Amini Aza Mturi was [1] a Tanzanian archaeologist and director of the Tanzanian Division of Antiquities between 1968 and 1981. [2] He has been described as "one of the founding fathers of archaeology in Tanzania". [3]
Mturi studied history at Makerere University and archaeology and conservation at the Institute of Archaeology in London. [4] He joined the Tanzanian Division of Antiquities in 1966, as an assistant conservator. [5] In 1968, he succeeded Hamo Sassoon as its acting director, which was made a permanent appointment in 1970. [2] [4] He was the first African to hold the post; [6] [7] the previous directors Neville Chittick and Hamo Sassoon were part of the British colonial administration. [2] He also helped establish archaeology at the University of Dar es Salaam [8] [ verification needed ] and he served as chairperson of UNESCO's Bureau of the World Heritage Committee (9th session, 1985). [9]
Mturi had a long association with the Leakey family and their excavations at Olduvai Gorge. He first met Louis Leakey at a conference in 1967, describing a "frustrating first encounter" where Louis refused to let him work at Olduvai, perhaps worried about training an African archaeologist who might replace him. [10] Nevertheless, Mturi wrote a positive obituary of Louis Leakey in 1974, describing him as having "contributed greatly to the protection and preservation of [Tanzania's] archaeological sites". [1] He had a better relationship with Mary Leakey, Louis' wife and successor at Olduvai, [10] and went on to deliver the keynote lecture at a conference held in her honour in 1994. [11] Mary recounted that Mturi often visited Olduvai to check on the foreign researchers there, and under his direction the Division of Antiquities took over its administration, replacing the Leakeys' Kenyan staff with Tanzanian guards and guides. [12] The Aguirre-Mturi Research Station at Olduvai Gorge is named jointly for Mturi and Spanish palaeoanthropologist Emiliano Aguirre. [3]
Mturi directed excavations at Lake Ndutu, where a considerable amount of lithic and faunal materials were uncovered, as well as the Ndutu cranium. [13] He was also involved in discussions on the conservation of Bagamoyo, arguing that socioeconomic development should not happen at the expense of cultural heritage. [14]
Dar es Salaam is the largest city and financial hub of Tanzania. It is also the capital of Dar es Salaam Region. With a population of over six million people, Dar es Salaam is the largest city in East Africa and the sixth-largest in Africa. Located on the Swahili coast, Dar es Salaam is an important economic centre and is one of the fastest-growing cities in the world.
Louis Seymour Bazett Leakey was a Kenyan-British palaeoanthropologist and archaeologist whose work was important in demonstrating that humans evolved in Africa, particularly through discoveries made at Olduvai Gorge with his wife, fellow palaeoanthropologist Mary Leakey. Having established a programme of palaeoanthropological inquiry in eastern Africa, he also motivated many future generations to continue this scholarly work. Several members of the Leakey family became prominent scholars themselves.
The modern-day African Great Lakes state of Tanzania dates formally from 1964, when it was formed out of the union of the much larger mainland territory of Tanganyika and the coastal archipelago of Zanzibar. The former was a colony and part of German East Africa from the 1880s to 1919s when, under the League of Nations, it became a British mandate. It served as a British military outpost during World War II, providing financial help, munitions, and soldiers. In 1947, Tanganyika became a United Nations Trust Territory under British administration, a status it kept until its independence in 1961. The island of Zanzibar thrived as a trading hub, successively controlled by the Portuguese, the Sultanate of Oman, and then as a British protectorate by the end of the nineteenth century.
The Olduvai Gorge or Oldupai Gorge in Tanzania is one of the most important paleoanthropological localities in the world; the many sites exposed by the gorge have proven invaluable in furthering understanding of early human evolution. A steep-sided ravine in the Great Rift Valley that stretches across East Africa, it is about 48 km (30 mi) long, and is located in the eastern Serengeti Plains within the Ngorongoro Conservation Area in the Olbalbal ward located in Ngorongoro District of Arusha Region, about 45 kilometres from Laetoli, another important archaeological locality of early human occupation. The British/Kenyan paleoanthropologist-archeologist team of Mary and Louis Leakey established excavation and research programs at Olduvai Gorge that achieved great advances in human knowledge and are world-renowned. The site is registered as one of the National Historic Sites of Tanzania.
Mary Douglas Leakey, FBA was a British paleoanthropologist who discovered the first fossilised Proconsul skull, an extinct ape which is now believed to be ancestral to humans. She also discovered the robust Zinjanthropus skull at Olduvai Gorge in Tanzania, eastern Africa. For much of her career she worked with her husband, Louis Leakey, at Olduvai Gorge, where they uncovered fossils of ancient hominines and the earliest hominins, as well as the stone tools produced by the latter group. Mary Leakey developed a system for classifying the stone tools found at Olduvai. She discovered the Laetoli footprints, and at the Laetoli site she discovered hominin fossils that were more than 3.75 million years old.
Rhapta was an emporion said to be on the coast of Southeast Africa, first described in the 1st century CE. Its location has not been firmly identified, although there are a number of plausible candidate sites. The ancient Periplus of the Erythraean Sea described Rhapta as "the last emporion of Azania", two days' travel south of the Menouthias islands. The Periplus also states that the city and port were ruled by South Arabian vassals of the Himyarite kingdom, particularly a certain “ Mapharitic chieftain.”
Bagamoyo is a historic coastal town and capital of Bagamoyo District in the Pwani Region of Tanzania. Much of the settlement was founded at the end of the 18th century, though it is an extension of a much older Swahili settlement, Kaole. It was chosen as the capital of German East Africa by the German colonial administration and it became one of the most important trading ports for the Germans along the East African coast along the west of the Indian Ocean in the late 19th and early 20th century. Bagamoyo lies 75 kilometres north of Dar-es-Salaam on the coast of the Zanzibar Channel, across from the island of Zanzibar. The town hosts Bagamoyo Historic Town, that is a National Historic Site of Tanzania. In 2011, the town had 82,578 inhabitants.
Paranthropus boisei is a species of australopithecine from the Early Pleistocene of East Africa about 2.5 to 1.15 million years ago. The holotype specimen, OH 5, was discovered by palaeoanthropologist Mary Leakey in 1959 at Olduvai Gorge,Tanzania and described by her husband Louis a month later. It was originally placed into its own genus as "Zinjanthropus boisei", but is now relegated to Paranthropus along with other robust australopithecines. However, it is also argued that Paranthropus is an invalid grouping and synonymous with Australopithecus, so the species is also often classified as Australopithecus boisei.
Following Tanganyika's independence (1961) and unification with Zanzibar (1964), leading to the formation of the state of Tanzania, President Julius Nyerere emphasised a need to construct a national identity for the citizens of the new country. To achieve this, Nyerere provided what has been regarded by some commentators as one of the most successful cases of ethnic repression and identity transformation in Africa.
The Olduvai Gorge Museum is located in the Ngorongoro Conservation Area in Northern Tanzania on the edge of the Olduvai Gorge. The museum was founded by Mary Leakey and is now under the jurisdiction of the Tanzanian government's Department of Cultural Antiquities and is managed by the Ngorongoro Conservation Area Authority. It is a museum dedicated to the appreciation and understanding of the Olduvai Gorge and Laetoli fossil sites.
The Peninj Mandible(Peninj 1), also called Natron mandible, is the fossilized lower jaw and teeth of an australopithecine specimen, likely that of Australopithecus boisei or a similar population. It was discovered in West Lake Natron, in Ngorongoro District of Arusha Region of Tanzania by Kamoya Kimeu, Glynn Isaac, and Richard Leakey in 1964.
Muhimbili University of Health and Allied Sciences (MUHAS) ( Chuo Kikuu cha Afya na Sayansi Shirikishi Muhimbili, in Swahili) is a public university located in Upanga West, Ilala District of Dar es Salaam Region in Tanzania. It is accredited by the Tanzania Commission for Universities (TCU).
Kaole is a national historic site located in Bagamoyo District of Pwani Region in Tanzania. The site is located three miles east of the historic city of Bagamoyo on the Indian Ocean coast. The area contains old Swahili coral stone ruins dating to a period between the 13th century and the 16th century. Some of the ruins date back to the 13th century and consist of two mosques and 30 tombs.
The Ndutu skull is the partial cranium of a hominin that has been assigned variously to late Homo erectusHomo rhodesiensis, and early Homo sapiens, from the Middle Pleistocene, found at Lake Ndutu in northern Tanzania.
Adria Jean LaViolette is an American archaeologist at the University of Virginia. She is a specialist in Swahili archaeology and is the joint editor of The Swahili World.
Henrietta Wilfrida "Frida" Leakey, also known as H. Wilfrida Leakey, was a British teacher who discovered a gorge that was named FLK or "Frida Leakey Korongo". The gorge was the site of ancient stone tools and important human fossil discoveries. Leakey was the first wife of paleoanthropologist and archaeologist Louis Leakey. She became a leader in the Women's Institute and a County Councillor.
Agness Gidna is a Tanzanian paleontologist and a former Senior Curator of Paleontology at the National Museum of Tanzania. She is currently working with Ngorongoro Conservation Area as a Principal Cultural Heritage Officer. She is the first Tanzanian woman to hold a doctorate in Physical Anthropology and she is the first Tanzanian female research director at Olduvai Gorge, where she has been a co-principal investigator of the Olduvai Palaeoanthropology and Paleoecology Project (TOPPP) since 2017.
National Historic Sites of Tanzania is an official list of places in Tanzania that have been designated as National Historic Sites as per the Ministry of Natural Resources and Tourism of Tanzania under the Antiquities Division. The list is not complete and is currently being updated.
Peninj is a pre-historic site located in Pinyinyi ward of Ngorongoro District in Arusha Region, Tanzania. This the site where the Peninj Mandible was discovered in 1964.
Bagamoyo Historic Town or Bagamoyo Stone Town, is the historic section of Bagamoyo town in Bagamoyo District of Pwani Region. Due to its historic significance spanning centuries and empires, Old Bagamoyo is a National Historic Site of Tanzania. The settlement was first inhabited in the 8th century as a Zaramo village and then a Swahili stone settlement, satellite to Kaole. One of the most significant trading hubs on the coast of East Africa, Bagamoyo served as the last halt for ivory caravans making their way on foot from Lake Tanganyika to Zanzibar.
[...] the letter was written by the late Amini Mturi, Tanzanian archaeologist and then director of the National Museums of Tanzania.