A Review of Swahili Archaeology

The Swahili people have been viewed as of Persian/Arabic or Cushitic-speaking origin. Scholars have used historical and archaeological data to support this hypothesis. However, linguistic and recent archaeological data suggest that the Swahili culture had its origin in the early first centuries AD. It was the early farming people who settled on the coast in the last centuries BC who first adopted iron technology and sailing techniques and founded the coastal settlements. The culture of the iron-using people spread to the rest of the coast of East Africa, its center changing from one place to another. Involvement in transoceanic trade from the early centuries AD contributed to the prosperity of the coastal communities as evidenced by coastal monuments. More than 1500 years of cultural continuity was offset by the arrival of European and Arab colonizers in the seventeenth and nineteenth centuries AD. Le peuple Swahili a souvent été consideré comme un peuple dont la langue avait pour origine le Perse/Arabe ou le Cushite. Les chercheurs ont utilisé des donées historiques et archéologiques afin de supporter cette hypothese. Cependant l'étude linguistique de cette langue, ainsi que de nouvelles découvertes archéologiques suggérent que la culture Swahili trouve son origine au début de l'ère chrétienne. Ils furent les premiers fermiers à s'installer le long du littoral, fondant des villages côtiers, vers les premiers siécles de notre ère, les premiers aussi à adopter les techniques du fer et les techniques de navigation. La culture du fer s'étendit rapidement au reste des côtes d'Afrique de l'Est, son centre se déplaçant d'un endroit à un autre. Leur implication dans le commerce océanique contrbua à la prosperité de leur communautés côtières, mise en évidence notamment par les monuments le long du littoral. Plus de 1500 ans de continuité culturelle pris fin à l'arrivé des colonisateurs Européens et Arabes de dixseptième et dixhuitième siècles.     

Ores, Furnaces, Slags, and Prehistoric Societies: Aspects of Iron Working in the Nyanga Agricultural Complex, AD 1300–1900

The Nyanga agricultural complex through its cultivation terraces and ridges represents one of the most intensified agricultural systems in southern African prehistory. In such a well developed system of land management and use, iron tools played a crucial role in clearing the land for cultivation as well as for domestic building purposes. Important to this dimension is the need to understand iron production and use in prehistoric societies. This paper aims for the first time to look at iron technology in the Nyanga agricultural complex through an initial analysis of iron extraction remains such as ore, slag, and furnace fragments. As a result, the technical data obtained will be used to develop hypotheses which future research can engage. This paper is a preliminary statement toward developing an understanding of iron production to meet various purposes from the deeper past to the historical period.Le complexe agricole Nyanga avec ses terrasses et collines cultivées représente un des systèmes agricoles les plus intensifs de la préhistoire de l'Afrique du sud. Dans ce système d'organisation et d'exploitation bien développé les outils en fer jouent un rôle important dans la cultivation du sol et la construction des bâtiments. Il est nécessaire de bien connaître les méthodes de production et d'utilisation du fer dans les sociétés préhistoriques. Cet article traite pour la première fois de la technologie du fer dans le complexe agricole Nyanga en présentant des analyses préliminaires des restes de l'exploitation du fer tels les minerais, les scories et les fragments de fourneaux. Les résultats de l'étude de ces techniques vont servir à développer des hypothèses qui aideront à faire avancer les recherches futures. Cet article représente un essai préliminaire pour développer nos connaisaences sur la production du fer destiné à de multiples usages depuis les temps les plus reculés jusqu à la période préhistorique.     

Metal Ties in Genoa,Italy: Manufacture,Trade, and Use from the 15th to the 18th Century

The article deals with the use of metal ties in an ancient and stratified urban context, the city of Genoa, starting from the notarial documents preserved in its State Archives. The work has different objectives: to show the results that can be obtained, on an urban scale, thanks to a research path that compares indirect sources of different types with the observation of historical buildings; to highlight the “weight” and the role that the ties, often hidden, had in buildings, and not only the monumental ones; to increase knowledge of the production process of this constructive element. The wide and diversified use of metal ties found in Genoa seems to proceed in parallel, in the 15th century, with the development of a flourishing productive and mercantile business based on the commercial monopoly of the hematite of the island of Elba by the city oligarchy and, between the 16th and 17th centuries, with the huge investments in the construction sector highlighted by the abundant documentary sources.     

Patching up evidence for ironworking in the horn

Archaeological research on ironworking in the Horn of Africa is meager and patchy. This paper offers hypotheses for the origins of ironworking in the region. Two conventional schools of thought are analyzed. The first school favors an external origin and the second advocates local invention. The two viewpoints are critically examined and their weaknesses exposed. A third alternative, which, in principle, combines the two, is provided in their place. This looks at the history of the Horn in a broad spatial and integrating perspective. It attempts to show that the current physical barriers such as the Red Sea, the Nile Valley, and the cataracts of the Nile River have not always been as impenetrable as we tend to think. There is evidence that sometimes in the past, people from the opposite sides of these “barriers” shared language, commerce, religion, and politics. The paper also discusses the impact of ironworking in the region and the technological influence of the Horn on sub-Saharan Africa. Finally, the paper offers some suggestions for future directions toward a more comprehensive understanding of Iron Age culture and the socioeconomic history of the region.