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Creating urban communities at Kilwa Kisiwani, Tanzania, AD 800-1300

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2015

Stephanie Wynne-Jones
Stephanie Wynne-Jones*
Affiliation:
British Institute in Eastern Africa, Kenya (Email: stephanie.wynne-jones@biea.ac.uk)
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Extract

Urban communities on the medieval East African coast have been previously discussed in terms of ethnicity and migration. Here assemblages from coastal towns and from surface survey in the interior are used to paint a different picture of urban (Swahili) origins. The author shows that coast and interior shared a common culture, but that coastal sites grew into ‘stonetowns’ thanks to the social impact of imports: the material culture structured the society.

Keywords

East AfricaTanzaniaKilwaceramicsmedievalurbanism
Type
Research
Information
Antiquity , Volume 81 , Issue 312 , 1 June 2007 , pp. 368 - 380
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd. 2007

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