Search

This paper explores the material culture of Khami, the precolonial capital of the Butua kingdom in southwestern Zimbabwe, with a view to understanding its chronology, as well as patterns of production and distribution based on the objects recovered from walled and non-walled areas of the site. The recovery of production debris in multiple contexts across the site suggests that household-based production was a feature of households across Khami. Material culture items recovered suggest that, alongside animal husbandry, pottery making, agriculture, metal working and ivory working were important components of its economy. The recovery of local and exotic objects points to Khami’s participation in both local and regional economies. New radiocarbon dates suggest that Khami was an important centre from the late fourteenth century onwards. This makes it a major political and economic power earlier than has been previously acknowledged.

When the Bamun arrived in the late sixteenth century in the Noun Division of the western part of Cameroon, many sedentary farming communities shared the lands between the Mbam and Noun Rivers. In order to control and preserve this territory, the Bamun used different strategies. This paper discusses how, using oral and historical sources, it has been possible to reconstruct the evolution of their concepts of acquisition and conservation of territory. This, in turn, allows a chronology to be established for the implementation of the structures resulting from these strategies. Archaeological surveys and targeted test-pitting have also located and studied this defensive architecture. This research has revealed the serious state of deterioration of such structures and raises the question of their preservation in order to enhance the material cultural heritage of this region of Cameroon.

From 1993 to 2003 archaeological investigations were conducted on Bieta Giyorgis hill to the northwest of Aksum by the joint project of the University of Naples ‘L'Orientale’ and Boston University. One of the results of this project was to establish a detailed archaeological sequence and chronology for the development of the ancient capital, based on the dating of finds and radiocarbon dates from well defined archaeological contexts. Five phases of development of Aksum have been identified: 1 Proto-Aksumite Phase, 360 BC (?) – 120/40 BC; 2 Aksumite 1 (Early Aksumite) Phase, 120/40 BC – AD 130/190; 3 Aksumite 2 (Classic Aksumite) Phase, AD 130/190–360/400; 4 Aksumite 3 (Middle Aksumite) Phase, AD 360/400–550/610; and 5 Aksumite 4 (Late Aksumite) Phase, AD 550/610–800/850. This paper presents the methodology and results of the chronological analysis at Bieta Giyorgis and a comparison with other chronological sequences previously suggested for Aksum.

Described by Sir Mortimer Wheeler as the ‘Pompeii of East Africa’, the settlement of Kua in the Mafia Archipelago of Tanzania has considerable archaeological potential. The site was surveyed and excavated in 2009 and 2010 as part of a larger project that aimed to explore the sociocultural context of maritime interactions in the archipelago. Prior to this, there is no record of the site ever having been systematically excavated. Consequently, dates for the occupation of the settlement have previously been determined entirely from historical sources and oral traditions. This paper reports the results of the radiometric dating of samples recovered from Kua during the excavations in 2009 and evaluates them in the light of historical, architectural and archaeological data in order to refine the chronology of the settlement. While the data presented have yet to conclusively date the settlement's foundation and abandonment, the radiocarbon dates suggest that its occupation sequence is likely to have been more co...

The Tilemsi Valley has long been heralded as a focal region in the development of West African cultural complexity. The Lower Tilemsi Valley Project began in 2005, with the aim of clarifying the archaeological significance of this region and refining its chronology. This paper examines the pottery from these excavations, advocating an integrative approach to analysis in which pottery production is located within an historical and socio-economic context. It does not present a reified ‘type’ of Lower Tilemsi pottery, but instead describes a regional-scale technological tradition, whilst focusing on the local scale of adaptive change and technical innovation.

Excavations at Sanje ya Kati have established that the site's chronology does not exceed three centuries, from AD 950 to 1250, while the town's apogee and most of its buildings date from between 1050 and 1150. Sanje ya Kati brings new data that permit a re-evaluation of Persian influence in Eastern Africa. Notwithstanding the critics, numerous historic and archaeological data show a Persian presence in East Africa. This paper argues that the narratives of Persian sailors, religious and architectural influences from the Gulf, and products exchanged, such as ceramics, document an obvious ‘Shirazi reality’. However, the term ‘Shirazi’ designates more than just the city of Shiraz or the port of Siraf in modern Iran; rather, it groups together different populations of the Persian Gulf who shared a common religious ideology in Shiite Islam and arrived in Africa between the tenth and twelfth centuries. While not contesting local processes of development or the African origin of Swahili sailors and tradesmen, rec...

Archaeological survey in the Wei wei Valley, West Pokot District, Kenya was undertaken between January 2006 and April 2007 with the aim of assessing the history and development of the indigenous, precolonial, irrigation system of the agricultural Pokot and its associated settlement pattern. Fifty-nine contemporary and thirteen abandoned irrigation furrows were mapped with GPS and oral data collected concerning their construction, management and history. Alongside this, thirteen transect surveys recording both contemporary and abandoned settlements were conducted to assess the history of the settlement pattern associated with the irrigation system. This was followed by a series of text excavations aimed at placing the settlement chronology on a more absolute footing. This paper presents the outline results of research into the irrigation system, including an assessment of its chronology of construction based on oral histories and absolute dates. Such research is imperative for better understanding...

This paper is a report on the methods and results of laboratory analysis of the petrography of pottery from Engaruka, Tanzania. The objective was to establish the source of the clay used for pottery, which in turn would help in future research into the origins of its tradition, the sequence of its chronology and the nature and extent of the regional trade in this area.

This paper was published as Azania: Archaeological Research in Africa, 1999, 34 (1), pp. 25-44. It is available from http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/content~db=all?content=10.1080/00672709909511470. Doi: 10.1080/00672709909511470

Dr. Roberts has been working on the oral history of the Bemba of Zambia. He is now Research Fellow in Oral History at the University College, Dar es Salaam. In this paper he examines crucial points bearing on the chronology of Zambian history, and puts in a plea for a similar re-examination of other supposed exact dates which are in circulation; a plea which we also would heartily support in respect of the early history of the coast as well as that of the interior.