392:." The various local pottery sherds discovered in Shanga range in differing styles. The distinct styles of pottery promote the idea of a sequence of transition in which one can trace the shifting forms of pottery-making and decorating. Horton divides this pottery sequence into four phases: A. early Tana tradition, B. mature Tana tradition, C. late Tana tradition, and D. final Tana tradition. Phase A is characterized by the distinct incised lines and punctures that decorate the surface. Phase B is known for its thinner sherds as well as the use of wavy lines for decoration. Phase C pottery is redder in color yet has what Horton describes as "a limited decoration style that only extends a short distance." Phase D is reminiscent to Phase C; however, there are a lot more red sherds and the decoration is very basic at best.
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sands. The tombs are mainly found grouped together in one of the three following main areas including: the external cemetery, the Friday Mosque, and in the outskirts of the stone town. The greatest concentration of tombs can be found in the external cemetery. The stone tombs are made up of the same materials used to build the stone houses. The tombs contain both coral rag and lime. Several of these stone tombs include inscriptions written in Arabic. Each stone tomb is unique in its way and comes in a wide range of styles which are classified as 'types.' The types of stone tombs found at Shanga include: rubble, rectangular platform, headstone with platform, enclosure with headstone, platform with head insets, small enclosure, large enclosure, complex, and pillar.
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windows at one point. The Friday mosque also has remnants of a minbar, whose dimensions are roughly around 3.3 x 1.1 m. Outside of the mosque there are courtyards on both East and West ends. The
Western courtyard was different from the Eastern courtyard due to the fact that it contained a well. It is believed that the Western courtyard was used as a washing area. Horton also mentions that near the well there is a large triangular space that once served as two rooms. The purpose of these rooms is still unknown.
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ranging from 2.5 m to 3.5 m. The floors inside the houses were made of a lime plaster over coral. The doorways came in two styles: flat-topped or pointed. All of the houses were built with wall niches instead of windows. There are also peg holes found in various rooms in each stone house. Horton speculates that the purpose of these peg holes might have been to "support or display cloth hung on the walls."
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Shanga's development and patterns of occupation. Results from the test pits indicate that there was a concentration of occupation towards the center of the site in between two dune ranges. It is believed that the center of occupation was determined by the availability of water resources. The community that occupied Shanga in the past settled in the areas that showed promising water supply.
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Shanga held with the
Islamic world despite the fact that the coins themselves were never used in any other known Islamic community outside of Shanga. Horton mentions that most of the coins are made of silver rather than bronze. The coins found in Shanga have different dates that can range anywhere from 800 to 1100. The coins themselves support the idea of commerce in Shanga.
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undergo a series of reconstructions in the next 200 years which eventually led to the construction of the Friday Mosque. The earliest radiocarbon date extracted from the mosque belongs to a burnt tree stump, which dates back to 703-848 cal AD. The latest radiocarbon date ranges from 1002 to 1106 AD, and it was obtained from a carbon layer below the floor of the mosque.
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Captain
Chauncey Stigand who noticed Shanga's ruins on Pate Island. Stigand, however never made an attempt to look more into them. The first archaeological study in Shanga would not take place until the 1950s with the arrival of Dr. James Kirkman. According to Horton, the Washanga (people of Shanga) still remain, although they now live in
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According to Helen Brown, a total of 64 coins were discovered in the years 1983, 1986, 1987, and 1988. Horton mentions that three of the coins were found by Dr. Richard
Wilding in 1977. The bit of writing that is legible on most of the coins displays Arabic script. The coins highlight the strong ties
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The sheer number of tombs found at Shanga is far greater in comparison to any other site along the East
African coast. According to Horton, there are roughly around five hundred stone tombs scattered throughout the site. He speculates that there might be about seventy more tombs hidden underneath the
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and imported pottery. Both methods of dating present dates ranging from the eighth to fifteenth century. A total of thirteen radiocarbon dates have been processed in the site. The radiocarbon dates demonstrate that Shanga was occupied sometime between the eighth and fifteenth centuries. Horton points
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Excavation procedures involved the definition of contexts (or layers), and their removal in reverse stratigraphic order. Finds were allocated the context number from which they came, while special finds were also given an individual recorded find number. Structures (abbreviation ‘str’) were defined
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Horton also mentions an interesting point that describes how the walls were first smoothed out before adding the next layer of masonry. Horton points out that this practice is an architectural technique found with mud-brick building in the Near East. The rooms of each house were of similar heights
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In order to create a chronological framework, as well as measure the depth of deposit in the site, several test pits were dug around the north–south and east–west axes. There were thirty-three test pits in total, each one about one-meter square. The test pits gave archeologists an understanding of
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The
Swahili community in Shanga continued to thrive there for 600 years until their disappearance in the early fifteenth century. Oral traditions claim that the site was deserted circa 1400–1425. Shanga remained abandoned and unnoticed until the early twentieth century. Horton mentions that it was
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These were associated groups of contexts which were broadly defined as the visible surfaces and buildings at a hypothetical span of time. In any trench there were between ten and twenty such phases, between topsoil and natural sand. For a site occupied for six hundred years, each phase represents
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and his version of the Pate
Chronicles, the history of Shanga began with the arrival of Sulaiman ibn Sulaiman ibn Muzaffar al-Nabhan in 600 AD. It is stated that Sulaiman married the daughter of the king of Pate, thus giving him authority to rule over part of the island. Shanga was an independent
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Evidence of imported pottery also appears in Shanga. Based on the styles from the pottery remnants, it is known that pottery was imported from the
Arabian Peninsula, the Indian sub-continent, and the Far East. Other that the distinct shapes, the main difference between imported pottery and local
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The Friday Mosque found today is in a state of ruin. Yet the current remains have contributed a great deal in understanding the overall layout of the mosque. The main room of the mosque (musala) has a rectangular layout with a plaster floor. Unlike the houses from the stone town, the mosques had
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The stone town of Shanga consists of 185 houses that date from the 1300s to the 1400s. In addition to these buildings, there are also piles of stone rubble that suggest that about another 35 homes once existed alongside the 185 structures that still stand today. The stone houses are described by
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found in Shanga. Horton claims that the Friday Mosque dates back to the eleventh century. The other two mosques: the
Eastern Mosque and the Western Mosque were not built until the late thirteenth to fourteenth century. The fact that the mosques exist on the site "is the basis for the claim of a
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Excavations at the Friday Mosque reveal a series of seventeen phases underneath. The mosque itself was built over several older structures made of timber and stone. According to radiocarbon testing the first mosque built on the site dates back to the eighth century. The first mosque would then
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Horton as being "densely packed in the southern part of the settlement.” This left little room for open spaces. Between the homes, there are narrow spaces that reveal remnants of streets that run perpendicularly. Horton notes that there are no diagonal streets found on the site.
275:. Yet despite being a bit more difficult to manage, coral rag was more durable and cheaper to acquire. Coral rag was only used as boundary walls at first, but then eventually became a common building material from 1100 onwards. The coral blocks were set in place with mud or a
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origins. The archaeological evidence in the form of coins, pottery, glass and beads all suggest that a
Swahili community inhabited the area during the eighth century. Evidence from the findings also indicates that the site was a Muslim trading community that had networks in
128:, a neighboring Swahili town. It is unclear as to why Shanga was abandoned in the early fifteenth century. Horton speculates that the community could have deserted the area for political reasons although it was more than likely due to a decline in water supply.
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There were several discoveries made at Shanga. Among these discoveries are the excavation of the stone town, stone tombs, human remains, the excavation of the Eastern, Western and Friday Mosques, Muslim coinage, pottery, glass, and beads.
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plantations can be found in abundance in the sandy regions. Horton notes that the only soil suitable for growing crops like sorghum, is the red soil located towards the center of the island. Drinking water was accessed by digging
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is fairly malleable and can easily be shaped into blocks for wall structures. (26). The practice of shaping coral into blocks occurred approximately between 900 and 1100. Coral rag, a lot more dense is not as easily shaped as
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pottery was the way in which they were decorated local pottery was not glazed, therefore the imported glazed pottery was highly valued. Yet not all imported pottery was glazed, some were instead decorated with fabrics.
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about thirty years of occupation- approximately the life of a mud-and-thatch house on the coast now. Each phase contributed about 120 mm of deposit, largely made up by the debris of collapsed walls and midden deposits.
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significantly early Islamic presence in Shanga." Horton states that the Friday Mosque underwent several reconstructions and expansions during its time before it was destroyed and abandoned in the fifteenth century.
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All the surviving stone houses at Shanga are of a single storey with walls of coral rag and lime between 0.38 m and 0.45 m thick. Walls lie in a shallow foundation trench never deeper than 0.4 m.
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town at the time of this event, so it did not fall under Sulaiman's jurisdiction. It was Sulaiman's royal descendants, however, that were eventually responsible for conquering Shanga later on.
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samples and wrote a report on the fabrics found in Shanga in 1978. By 1980, most of the research conducted on the site was mainly devoted to mapping the area. The site was excavated by
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on land and by coral reefs on the shore. Mangroves tend to grow along the shore because they require the salt. Overall, the island has poor
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The manufactured pottery or 'local pottery' of Shanga was made using an "ill-sorted alluvial clay and occasionally a coral or shell
30:. The site covers about 15 hectares (37 acres). Shanga was excavated during an eight-year period in which archaeologists examined
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The pottery sherds found in Shanga can be divided into two types of pottery: manufactured pottery and imported pottery.
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and the wells near the Friday Mosque. In the 1970s, the site was visited by Dr. Richard Wilding, who discovered three
78:. Shanga itself is located on the southern part of the island that faces the Indian Ocean. The island is bordered by
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More than 200,000 sherds of pottery were recovered from stratified contexts from the four main excavations.
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Brown, Helen (1992). "Early Muslim Coinage in East Africa : the Evidence from Shanga".
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Horton explains that the stone town of Shanga was built using primarily two types of coral:
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and numbered in a single number series for the site, as were stone tombs (abbreviation ‘T’).
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Shanga was first excavated by archaeologist Dr. James Kirkman in the 1950s. Soon after, the
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Between the years 1980 and 1988, a total of ten trenches were excavated at the site.
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cleared part of Shanga in 1965. The areas that were cleared out included the Western
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Based on archaeological evidence, it is known that Shanga was first inhabited by the
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Shanga: the archaeology of a muslim trading community on the coast of East Africa
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Shanga: The Archaeology of a Muslim Trading Community on the Coast of East Africa
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Shanga: The Archaeology of a Muslim Trading Community on the Coast of East Africa
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Shanga: The Archaeology of a Muslim Trading Community on the Coast of East Africa
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Shanga: The Archaeology of a Muslim Trading Community on the Coast of East Africa
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out that Shanga pottery dating has been extensively examined by archaeologists
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that can reach up to about 10 metres (33 ft) in height.
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The stone houses of the town all share a similar layout.
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and a relatively flat surface which is covered in white
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522:(1969). "A New Look at the History of Pate".
342:The Friday Mosque is the oldest of the three
115:in the eighth century. According to Captain
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508:. The British Institute in Eastern Africa.
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814:Archaeological sites of Eastern Africa
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71:Pate Island was formed as a result of
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22:is an archaeological site located in
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138:British Institute in Eastern Africa
59:. It is near the northern coast of
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809:Monuments and memorials in Kenya
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225:in Shanga was achieved through
63:. Coordinates: 41.04 E 2.08 S.
756:Kiunga Marine National Reserve
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804:Archaeological sites in Kenya
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568:"Review: [Untitled]"
420:Historic Swahili Settlements
279:mixture that would serve as
16:Archaeological site in Kenya
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103:into the large sand dunes.
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525:Journal of African History
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150:National Museums of Kenya
148:. Dr. T. Wilson from the
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26:off the eastern coast of
549:The Numismatic Chronicle
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164:Stratigraphy and dating
160:between 1985 and 1988.
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751:Administrative Centre
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117:Chauncey Hugh Stigand
47:Shanga is located on
794:Swahili architecture
679:Manda Island Pottery
425:Swahili architecture
384:Manufactured pottery
789:Swahili city-states
761:World Heritage Site
227:radiocarbon testing
51:—part of the
252:Building materials
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338:The Friday Mosque
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799:Lamu Archipelago
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689:Pate Island
617:Lamu Island
370:Mark Horton
314:Mark Horton
291:Town layout
202:Mark Horton
179:Mark Horton
158:Mark Horton
76:coral reefs
49:Pate Island
24:Pate Island
778:Categories
715:Bwana Tamu
710:Bwana Mkuu
665:Manda Town
431:References
247:Stone town
152:extracted
73:fossilized
67:Topography
720:Fumo Madi
701:Pate Town
640:Kipangani
637:Matondoni
630:Lamu Fort
625:Lamu Town
264:coral rag
221:Absolute
80:mangroves
556:: 83–87.
504:(1996).
414:See also
367:—
311:—
238:Findings
199:—
176:—
132:Research
43:Location
359:Pottery
344:mosques
285:plaster
154:pottery
113:Swahili
107:History
96:Coconut
55:in the
32:Swahili
733:Shanga
390:temper
281:mortar
223:dating
217:Dating
142:Mosque
28:Africa
20:Shanga
669:Takwa
634:Shela
405:Coins
329:Tombs
146:coins
101:wells
92:dunes
61:Kenya
725:Siyu
697:Faza
532:(3).
277:lime
262:and
126:Siyu
88:sand
84:soil
37:Asia
554:152
780::
552:.
538:^
530:10
528:.
439:^
372:,
316:,
266:.
204:,
181:,
39:.
601:e
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587:v
570:.
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