The ruins of Gedi are a historical and archaeological site near the Indian Ocean coast of eastern Kenya. It was declared a World Heritage Site on the 29th of July 2024. The site is adjacent to the town of Gedi in the Kilifi District and within the Arabuko-Sokoke Forest.
Swahili architecture is a term used to designate a whole range of diverse building traditions practiced or once practiced along the eastern and southeastern coasts of Africa. Rather than simple derivatives of Islamic architecture from the Arabic world, Swahili stone architecture is a distinct local product as a result of evolving social and religious traditions, environmental changes, and urban development.
The Urewe culture developed and spread in and around the Lake Victoria region of Africa during the African Iron Age. The culture's earliest dated artefacts are located in the Kagera Region of Tanzania, and it extended as far west as the Kivu region of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, as far east as the Nyanza and Western provinces of Kenya, and north into Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi. Sites from the Urewe culture date from the Early Iron Age, from the 5th century BC to the 6th century AD. The Urewe people certainly did not disappear, and the continuity of institutional life was never completely broken. One of the most striking things about the Early Iron Age pots and smelting furnaces is that some of them were discovered at sites that the local people still associate with royalty, and still more significant is the continuity of language.
Unguja Ukuu is a historic Swahili settlement on Unguja island, in Zanzibar, Tanzania.
Bara Culture was a culture that emerged in the eastern region of the Indus Valley civilization around 2000 BCE. It developed in the doab between the Yamuna and Sutlej rivers, hemmed on its eastern periphery by the Shivalik ranges of the lower Himalayas. This territory corresponds to modern-day Punjab, Haryana and Western Uttar Pradesh in North India. Older publications regard the Baran pottery to have initially developed independently of the Harappan culture branch of the Indus Valley Civilization from a pre-Harappan tradition, although the two cultures later intermingled in locations such as Kotla Nihang Khan and Bara, Punjab. According to Akinori Uesugi and Vivek Dangi, Bara pottery is a stylistic development of Late Harappan pottery. In the conventional timeline demarcations of the Indus Valley Tradition, the Bara culture is usually placed in the Late Harappan period.
The basic chronology of the early town of Manda Island in the Lamu Archipelago of Kenya is divided into 6 different periods, based mostly on the types of imported pottery that has been found in different strata of the excavations. The first period, I, begins in the mid ninth century and is subdivided into four parts, a, b, c, and d, ending in the early eleventh century. Period II has two parts, A and B, though the divide between the two is rather vague and could be entirely arbitrary, and dates from the mid eleventh to the late twelfth for the former, and late twelfth to late thirteenth century for the latter. Period III runs from the late thirteenth century to the fourteenth when Period IV picks up and ends in the early Sixteenth. Period V covers the mid Sixteenth and all of the seventeenth, and the final period covers everything after the Seventeenth century.
Kansyore pottery is a type of ancient East African pottery.
Njoro River Cave is an archaeological site on the Mau Escarpment, Kenya, that was first excavated in 1938 by Mary Leakey and her husband Louis Leakey. Excavations revealed a mass cremation site created by Elmenteitan pastoralists during the Pastoral Neolithic roughly 3350-3050 BP. Excavations also uncovered pottery, beads, stone bowls, basket work, pestles and flakes. The Leakeys' excavation was one of the earliest to uncover ancient beads and tools in the area and a later investigation in 1950 was the first to use radiocarbon dating in East Africa.
People first began to be interested in Malawi's prehistoric past in the 1920s. Excavations of sites in nearby countries, Tanzania and Zambia, made archaeologists believe that they may find the same type of material culture in Malawi. In the 1920s, a series of lacustrine deposits was found at the northwest end of Lake Malawi. These beds contained fragmentary fossils and were mapped by Dr. F. Dixey. These findings sparked an interest to excavate more locations in Malawi.
Pemba Island is a large coral island off the coast of Tanzania. Inhabited by Bantu settlers from the Tanga coast since 600 AD, the island has a rich trading, agricultural, and religious history that has contributed to the studies of the Swahili Coast trade throughout the Indian Ocean.
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.
Stephanie Wynne-Jones is an Africanist archaeologist, whose research focuses on East African material culture, society and urbanism. She is Professor and Deputy Head of the Department of Archaeology at the University of York. She previously worked as assistant director of the British Institute in Eastern Africa (2005-2008) and remains a Trustee and Member of the BIEA Governing Council. In 2016, Wynne-Jones was elected to Fellowship of the Society of Antiquaries of London. Wynne-Jones is one of the Core Group at the Danish National Research Foundation Centre of Excellence in Urban Network Evolutions (Urbnet), Aarhus University. Between 2015 and 2017 she was a Pro Futura Scientia Fellow at the Swedish Collegium for Advanced Study, Uppsala.
Kuumbi Cave is an archaeological site located in Kusini District, Unguja South Region of Tanzania. It has been important in determining patterns of human occupation since its formation over 20,000 years ago. Unusual lithic and ceramic finds dated within the last 2,000 years make Kuumbi Cave a unique site. Its name in Swahili, Pango la Kuumbi, translates to "Cave of Creation".
Freda Nkirote M’Mbogori is a Kenyan archaeologist, who is Director of the British Institute in Eastern Africa (BIEA) and President of the Pan-African Archaeological Association.
Tumbe is an early Medieval Swahili historic site next to the village of Tumbe located in Micheweni District of Pemba North Region. Between 600 and 1000 AD, the city of Tumbe served as the island's primary location. There is sufficient evidence that this city served as a major commerce hub for the Indian Ocean. Smaller sites from the eighth to tenth centuries AD were grouped together around the major metropolis.
Kunduchi is a Medieval Swahili National Historic Site located in Kunduchi ward, located in Kinondoni District of Dar es Salaam Region in Tanzania. There is an excavated 15th-century mosque on the site. An 18th-century cemetery with the biggest collection of pillared tombs in East Africa, situated in a baobab woodland, and embellished with Ming era's porcelain plates. The pottery discovered here demonstrates the medieval town's affluence and trading connections with imperial China.
Bosumpra Cave is an archaeological site situated on the Kwahu plateau, which forms part of the easternmost section of the Ashanti uplands. The plateau and uplands lie just north of the Akan lowlands, and run diagonally across south-central Ghana for c. 200 km from near the western border with Ivory Coast to the edge of the Volta basin. The site is actually a rock shelter, which is roughly 240 m² in extent and situated at an elevation of approximately 613 m above sea-level, northeast of the modern town of Abetifi. In the shelter itself, the floor is lowest in the center and slopes upwards towards the northern and southern edges. The rock shelter is also situated in the Bono East region of Ghana, which is archaeologically important because of the large distribution of prehistoric Kintampo-sites here.
Dembeni is an archeological site in the Dembeni commune on the island of on Grande-Terre, Mayotte, dating from the 9th–12th centuries. Discovered by archeologists in 1975, the site represents a settlement heavily involved in the Indian Ocean trade network. Through analysis of pottery, architectural and cultural evidence, it has been determined that two distinct occupations periods occurred over its history, one dated to the 9th–10th centuries and the second to the 11th–12th centuries. A variety of ceramic artifacts from across the Indian Ocean world have been recovered from the site, indicating the settlement's participation in long-distance trade networks. Additionally, the presence of rock crystal fragments may indicate heavy participation in the Middle Eastern rock crystal trade of the 11th–12th centuries.
Mbuamaji or sometimes spelled Mbwamaji is a Medieval Swahili, National Historic Site located in Somangila ward of Kigamboni District in Dar es Salaam Region of Tanzania. Despite years of neglect that resulted in vandalism, the Tanzanian government is aiming to start restoration efforts as soon as possible.
Koma Island also known as Charka Island is an island located in Kisiju ward of Mkuranga District in southern Pwani Region of Tanzania. The only historical source to mention this island is by Arab navigator Ibn Majid in 1470. In 1996, Felix Chami discovered a small Early Iron Age (EIA) or Early Iron Working (EIW) site on Koma island. The TIW pottery sherds, however, were absent in the island site, indicating that it was eventually abandoned. The Bantu settlement existed from the third to the sixth centuries.
