Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant: Social Structure, Ecological Organization and Individual Action at Three Swahili Settlements

University Of Virginia Main Campus, Charlottesville VA

Investigators

Abstract

Under the supervision of Dr. Adria LaViolette, Jack Stoetzel will conduct an archaeological investigation to reconstruct the relationship between Swahili people and coastal ecosystems between A.D. 600 and 1600. Swahili identity emerged along the coast of tropical East Africa during the first- millennium A.D. and is predicated on a cosmopolitan worldview that includes an openness to engage with external material cultures and ideologies. Physical evidence of the cosmopolitan worldview characteristic of Swahili identity includes the adoption of rice agriculture, integration into the Indian Ocean commercial system, and conversion to Islam. This project treats archaeological plant remains as indicators of past ecological ecosystems. Two types of plant residues will be considered in this research: (a) microscopic phytolith remains which are to be used to reconstruct species composition of botanical communities through time; and (b) visible charcoal remains which will be analyzed to identify cultural use and preference of particular plant species recovered in a range of archaeological contexts. Understanding of Swahili influence on environmental change along tropical coastlines that will result from this project will insert East Africa into the burgeoning discussion of coastal resource management. The research will provide insight into the relationship between a Muslim society and the ecosystems it occupied. The project will help explain contemporary ecological conditions and create the opportunity to model effects of current and future social activity throughout the region. This research therefore has the potential to inform future environmental legislation mandates throughout coastal East Africa. Swahili archaeology has largely overlooked the potential that environmental archaeology can have in reconstructing past lifestyles across the region. When evoking environmental conditions, previous researchers situate Swahili within contemporary conditions or quote historic documents. By acknowledging that human actions influence environmental conditions, this research has the potential to situate Swahili actions within ecological contexts they experienced as well as track the effects such decisions had on plant communities through time. In order to achieve this result, the project combines theories from both household archaeology and environmental archaeology. In order to achieve the goals of this research, a comparative collection must be created that represents microscopic phytolith and charcoal specimen available across the Swahili coast. The time and financial investment which this research program must undertake to create a comparative collection will be rewarded by the development of an online database that will feature digital photographs, descriptions, and names of unique shapes identified in both phytoliths and charcoal wood- grain. African scholars and those otherwise interested in the area will benefit from the database because the collection reduces start- up costs and time investment necessary to research archaeological plant remains throughout tropical East Africa.