Characterising marine mollusc exploitation in the eastern African Iron Age: Archaeomalacological evidence from Unguja Ukuu and Fukuchani, Zanzibar

Faulkner, Patrick; Harris, Matthew; Ali, Abdallah K.; Haji, Othman; Crowther, Alison; Horton, Mark; Boivin, Nicole

doi:10.1016/j.quaint.2017.08.051

Cited by 19 publications

(19 citation statements)

References 47 publications

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“…Shellfish remains are ubiquitous and abundant on archaeological and modern settlements throughout the region, suggesting their importance to local communities, yet their study has been extremely limited (Douglass ; Faulkner et al. ). From excavations in Velondriake, it is clear that ancient communities foraged a diverse range of shellfish species—remains of close to thirty different families are documented from sites ranging in date from 500 to 1900 CE (Douglass ).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Historical perspectives on contemporary human–environment dynamics in southeast Africa

Douglass

Walz

Morales

et al. 2019

Conservation Biology

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The human communities and ecosystems of island and coastal southeast Africa face significant and linked ecological threats. Socioecological conditions of concern to communities, governments, nongovernmental organizations, and researchers include declining agricultural productivity, deforestation, introductions of non-native flora and fauna, coastal erosion and sedimentation, damage to marine environments, illegal fishing, overfishing, waste pollution, salinization of freshwater supplies, and rising energy demands, among others. Human-environment challenges are connected to longer, often ignored, histories of social and ecological dynamics in the region. We argue that these challenges are more effectively understood and addressed within a longer-term historical ecology framework. We reviewed cases from Madagascar, coastal Kenya, and the Zanzibar Archipelago of fisheries, deforestation, and management of human waste to encourage increased engagement among historical ecologists, conservation scientists, and policy makers. These case studies demonstrate that by widening the types and time depths of data sets we used to investigate and address current socioecological challenges, our interpretations of their causes and strategies for their mitigation varied significantly.Perspectivas Históricas sobre las Dinámicas Contemporáneas entre Humanos y el Ambiente en el Sureste deÁfrica Resumen: Las comunidades humanas y los ecosistemas de las costas del sureste africano enfrentan amenazas ecológicas significativas y vinculadas. Las condiciones socio-ecológicas que preocupan a las comunidades, los gobiernos, las organizaciones no gubernamentales y a los investigadores incluyen la poductividad agrícola en declinación, la deforestación, la introducción de flora y fauna no nativa, la sedimentación y erosión costera, el daño hacia los ecosistemas marinos, la pesca ilegal, la sobrepesca, la contaminación por desechos, la salinización de las cuencas de agua dulce, y la creciente demanda de energía, entre otras. Los retos humanos -ecosistema están conectados con historias más largas, y frecuentemente ignoradas, de dinámicas sociales y ecológicas en la región. Argumentamos que estos retos se entienden y se tratan con mayor efectividad dentro de un marco de trabajo de ecología histórica con un periodo más largo. Revisamos casos de pesquerías, deforestación y manejo de desechos humanos en Madagascar, la costa de Kenia y el archipiélago de Zanzíbar para propiciar una mayor participación entre los ecologistas históricos, los científicos de la conservación, y los * email: kdouglass@psu.edu Article impact statement: Past human-environment dynamics are key to addressing today's threats to livelihoods and ecosystems in island and coastal southeast Africa. Douglass et al. 261legisladores. Estos estudios de caso demuestran que al ampliar los tipos y la temporalidad de los conjuntos de datos que usamos para investigar y tratar los retos socio-ecológicos contemporáneos, nuestras interpretaciones de las causas de estos retos y las estrategias para...

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Historical perspectives on contemporary human–environment dynamics in southeast Africa

Douglass

Walz

Morales

et al. 2019

Conservation Biology

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“…The Juani economic assemblage comprises 3279 MNI from 128 taxonomic categories. Here, we define economic taxa in an inclusive sense, using the term to encompass subsistence species and those used for medicine, trade, and/or decoration (Faulkner et al 2018a). With the need for more detailed archaeological and socio-ecological research across the region, further classification of the molluskan assemblages into dietary, medicinal, ornamental categories, etc., would be speculative.…”

Section: Archaeomalacological Data Collectionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This does not fully explain the combination of trends in density, richness, diversity, and taxonomic composition through time. A further explanation for these trends relates to changes in foraging behavior linked to the exploitation of near vs. distant habitats through time, associated with field processing and transportation of resources (e.g., Bettinger et al 1997;Bird et al 2002;Giovas 2016), with these possibilities also raised in recent analyses of molluskan assemblages from Zanzibar (Faulkner et al 2018a(Faulkner et al , 2018b. Although further regional archaeological data are required to evaluate this suggestion, these data reinforce the interpretation of the molluskan assemblage differences between the EIA and MIA-LIA presented in our earlier study (Crowther et al 2016), while also demonstrating that variability in the observable trends in density, richness, and diversity continued into the LIA-Post LIA.…”

Section: Shell Density Assemblage Richness and Diversitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Towards a Historical Ecology of Intertidal Foraging in the Mafia Archipelago: Archaeomalacology and Implications for Marine Resource Management

Faulkner

Harris

Haji

et al. 2019

Journal of Ethnobiology

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archaeological inquiry, particularly when embedded within historical ecology and/or applied zooarchaeology. Historical ecology is an interdisciplinary approach combining long-term historical perspectives with ecology to understand ecosystem evolution, natural and anthropogenic environmental modifications, and human-environmental interactions (Balée and Erickson 2006; Crumley 1994). As such, historical ecology is particularly effective for framing research agendas focused on the types of issues noted above in a range of terrestrial and aquatic environments (Boivin et al. 2016; Braje and Rick 2013; Fitzpatrick and Keegan 2007).

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“…Assessing the way in which the MIA-LIA assemblage recovered from Kuumbi Cave connects more broadly to the socio-economic structures of this late Holocene period (for details see Crowther et al 2017;Fleisher et al 2015), particularly following a significant hiatus period from the terminal Pleistocene, is potentially more complex. This is particularly the case prior to the development of the denser urban settlements of the LIA, where the zooarchaeological data from several MIA sites (notable Unguja Ukuu and Fukuchani on the west and northwest coast of Zanzibar) indicates a mixed economy of fishing, hunting/trapping and foraging as important components alongside herding and farming (Faulkner et al 2018;Prendergast et al 2017:635). The emerging pattern of Swahili subsistence economies on the coast is one of diversity, incorporating a significant degree of hunting and foraging alongside food production (e.g.…”

Section: Summary and Implicationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The emerging pattern of Swahili subsistence economies on the coast is one of diversity, incorporating a significant degree of hunting and foraging alongside food production (e.g. Crowther et al 2017;Faulkner et al 2018;Prendergast et al 2017;Quintana Morales and Horton 2014).…”

Section: Summary and Implicationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Long-term Trends in Terrestrial and Marine Invertebrate Exploitation on the Eastern African Coast: Insights from Kuumbi Cave, Zanzibar

Faulkner

Harris

Haji

et al. 2018

The Journal of Island and Coastal Archaeology

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The nature and trajectory of coastal and maritime adaptations, and the complex ways foraging economies have been structured to include both marine and terrestrial resources, are becoming key topics of interest in African archaeological research. There is, therefore, an increasing need to understand the longer-term context for more recent shifts in coastal economies, and for greater attention to be paid to the role of a broader spectrum of resources. This is particularly the case for terrestrial and marine molluscs, which have been somewhat overlooked in discussions centred on past 2 economies in the region. The relative importance of these comparatively small-bodied faunal resources requires evaluation, particularly given their ubiquity within the archaeological record, and their potentially important contribution to dietary and economic practices. Kuumbi Cave, located in the southeast of Zanzibar (Unguja) Island, provides the ideal opportunity to investigate long-term trends in invertebrate use on the eastern African coast and islands. Here we discuss not only the trajectory of coastal resource exploitation and coastal economic adaptations in the region from the late Pleistocene, but also the significance of Kuumbi Cave as one of the few sites in eastern Africa that represents significant levels of exploitation of large terrestrial gastropods.

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Characterising marine mollusc exploitation in the eastern African Iron Age: Archaeomalacological evidence from Unguja Ukuu and Fukuchani, Zanzibar

Cited by 19 publications

References 47 publications

Historical perspectives on contemporary human–environment dynamics in southeast Africa

Historical perspectives on contemporary human–environment dynamics in southeast Africa

Towards a Historical Ecology of Intertidal Foraging in the Mafia Archipelago: Archaeomalacology and Implications for Marine Resource Management

Long-term Trends in Terrestrial and Marine Invertebrate Exploitation on the Eastern African Coast: Insights from Kuumbi Cave, Zanzibar

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