Early ports in the Horn of Africa

Chittick, Neville

doi:10.1111/j.1095-9270.1979.tb01131.x

Cited by 21 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 1 publication

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“…The study of these items (Stern 1987;Desanges et al 1993;Pradines 1999) placed them in the first century AD. In 1975, the site was visited by the archaeologist Neville Chittick, who found Roman materials from the second to the fifth century AD and evidence of trade with Nubia and Persia (Chittick 1979(Chittick , 1992. The site was soon identified with one of the coastal trading posts named in the Periplus of the Erythrean Sea, an anonymous Greek text of the first century BC which describes meeting points for trade along the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean.…”

Section: The Cairnfield Of Xiismentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Schoff 1912, 25). This description, along with firmly dated archaeological materials, has made Xiis a recurrent site in the analysis of trade networks in antiquity (Chittick 1979;Horton 1996;Seland 2014). However, aside from the comprehensive study of Revoil's materials, there has been a near-absolute lack of information about the characteristics of the site; it was described simply as a huge cairnfield with no photographs or plans of the site ever published.…”

Section: The Cairnfield Of Xiismentioning

confidence: 99%

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Guiding Sky

Gómez

González-García

Rodríguez

2022

JSA

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This paper presents an astronomical study of a sample of ancient cairns, stelae and burials at the cairnfield of Xiis (Heis) in Somaliland, a historic centre of long-distance trade between different cultures. The analyses reveal a set of significant orientations that the paper relates to the seasonal movements of the region’s nomads, which are believed to have remained unchanged for millennia. The structures, which date from the first to the third century AD, are also contextualised within the broader astronomical traditions of the Somali and other Cushitic peoples, many aspects of which predate the arrival of Islam to the Horn of Africa and constitute some of the most distinctive and complex aspects of Somali culture.

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Section: The Cairnfield Of Xiismentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: The Cairnfield Of Xiismentioning

confidence: 99%

Guiding Sky

Gómez

González-García

Rodríguez

2022

JSA

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“…For political and security reasons, the coast of Somalia has been effectively closed to archaeologists since the start of the civil war in 1991 (Mire 2011). The British Institute in East Africa conducted some exploratory work before that (Chittick 1969(Chittick , 1976(Chittick , 1979, and Chittick directed excavations at the site of Ras Hafun, south of Cape Guardafui in 1976 (Smith and Wright 1988). Published results emphasize evidence of contacts with the Mediterranean world, but Mesopotamian and Indian ceramics also were recorded (Tomber 2008, pp.…”

Section: East Africamentioning

confidence: 99%

Archaeology of Trade in the Western Indian Ocean, 300 BC–AD 700

Seland

2014

J Archaeol Res

103

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In the millennium after 300 BC, the western Indian Ocean emerged as a main hub of Old World exchange. Study of this commerce long depended on separate regional archaeologies and a handful of literary sources with Western/Roman bias. A recent surge in scholarly interest has led to a vast increase in data that has fostered a more balanced understanding of the commercial, human, and material aspects of ancient Indian Ocean trade. This review summarizes recent research on the topic and assesses its significance to wider scholarly debates on scale, organization, connectivity, agency, and social cohesion in ancient trade and exchange.

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“…So far, evidence of pre‐Islamic occupation is limited to rock art, megaliths, platforms and dry‐stone cairns (Bouakaze‐Khan, 2002; Brandt, 1988; Brandt & Brook, 1984; Brandt & Carder, 1987; Chittick, 1976; Cros et al, 2006, 2017; De Torres Rodriguez et al, 2019; Desanges et al, 1993; Gutherz et al, 2003; Lewis, 1958; 1961; Mire, 2008, 2015). Neither the coastal sites of Heïs (the alleged ancient port of Mundu) (De Torres Rodriguez et al, 2019; Desanges, 1992; Desanges et al, 1993), nor Olog and Damo (the ancient Aromata Emporion) (Révoil, 1882: 40–41, 294; Chittick, 1976: 124, 1979: 275), nor even the site of Hafun‐Main (the ancient port of Opone) have yielded any significant structures apart from burials. A built temple is therefore an exceptional structure, and the probability of finding two distinct, well‐built temples at a very short distance from each other is very low.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sabaeans on the Somali coast

Prioletta

Robin

Schiettecatte

et al. 2021

Arab Archaeol Epigr

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In 2019, the illegal excavation of an ancient sanctuary on the Somali coast yielded monumental Sabaic inscriptions from approximately the eighth-seventh centuries BCE. The inscriptions, similar in content and script, have shed light on their authors' origin (Sabaeans presumably from Maʾrib in Yemen), on the location's cultic nature, and more broadly on Sabaean endeavours to establish an ambitious trade network in the first half of the first millennium BCE for the supply of aromatic resins from across the Horn of Africa in order to convey them to the Near East and Mesopotamia.These inscriptions also highlight mastery of navigation techniques in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden as early as the period of the Sabaean mukarribs. K E Y W O R D S Puntland (Somalia), Ancient South Arabian epigraphy, Sabaic inscriptions, eighth-seventh centuries BCE, religious practices, seafaring Capital-city (ancient name / modern name)

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Early ports in the Horn of Africa

Cited by 21 publications

References 1 publication

Guiding Sky

Guiding Sky

Archaeology of Trade in the Western Indian Ocean, 300 BC–AD 700

Sabaeans on the Somali coast

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