Swahili World

Adria LaViolette is Associate Professor of Anthropology and Archaeology at the University of Virginia. Her interest in the Swahili coast began in 1987 while teaching at the University of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. Since then she has conducted archaeological research on the Tanzanian mainland coast and on Pemba and Zanzibar islands. She has been Editor-in-Chief of African Archaeological Review since 2009.Stephanie Wynne-Jones is currently Pro Futura Scientia Fellow at the Swedish Collegium for Advanced Study, affiliated with Uppsala University. She has been Lecturer in Archaeology at the University of York since 2011 and is a core group member of the Centre for Network Evolutions at Aarhus University (DNRF119). She has conducted archaeological research on the Swahili coast since 2000, in Kenya, Tanzania, and on the Zanzibar archipelago.

• List of FiguresList of TablesMapsPrefaceNote on TerminologyContributors1. The Swahili worldSection I: Environment, background, and Swahili historiography2. The eastern African coastal landscape3. Resources of the ocean fringe and the archaeology of the medieval Swahili4. The eastern African coast: researching its history and archaeology5. Defining the Swahili6. Decoding Swahili genetic ancestry7. Early connections8. The Swahili language and its early history9. Swahili origins10. Swahili oral traditions and chronicles11. Manda12. Tumbe, Kimimba and Bandari Kuu13. Unguja Ukuu14. Chibuene15. Urbanism16. Town and village17. Mambrui and Malindi18. Shanga19. Gede20. Mtwapa21. Pemba22. Zanzibar23. Mafia24. Kilwa Kisiwani and Songo Mnara25. Mikindani and the southern coast26. The Comoros and their early history27. The Comoros 1000 - 1350 CE28. Mahilaka29. The social composition of Swahili society30. Metalworking on Swahili sites31. Craft and industry32. Animals in the Swahili world33. Plant use and the creation of anthropogenic landscapes: coastal forestry and farming34. The progressive integration of eastern Africa into an Afro-Eurasian world-system, first-fifteenth centuries CE35. Eastern Africa and the dhow trade36. Early inland entanglement in the Swahili world, c. 750-1550 CE37. Mosaics and interconnectivity38. Links with India39.Links with China40. Currencies of the Swahili world41. Glass beads and Indian Ocean trade42. Quantitative evidence for early long-distance exchange in eastern Africa: the consumption volume of ceramic imports43. Islamic architecture of the Swahili coast44. Swahili houses45. Navigating the early modern world: Swahili polities and the continental-oceanic interface46. Zanzibar old town47. The Kilwa – Nyasa caravan route: the long-neglected trading corridor in southern Tanzania48. Islam in the Swahili world: Connected authorities49. The legacy of slavery on the Swahili coast50. Life in Swahili villages51. The modern life of Swahili stonetowns52. Identity and belonging on the contemporary Swahili coast: the case of Lamu53. Pate54. Mombasa55. The Swahili house: a historical ethnography of modernity56. The future of Swahili monuments

“This edited volume provides a compilation of research carried out on the Swahili coast and its archaeological sites” Stéphane Pradines, Aga Khan Centre, UK, Antiquity Publications"This book is a great resource for those working along the Swahili coast and interior areas with similar archaeological deposits. Indeed, I finished reading the book with a better understanding of the history, archaeology, linguistics, and anthropology of the Swahili coast. From these perspectives, the authors have explored the Swahili coast’s history from what they consider to be the earliest settlements to the remains of complex monumental structures found there today. This unique wealth of the detail on past of the Swahili coast is the true strength of the book that Wynne-jones and LaViolette produced for us."Elgidius B. Ichumbaki, African Archeological Review