indian Ocean coast from the 11th century onwards. Many still thrive today, and the inhabitants are rightly proud of their heritage, which includes UNESCO World Heritage sites at Kilwa Kisiwani, Songo Mnara, Zanzibar, and Lamu.

However, tourists and residents alike are often unaware of the region's illustrious past and cultural heritage sites are not currently presented to their full potential. There are also many social challenges affecting the conservation and presentation of heritage sites. This network strives to raise awareness of Tanzania's cultural heritage and to bring local communities into that discussion. It will take advantage of existing heritage expertise in Tanzanian universities and continue to build a dialogue between scholars, heritage organisations, and communities. This is planned as a programme of dialogue and training via local collaborators at Pangani (2018) and Kilwa (2019), developing an understanding of local priorities and engaging in outreah activities with multiple regional stakeholders.

Over two summers we will organise workshops that brings together scholars and non-academic stakeholders, where will discuss priorities and challenges for Tanzanian coastal heritage and providing training according to local requirements explored through focus groups. Community groups, including schools, will be incorporated into this training, and encouraged to participate in finding out about the region's past. This approach is designed to foster co-production of knowledge, building on existing understandings to create a vision of the region's history.

Please read about how we manage our intereaction with any participants in this project: About Your Participation--Updated 24-06-19.docx
CONCH is funded by the UK Arts & Humanities Research Council (AHRC), through the award of a Research Networking Highlight for International Development grant to Stephanie Wynne Jones (PI), Paul Lane (Co-I) and Elinaza Mjema (Co-I).

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The Swahili coast features a rich tradition of vernacular architecture, centred on the 'stonetowns' that were founded along the Indian Ocean coast from the 11th century onwards. Many still thrive today, and the inhabitants are rightly proud of their heritage, which includes UNESCO World Heritage sites at Kilwa Kisiwani, Songo Mnara, Zanzibar, and Lamu.

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The Zamani Project team spatially documented Songo Mnara during 4 field campaigns between 2005-2009. The structures documented include: The Palace, the mosque and a number of residential buildings.- 3D Heritage Documentation - Laser Scanning - 3D Modelling - GIS

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3D scan of the Great Mosque at Kilwa Kisiwani in Tanzania. Founded in the 10th Century, the great mosque of Kilwa Kisiwani is the oldest standing mosque on the East African coast. Enlarged over the 11th and 13th centuries, the mosque features decorated domes and vaults.

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Kilwa Kisiwani was once a massive Swahili port town. It was first established in the 8th Century and flourished between the 12th and 14th Centuries. At its prime, it was one of the largest coastal settlements in East Africa and was an important center within the Indian Ocean trade network CyArk : Gerezani - Kilwa Kisiwani - LiDAR - Terrestrial , Photogrammetry - Terrestrial , Photogrammetry - Aerial , LSP Files .

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This model represent 99 laser scans captured with a Leica HDS 6000 and modeled in 2011 by the Zamani Project at the University of Cape Town. The model was done by Christoph Held towards his MSc in Geomatics.

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2020: Malindi Mosque - Kilwa Kisiwani - LiDAR - Terrestrial , Photogrammetry - Terrestrial , Photogrammetry - Aerial . Collected by CyArk . Distributed by Open Heritage 3D. https://doi.org/10.26301/w6g8-zh94 - Malindi Mosque - Kilwa Kisiwani - Download Free 3D model by Vasilis Haroupas (@vashar)

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Gerezani fort, Kilwa Kisiwani, Tanzania - Download Free 3D model by PolarNick239

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Gerezani fort, Kilwa Kisiwani, Tanzania. Original model faces were around 75 millions, so it was decimated to 50K faces + original geometry baked in 8K normals map + 8K ambient occlusion map + 8K diffuse map (to fit in 50 megabytes limit). Processed from 717 aerial and 1344 terrestrial photos (co…

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This is a laser scan model of the Small Dome Mosque on Kilwa Kisiwani off the coast of Tanzania. It was documented in 2009 by the Zamani project. - Small Domed Mosque - Kilwa, Tanzania - 3D model by Zamani Project (@zamaniproject)

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The historical ruins on the Island of Songo Mnara, near Kilwa, in Tanzania is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The ruins are the remnants of a once-powerful Swahili settlement that consisted of Palaces, Mosques, a Mnara and other buildings. The buildings were all constructed from coral blocks that were cut from the coastline giving the ruins an underwater atmosphere.

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Malindi Mosque - Kilwa Kisiwani, Tanzania

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The Malindi mosque is located next to the Gereza and is being negatively impacted by erosion. Sea level rise and loss of mangroves which act as a buffer to the sea have resulted in the site experiencing loss in the seaward side of the monument.

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Gereza - Kilwa Kisiwani - 3D model by CyArk

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Kilwa Kisiwani was once a massive Swahili port town. First established in the 8th Century the city prospered between the 12-14th centuries when it was the one of the largest coastal settlements in East Africa and was an important hub in the Indian Ocean trade network. Located on the northern tip…

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In December 2019 CyArk traveled to the UNESCO World Heritage site of Kilwa Kisiwani off the coast of Tanzania. Working in collaboration with ICOMOS International and the Antiquities Division within the Department of Natural Resources and Tourism for the Republic of Tanzania the CyArk field team documented three structures at the site.

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The Great Mosque of Kilwa is the earliest remaining mosque structure on the East African coast, though it is predated by elements from the Kizimkazi Mosque in Zanzibar. The spatial documentation of Kilwa Kisiwani took place between 2005 and 2009 during 4 field campaigns.

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For hundreds of years, Kilwa Kisiwani and Songo Mnara, located on two islands off the coast of modern day Tanzania linked Africa to the wider Islamic world. Once described by a 14th century AD traveller as 'one of the most beautiful cities, and elegantly built', its historical significance cannot be understated.

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The Makunati Palace, Kilwa Kisiwani, Tanzania - 3D model by Zamani Project (@zamaniproject)

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The Makutani building is a fortified enclosure in Kilwa Kisiwani, containing the sultan’s palace, dating from the 18th century AD. Kilwa is a former Swahili town on the island of Kilwa Kisiwani, Tanzania. From the 10th to 16th centuries AD it was a vibrant trading centre. Now it consists of numerou…

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Great Mosque - Kilwa Kisiwani, Tanzania - 3D model by Gabriele Mura (@agisoftcoaching)

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In this model I experimented with a combined approach between aerial photogrammetry and terrestrial photogrammetry. Not interior mesh-editing.
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Number of Photos:
Aerial: 417 Terrestrial: 1310 .
Cameras &Resolution:
Aerial: DJI Mavic Pro [4056x3040];
Terrestrial: Nikon D810 [7360x4912], Ipho…

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Old Fort (Gereza) Kilwa Kisiwani Tanzania

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The Old Fort or Gereza (prison) in Kilwa Kisiwani situated along the coast of southern Tanzania was built by the Portuguese in 1505. This build which has two towers were meant to protect the interest of Portuguese after they had conquered Kilwa during the early 16th century.

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Husuni Kubwa or the Great Palace was built during the 14th century. During the time, the palace was elegant such that it had a swimming pool inside. The palace served as a residential as well as commercial building hosting business personnel from across the world.

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Kilwa Kisiwani Shoreline 4 (March 2019) - 3D model by dah

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Kilwa Kisiwani Shoreline 3 (March 2019) - 3D model by dah

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Kilwa Kisiwani Shoreline 3 (March 2019) - 3D model by dah

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Kilwa Kisiwani Shoreline 4 (March 2019) - 3D model by dah

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Kilwa Kisiwani Shoreline 2 (March 2019) - 3D model by dah

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Swahili buildings (19, 20, 21, & 22),Songo Mnara

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The spatial documentation of the Swahili stone town on Songo Mnara took place between 2005 and 2009 during 4 field campaigns, using terrestrial laser-scanning. The ruins on the island Songo Mnara are the last remains of a Swahili stone town, which had its zenith in the 15th century, directly related to its neighbour Kilwa Kisiwani.

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HISTORIA YA MJI WA KILWA KISIWANI AMBAO ULIKUWA NCHI INAYOJITEGEMEA

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Kilwa Kisiwani, Tanzania - Google Arts & Culture

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The port city endangered by coastal erosion

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I’m exploring #MuseumOfTheWorld by @britishmuseum and @GoogleUK. See how our history is connected

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Academia.edu is a platform for academics to share research papers.

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Abstract

Coastal peoples who lived along the Eastern African seaboard in the first millennium A.D. onwards began converting to Islam in the mid-eighth century. Clearly rooted in and linked throughout to an indigenous regional Iron Age tradition, they created a marked difference between themselves and their regional neighbors through their active engagement with Islam and the expanding Indian Ocean world system. In this paper I explore three ways in which interrelated cultural norms-an aesthetic featuring imported ceramics, foods, and other items, Islamic practice, and a favoring of urban living-created and maintained this difference over many centuries. These qualities of their identity helped anchor those who became Swahili peoples as participants in the Indian Ocean system. Such characteristics also can be seen to have contributed to Swahili attractiveness as a place for ongoing small-scale settlement of Indian Ocean peoples on the African coast, and eventually, as a target for nineteenth-century Arab colonizers from the Persian Gulf. This paper examines the archaeology of these aspects of Swahili culture from its early centuries through ca. A.D. 1500.

Résumé

Les habitants côtiers qui vivaient en Afrique de l'Est depuis le premier millénaire A.D. ont commencés à ce convertir à l'Islam au milieu du huitième siècle. Clairement enracinés et liés à une tradition autochtone régionale de l'Âge du fer, ils se sont différenciés significativement de leur voisins régionaux à travers leur engagement actif avec l'Islam et l'expansion du système mondiale de l'océan Indien. Dans cet article, j'explore trois façons par lesquels les normes non esthétiques et inter-reliées comprenant des céramiques importés, des aliments et d'autres éléments, ainsi que la pratique de l'Islam et l'incitation au mode de vie urbain, ont créés et maintenues ces différences durant plusieurs siècles. Ces caractéristiques de leur identité ont permis d'instaurer comme des participants du system de l'océan Indien, ceux qui sont devenu les Swahilis. Ces caractéristiques peuvent aussi être interprétées comme ayant contribuées à l'attrait swahili comme endroit pour l'installation de petites agglomérations par des gens de l'océan Indien sur la côte africaine et, éventuellement, comme cible pour les colonisateurs arabes au 19ième siècle en provenance du Golfe Persique. Cet article examine l'archéologie de ces aspects de la culture swahili depuis les siècles anciens jusqu'à 1500 A.D.

Resumen

Los pueblos costeros que vivieron en la costa oriental de África desde el primer milenio A.D. empezaron a convertirse al Islam a mediados del siglo VIII. Con claras raíces y lazos con una tradición indígena regional de la Edad del Hierro, crearon una marcada diferencia entre ellos y sus vecinos regionales a través de su participación activa en el Islam y en el sistema mundial del Océano Índico en expansión. En este artículo exploro tres normas culturales interconectadas, una estética basada en cerámica importada, alimentos y otros artículos, la práctica islámica y la predilección por la vida urbana crearon y mantuvieron esas diferencias a lo largo de varios siglos. Estas características de su identidad ayudaron a anclar a quienes se volvieron Swahili como participantes en el Océano Índico. Se puede decir que estas características también contribuyeron al atractivo Swahili como un lugar para pequeños asentamientos de pueblos del Océano Índico en la costa africana y, eventualmente, como blanco de los colonizadores árabes del Golfo Pérsico en el siglo XIX. Este artículo examina la arqueología de estos aspectos de la cultura Swahili desde los siglos más tempranos hasta aproximadamente A.D. 1500.

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Acknowledgements

I would like to express my gratitude to Charles Cobb and Diana Loren for inviting me to contribute the original version of this paper to their Society for American Archaeology session in 2006, and for their continued support as this paper was developed for Archaeologies. Appreciation also goes to the two anonymous reviewers who provided helpful commentary. I thank Jeff Fleisher for his input on the present version, particularly with regard to the ceramic data. I am indebted to the National Science Foundation, which generously funded the research at Chwaka and Tumbe from 2002-2006 (#BCS0138319). And finally I thank Jeff Hantman for his support in producing the conference and present versions of this paper and for multiple insights along the way.

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Authors and Affiliations

Department of Anthropology, University of Virginia, P.O. Box 400120, Charlottesville, VA, 22904-4120, USA

Adria LaViolette

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Adria LaViolette.

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LaViolette, A. Swahili Cosmopolitanism in Africa and the Indian Ocean World, A.D. 600-1500. Arch 4, 24-49 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11759-008-9064-x
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# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Swahili Cosmopolitanism in Africa and the Indian Ocean World, A.D. 600-1500 - Archaeologies

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Coastal peoples who lived along the Eastern African seaboard in the first millennium A.D. onwards began converting to Islam in the mid-eighth century. Clearly rooted in and linked throughout to an indigenous regional Iron Age tradition, they created a marked difference between themselves and their regional neighbors through their active engagement with Islam and the expanding Indian Ocean world system.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
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Creating urban communities at Kilwa Kisiwani, Tanzania, AD 800-1300 | Antiquity | Cambridge Core

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This article has been cited by the following publications. This list is generated based on data provided by Crossref. Wynne-Jones, Stephanie 2007. It's what you do with it that counts. Journal of Social Archaeology, Vol. 7, Issue. 3, p. 325. Wynne-Jones, Stephanie and Mapunda, Bertram B.B. 2008.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
The ruins at Kilwa Kisiwani and Kilwa Songo Mnara are on two islands off the coast of East Africa, in Tanzania. A town has existed here since the 7th and 8th century and became an important seaport on the trade route along the coast of East Africa.

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Ruins at Kilwa Kisiwani and Kilwa Songo Mnara, Tanzania | 360Cities

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The ruins at Kilwa Kisiwani and Kilwa Songo Mnara are on two islands off the coast of East Africa, in Tanzania. A town has existed here since the 7th and 8th century and became an important seaport on the trade route along the coast of East Africa.

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We slept in tents beneath palm trees, we showered with buckets, we ate fish straight from the sea and we waded through the mangroves. We were a long way from home. And, we would not have it any other way! The third field season at Songo Mnara, Tanzania has recently come to a close, and 20 odd students and archaeologists left the East African coast one by one after six weeks of excavation on a remote island.

Led by Jeffrey Fleisher from Rice University and Stephanie Wynne-Jones from the University of York, the project at Songo Mnara has been running for five years, with the dig starting in 2009. Its aim is to increase our understanding of Swahili urban towns and the space and life within them (Songo Mnara, n.d.). Five students from the University of York, including myself, were lucky enough to take part in this year's field season, along with other students from the U.S. and Tanzania. Songo Mnara lies about an hour's boat ride from Kilwa Masoko on the mainland, and the more well-known island site Kilwa Kisiwani. We were dropped off on the beach by a small fishing village, before we headed through the often flooded mangroves to our camp (Figure 1). Our tents were pitched within view of the site, and together we made a little camping village dotted around a cement house functioning as a storage room and eating quarters. Women from the local villages, whom we referred to as "the Mamas", would arrive every day before dawn to cook our three daily meals. These would often consist of fish, squid, chicken, rice, beans and chapatis. To my own great joy our breakfasts were often home-made mandazi, which are deep-fried sweet rolls that taste uncannily like doughnuts. Good for our morale, not so good for our arteries.

The site, a Swahili stone town dating from the 15th and 16th centuries, is adjacent to the ruins of old stone houses and mosques still standing nearby. The town was only occupied for a period of 200 years, which is relatively short compared to many other Swahili sites (Songo Mnara, n.d.). Taking our trowels, hoes and buckets, we headed for the trenches just after dawn, in order to take advantage of the precious cool hours of the morning. Three trenches were opened in the first few days; two in the open area outside the houses, and one inside one of the greater houses in the town. Subsequently, more trenches were opened inside this house to explore the various rooms and spaces within it.

My first three weeks were spent in the open area, in the so-called daub trenches. These were two two-by-ten trenches aimed at exploring features from the geophysical survey from the previous seasons, they were believed to be wattle and daub houses. And indeed they were! As we dug down we exposed not only the red earth associated with daub features, but also pieces of hardened daub indicating that the structure had burned. We also unearthed rich material culture such as beads, imported pottery, iron and coins (lots of them!), showing that wattle and daub houses were not necessarily houses for the poor, which tends to be a common belief. The finds from both daub trenches led us to expand them, revealing the full extent of each daub house (Figure 2). Just to the south east, excavations within the stone house revealed similar finds, although we saw less of them due to the nature of the houses; things would not so easily get lost on a solid lime plaster floor. The material finds and the impressive architecture suggests that the town was wealthy and prosperous, and engaged in trade with both local and remote people.

Although much of the work has been focused on excavations, various other methods of research have been used. Shovel test pits were dug throughout the site, as a means of understanding what lay in the open areas outside the town. Along with the geophysical surveys undertaken by Kate Welham and Charlene Steele, both of the University of Bournemouth, a broader image of the site had started to appear, showing habitation beyond the confines of the stone houses. The work of Matthew Pawlowicz showed that this was true for the entire island, as he and his team of local workers and students dug test pits across Songo Mnara, and found various evidence of occupation. Perhaps future research will grow to encompass not just the stone town but the rest of the island as well, as there is still much to explore. Research has also been carried out at a much smaller level. Federica Sulas from the University of Cambridge, was in charge of taking geochemical samples from the trenches across the site, which she will analyse in order to understand more about the ecological and environmental features on the site. Sarah Walshaw deals with slightly bigger samples, analysing macro-botanical remains from floatation and hopefully gaining knowledge about what was grown and eaten by the people of the town. Through each field season more and more is understood about the town and the people living within (and outside) it, but there are still many questions to answer; what was the function of the daub houses? Why did they burn? And why was the town abandoned after only two hundred years?

Our weeks in Tanzania were full of hard work, scorching sun and various insects, but also of great experiences, interesting people and learning. It allowed us to take our studies from theory to practice, and gave insight into the world of archaeology beyond university. Through working alongside local people we also got to know the wonderful humour, stamina and language of the Swahili people.

Bibliography

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We slept in tents beneath palm trees, we showered with buckets, we ate fish straight from the sea and we waded through the mangroves. We were a long way from home. And, we would not have it any other way!

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The island of Kilwa Kisiwani sits just off the coast of Kilwa Misoko, surrounded by deep blue water and verdant mangroves hovering over white sand that blankets a gently rising coast. Baobabs stand sentry over the island, bulbous masters of a sun-drenched domain. The island of Kilwa Kisiwani has been inhabited since the 9th Century. Shirazi lore tells of Ali ibn Al-Hasan, a Persian ruler who sailed to the island in the late 10th Century and bought the island from the Wa-Muli tribe for copious amounts of cloth. Other records place the arrival of Kilwa's first Sultanate-a group of Islamic refugees-around 1050, as the island was gaining regional prominence. Gold, ivory, rhinoceros horn, cotton, beads, cloth, slaves, and other goods all made their way through Kilwa's harbor, bringing with them prosperity for the inhabitants.

At the peak of the island's wealth in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, Kilwa Kisiwani was among the wealthiest of the Swahili city-states, controlling the lucrative sea trade routes. . Drawn by the wealth and strategic position of the tiny island, Portugal invaded and maintained control until 1512, when it was abandoned for more lucrative positions along the coast. Following European rule, the island was left in disarray, and was never able to re-establish prominence as it competed with other major ports in Dar es Salaam, Zanzibar, Lamu, and Mombasa, among others. Even as Omani traders utilized Kilwa in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, shepherding slaves and goods along the East African coast, the island and its inhabitants had faded into relative obscurity. Struck by cholera in the mid-19th century, poverty has gripped the island every since.

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Our dhow, a wooden sailboat, drifts gently up to the island's jetty, allowing us to disembark and ascend stone steps to a dirt path circumnavigating the northwestern tip of the island. Exploring Kisiwani, one becomes keenly aware that the historic ruins are very much intertwined with the lives of the local inhabitants. Skinny trails snake through backyards, gardens, and tiny markets. School children ogle as we walk by, with only the most courageous greeting us with the endearingly misguided salutation, "Bye-bye."

The tour leads us through the Malindi mosque and cemetery, fifteenth-century structures likely built by an important family on the island with roots in Kenya. Coral, often used as both the bricks and mortar of many of the ruins, was evident throughout the island's ruins, lending fascinating intricacies to structures both large and small. Across a small harbor, the Gereza sits perched over the incoming tide, decimated by centuries of battle with unrelenting waves. Rebuilt by Omanis in the eighteenth century, the fort's mangrove-starved beach can do little to stop erosion from nibbling away its grip on stability.

From the palaces of Makutani (meaning "the palace of the big walls") and Husuni Kubwa to the delicate architecture of the Great Mosque and Small Domed Mosque, the ruins of Kilwa Kisiwani detail a long and rich history. High-quality craftsmanship is evident throughout the structures, which used crushed coral from the surrounding water as mortar for large stone and coral blocks. Ornate carvings adorn doorways, speaking to the Islamic influences in Kilwa's history.

The island's ruins dot a sun-seared landscape. Trees offer some respite from the grueling heat, but many paths offer scant arboreal protection. Long, dry grass, brambles, and bushes encroach on the slim paths, nipping at heels while ants scurry about waiting to clamp their jaws on any dawdling limb. Along the dusty paths, atop moss-covered stone, and in the overgrown flora, the six-legged insects rule, expediting our journey by encouraging movement.

Indeed, Kilwa offers a fascinating experience well worth the journey, but comfort was often nowhere to be found.

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WMF first became involved with Kilwa Kisiwani (a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1981) in 1996 when the site was named to the World Monuments Watch. In 2008, the site was again named to the Watch, and in 2009, work began on the Portugese Fort (Gereza). Conservation has focused on stabilizing the walls of the fort and preventing further collapse. As climate change has led to rising tides and the mangroves forests have been decimated by use in construction of homes and dhows, the Fort has grown increasingly threatened. WMF has assisted in training local craftspeople and is working on comprehensive conservation plans for the entire site as well as Songo Mnara Island, which sits just to the south.

Kilwa faces a number of conservation challenges. Foremost among them is preparing for the completion of the road extending south from Dar. While plans for fully paved passage by the end of 2011-the Tanzanian government claims-seems ambitions based on our travel experience, when transportation by land does become significantly easier, tourism is expected to increase, straining the resources of Kilwa Misoko and the infrastructure on Kisiwani. Protecting the ruins represents a major task for conservators, but finding ways to manage tourists, improve trails, rejuvenate the mangrove population, and develop a symbiotic relationship between the site and the local people will be critical to Kilwa's survival and were evident as we traversed the island.
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The adventure south was an experience I'm happy to have had. The people we met (including those involved in a quinquennial ceremony to rid Kilwa Misoko of black magic) throughout the islands were warm and genuine. Exploring the ruins, wandering through town, lying on the beach, and sipping Safaris at our hotel made saying goodbye difficult-not in the least because we knew what the journey that lied ahead potentially had in store.

As for the (13-hour) bus ride back to Dar, I won't even get started...

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The island of Kilwa Kisiwani sits just off the coast of Kilwa Misoko, surrounded by deep blue water and verdant mangroves hovering over white sand that blankets a gently rising coast. Baobabs stand sentry over the island, bulbous masters of a sun-drenched domain. The island of Kilwa Kisiwani has been inhabited since the 9th Century.

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January 2023

We continue our mini-series on maritime Africa with an episode on Songo Mnara and Kilwa, two significant maritime settlements on the Swahili Coast. In the previous episode we heard how the Swahili coast of east Africa is particularly rich in its maritime cultural heritage and trading past, where African and Arabic cultures have mixed for centuries across the Indian Ocean. In this episode we investigate two locations in great depth, both Swahili stone towns that made their place in global maritime history. Dr Sam Willis spoke with Mercy Mbogelah, who manages the ruins of both sites for UNESCO World Heritage.

Category: Fishing | Trade | Africa

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Maritime Africa 5: The World Heritage Sites of Songo Mnara and Kilwa Kisiwani - SNR

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We continue our mini-series on maritime Africa with an episode on Songo Mnara and Kilwa, two significant maritime settlements on the Swahili Coast. In the previous episode we heard how the Swahili coast of east Africa is particularly rich in its maritime cultural heritage and trading past, where African and Arabic cultures have mixed for [...]

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Fikiri kama mtalii / Thinking like a tourist: Utangulizi kuhusu Kilwa Kisiwani na Songo Mnara / Introduction to Kilwa Kisiwani and Songo Mnara. | CONCH

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This is the first ever blog post for the Kilwa fieldwork by the CONCH team! Blogu hii itaandikwa kwa kutumia lugha za Kiswahili na Kiingereza. It is written by Noel Fidelislasway (University of Dar es Salaam) and Elena Murray (University of York), both masters students in heritage management. It giv…

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The ruins of the Husuni Kubwa, the palace-fort of Kilwa, Tanzania, overlook the Indian Ocean. The 14th-century sultan's residence boasted more than a hundred rooms.

Photograph by Alamy, ACI

Spectacular ruins cluster on the island of Kilwa Kisiwani, more than a mile from the coast of modern-day Tanzania. The remnants of a palace and a great mosque, built partly of coral stone, are reminders of the time when the gold trade of east Africa flowed through this tiny island.

During its medieval heyday, Kilwa was the principal port in a string of coastal trading cities that formed along what became known as the Swahili Coast. Swahili is derived from an Arabic word meaning "coastal dweller" and became the name for the regional language.

The local inhabitants, descendants of the Bantu people, blended their mother tongue with adopted words from Persian and Arabic. Arabian and Persian customs are also reflected in the architecture, art, and religion of Swahili culture. All bear strong imprints of the intermingling elements among these peoples.

The connections between the Swahili coast and the Islamic world would later play into 19th-century European colonialist views of sites like Kilwa. Convinced of the "inferiority" of Africans to non-Africans, European scholars, like the British explorer Richard Burton, who visited Kilwa in 1859, believed that the indigenous African culture was incapable of developing stone-built cities. Kilwa, he and others claimed, must have been entirely the work of outsiders.

Coin minted in Kilwa by the 14th-century sultan Sulaiman Ibn Al-Hasan. British Museum, London.

Photograph by Scala, Florence

Recent archaeological discoveries have shown that the reality was more complex. Kilwa and other trading cities of the Swahili coast grew out of a intricate mix of influences, starting on a strong foundation of local East African tradition.

Sifting the chronicle

The first significant archaeological excavation in Kilwa lasted from 1958 to 1965. It was directed by British archaeologist Neville Chittick, who revealed a history that overturned the colonialist "outsider" theory.

Chittick concluded that the majority of Kilwa's population was African. Some of the elite often had origins in the Islamic lands on the other side of the Indian Ocean, but Chittick found evidence to suggest that the island's rulers did not hail directly from those lands. They belonged to Afro-Arabian families established for generations in Africa.

As an aid to dating the various phases of Kilwa's history, Chittick relied heavily on the Kilwa Chronicle, a medieval genealogy of the city state's kings. This text, together with the site's material culture such as coins, pottery, and other artifacts, enabled Chittick and later scholars to piece together Kilwa's rich and complex history.

Rise of the Swahili

The island of Kilwa was settled as early as the fourth century. In the eighth century the blended Swahili culture began to take shape and united the African coast from Somalia in the north to Mozambique in the south. Small-time Swahili traders started to see possibilities for more grandiose trade operations. As Muslim traders began to flow in and out of the region, Islam began to gain a foothold. The first mosque on Kilwa has been dated to around A.D. 800.

Kilwa's rise to power dawned with the founding of the Kilwa sultanate. The dynastic founder was, according to the Kilwa Chronicle, an 11th-century adventurer, Ali ibn al-Hassan Shirazi, whose name suggests he originated from Shiraz in Persia. In line with Chittick's view, historians now believe he was probably born into an established African family who had Persian roots. (Under Cyrus the Great, Persia ruled from Europe to India.)

3-D illustrations imagine the splendoe of the Sultan's palace of Kilwa, known as the Husuni Kukwa, which was first built in the 14th century. In 1962 Neville Chittick excavated the ruins of the Husuni Kubwa palace in Kilwa, and identified the sultan's apartments and a mosque. The large courtyard is now believed to have been a caravansary, a staging post where merchants could rest and goods would be stored before being reloaded onto distinctive boats known as dhows, single-masted vessels commonly used in Indian Ocean commerce.

Photograph by TOURNEZ S'IL VOUS PLAÎT PRODUCTIONS - 2018

Under Ali and the Shirazi, Kilwa started to rival the preeminent trading centre of Mogadishu, far to the north. Already growing wealthy from trade in ivory and tortoise shell, Kilwan rulers began to eye the most lucrative commodity of all- gold.

Flowing out of the interior of southern Africa, gold had been traditionally traded out of the port of Sofala, located in today's Mozambique. Starting during the Shirazi's rule, Kilwa started to extend its influence to control Sofala as its southern outpost.

A fragment of painted ceramic from Kilwa.

Photograph by Alamy, ACI

From the late 1200s, another Afro-Arabian dynasty, the Mahdali, took over the Kilwa Sultanate. Consolidation of economic power continued until the entire East African gold trade came under Kilwan control.

Dhows, the sailing ships characteristic of East Africa, set out from Kilwa and Sofala laden with gold, grain, wood, and ivory. They were driven by the monsoon winds across the Indian Ocean to India and China, as well as to Arabia and Persia. Europe's growing dependency on hard currency also drove demand for Swahili gold.

In return, Kilwa imported cotton, ceramics, Chinese porcelain, and silk. As it grew rich, the city started to mint its own coins. Elaborate structures arose around the city, built using the island's distinctive coral stone.

Collected from local reefs at low tide, the coral was worked into blocks while still soft and then cemented together with mortar. The interior walls would be smoothed, plastered, and sometimes decorated with embedded colourful fragments of glazed ceramics or Chinese porcelain, which have helped archaeologists when dating them. (Archaeologists uncovered bones belonging to the oldest tsunami victims in East Africa.)

The prayer room in the Kilwa Great Mosque is built partly from coral stone. Begun in the 11th century, it is the oldest surviving mosque in East Africa.

Photograph by Nigel Pavitt, Alamy, ACI

The Great Mosque, begun in the 11th century, was expanded and beautified in the boom years that extended from the 12th through to the 15th century. The sprawling 14th-century palace of Husuni Kubwa combined the roles of a fort, a castle, and a warehouse.

The palace's architectural features are reminiscent of Abbasid Iraq, a cosmopolitan splendor that deeply impressed visitors. Historical accounts say that Chinese naval explorer Zheng He travelled to the Kilwa Sultanate and the Swahili coast between 1405 and 1433 on his famous Seven Voyages. When 14th-century Muslim traveler Ibn Battuta visited Kilwa, he described it as: "one of the most beautiful towns in the world."

The sultanate falls

In the early 16th century, Portugal was looking to colonise the valuable regions along the Swahili coast. In 1505 Francisco de Almeida occupied Kilwa, bringing the sultanate to an end after it refused to pay tribute. In the years that followed, Portugal captured swathes of East Africa and west India to control the lucrative Indian Ocean trading routes. In their new colony of Kilwa, they built the Gereza, a military fort to protect the port. One of its towers still stands. (Tanzania's largest city is rapidly expanding. Here's how its planners are trying to keep up.)

In the early 1700s Portuguese colonies were invaded by the Sultanate of Oman, which rapidly occupied the East African coast. It was not enough to restore Kilwa to its former glory. The city was abandoned by the mid-19th century, but archaeological interest revived its fortunes. Declared a World Heritage site by UNESCO in 1981, Kilwa's ruins stand today as testimony to the robust Afro-Arabian culture that bloomed centuries ago.

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This abandoned East African city once controlled the medieval gold trade

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The ruins of the Husuni Kubwa, the palace-fort of Kilwa, Tanzania, overlook the Indian Ocean. The 14th-century sultan's residence boasted more than a hundred rooms. Photograph by Alamy, ACI Spectacular ruins cluster on the island of Kilwa Kisiwani, more than a mile from the coast of modern-day Tanzania.

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January 2023

We continue our mini-series on maritime Africa with an episode on the Swahili coast - a fascinating part of east Africa particularly rich in its maritime cultural heritage and trading past. The Swahili coast is distinctive for its mixture of African and Arabic cultures and the way that the two have been bound together by maritime trade across the Indian Ocean. There is also clear Chinese influence here as well, reflecting historic maritime trade routes thousands of miles longer and which date back to the Middle Ages. To find out more Dr Sam Willis spoke with Dr Stephanie Wynne- Jones form the University of York. Her work in Africa explores the deep links between people, landscapes, history and material culture and she has directed a series of excavation and survey projects in eastern Africa, including a study of early towns on Zanzibar and large-scale excavations at the World Heritage Swahili town of Songo Mnara - which we will find out more about in an upcoming episode.

Category: Middle Ages | Africa | Shipwrecks | Archaeology

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Maritime Africa 4: The Swahili Coast - SNR

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We continue our mini-series on maritime Africa with an episode on the Swahili coast - a fascinating part of east Africa particularly rich in its maritime cultural heritage and trading past. The Swahili coast is distinctive for its mixture of African and Arabic cultures and the way that the two have been bound together by [...]

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SIRI YA JAHAZI LILILOGEUKA KUWA JIWE-KILWA KISIWANI

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Karibu Kilwa: Kilwa district heritage resources : Sebastien Moriset : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

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MORISET, Sébastien, 2015. Karibu Kilwa, Kilwa District Heritage Resources. Tanzania. February 2015. Grenoble : CRAterre-ENSAG. 84 p.Ce document fait...