Excavations at the Site of Early Mombasa

Sassoon, Hamo

doi:10.1080/00672708009511275

Cited by 54 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 6 publications

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“…Archaeological evidence for the early settlement in Mombasa (MA 1.6) depends largely on the work of Hamo Sassoon in the mid-1970s, which Richard Wilding had begun to build on prior to his untimely death in 1996. Large concentrations of pottery had been noted by Sassoon on the beach along the shore to the northwest of the old Nyali Bridge in 1974, and an opportunity for a brief investigation on land near the findspot arose in advance of a proposed extension to the Coast Province General Hospital in 1976 (Sassoon, 1980). The remains of a settlement, likely to have been occupied in the period between c. 1000 and c. 1200 AD, were uncovered in the lower levels of the site, showing no traces of any stone building.…”

Section: Early Settlement Of Mombasamentioning

confidence: 98%

Mombasa Island: A Maritime Perspective

McConkey¹,

McErlean²

2007

Int J Histor Archaeol

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Mombasa's strategic position on the Swahili Coast and fine harbours were key factors in its emergence as a prosperous city state during the early second millennium AD. These same attributes drew the attention of rival powers in the struggle to control the lucrative Indian Ocean trade network, particularly during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Drawing from a rich legacy of cartographic and documentary sources created in the course of Mombasa's turbulent history, this paper presents the results of a coastal archaeological survey undertaken in 2001 as part of a wider collaborative maritime project.

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Section: Early Settlement Of Mombasamentioning

confidence: 98%

Mombasa Island: A Maritime Perspective

McConkey¹,

McErlean²

2007

Int J Histor Archaeol

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“…In J a n~q 2001, a team of researchers from the University of Ulster (Northern Ireland) conducted an innovative maritime archaeology project on the East African coast in partnership with the British Institute in Eastern Africa and the National Museums of Kenya. Its focus was Mombasa Island on the southern Kenyan coast, a historical settlement and port for nearly 2000 years (Berg 1968;Sassoon 1980;1982). The East African seaboard, stretching from Somalia in the north to Madagascar and Mozambique in the south, was culturally dynamic throughout the historical period.…”

Section: Colin Breen Wes Forsythe Paul Lane Tom Mcerlean Rosemarymentioning

confidence: 99%

Ulster and the Indian Ocean? Recent maritime archaeological research on the East African coast

et al. 2001

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In January 2001, a team of researchers from the University of Ulster (Northern Ireland) conducted an innovative maritime archaeology project on the East African coast in partnership with the British Institute in Eastern Africa and the National Museums of Kenya. Its focus was Mombasa Island on the southern Kenyan coast, a historical settlement and port for nearly 2000 years (Berg 1968; Sassoon 1980; 1982). The East African seaboard, stretching from Somalia in the north to Madagascar and Mozambique in the south, was culturally dynamic throughout the historical period. This area, traditionally known as the Swahili coast, is culturally defined as a maritime zone extending 2000 km from north to south, but reaching a mere 15 hi inland. The origins of ‘Swahili’ cultural identity originated during the middle of the 1st millennium AD, following consolidation of earlier farming and metalusing Bantu-speaking communities along the coast and emergence of a distinctive ‘maritime’ orientation and set of cultural traditions (eg Allen 1993; Chami 1998; Helm 2000; Horton & Middelton 2000). Previous research produced evidence of exploitation of marine resources for food and an early engagement in longdistance exchange networks, linking parts ofthis coast with the Classical world by at least the BC/AD transition.

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“…131 Rescue excavations carried out before the construction of a new hospital have provided our first archaeological evidence of the town of early Mombasa. 132 Five dates from the lower levels fall between the early tenth and late eleventh centuries a.d. These dates are regarded as a little too early by Sassoon who, on ceramic evidence, would date these deposits to between A.D. IOOO and A.D. 1200.…”

Section: The East African Coastmentioning

confidence: 99%

Archaeology in Eastern Africa: Recent Developments and More Dates

Robertshaw

1984

J. Afr. Hist.

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Obsidian hydration dating has been successfully applied to East African archaeological sites. Chemical sourcing of obsidian artefacts has documented long-distance movement of obsidian from the Central Rift valley. A date in the ninth or eighth century b.c. has been obtained for iron objects in the Er Renk District of the Southern Sudan. Tentative culture-historical sequences are available from excavations around the Sudd and in the Lake Besaka region of Ethiopia. Archaeological research has begun in the interior of Somalia. In northern Kenya, claims that Namoratunga II is an archaeo-astronomical site have been challenged. Excavations at Mumba-Höhle and Nasera have shed new light on the transition from the Middle to Later Stone Age in northern Tanzania perhaps 20,000 to 30,000 years ago. Knowledge of the Elmenteitan Tradition has been considerably advanced by excavations in south-western Kenya. Iron-smelting furnaces with finger-decorated bricks have been discovered in south-eastern Kenya, though not yet dated. New dates falling in the last few centuries have caused first millennium a.d. dates obtained previously for Engaruka to be rejected. Excavations at several sites on the East African coast indicate that the beginnings of coastal occupation from the Lamu archipelago to Mozambique fall in the ninth century a.d. In Malawi the Shire Highlands seem to have been settled around the tenth century a.d. Investigations of large smelting-furnaces in central Malawi indicate that they were used as concentrators of poor-quality iron ore. Excavations in rock-shelters on the southern edge of the Copperbelt have produced a culture-historical sequence spanning the last 18,000 years. The western stream of the Early Iron Age was established in the Upper Zambezi valley by about the mid fifth century a.d.

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Excavations at the Site of Early Mombasa

Cited by 54 publications

References 6 publications

Mombasa Island: A Maritime Perspective

Mombasa Island: A Maritime Perspective

Ulster and the Indian Ocean? Recent maritime archaeological research on the East African coast

Archaeology in Eastern Africa: Recent Developments and More Dates

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