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7. Ironworking on the Swahili Coast of Kenya
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7 Ironworking on the Swahili Coast of Kenya Chapurukha M. Kusimba and David Killick Few archaeologists have considered the possibility that control of local craft production and distribution may have been important in the development of sociopolitical complexity on the Iron Age Swahili Coast. Metallographic analysis of iron artifacts from Swahili sites reveals important information regarding the variety of ironworking techniques practiced . Swahili ironworkers were capable of producing high-carbon steel and even cast iron in their bloomeries. Artifacts of crucible steel from Galu, an iron forging site on the Kenya coast, are the first crucible steel samples known from sub-Saharan Africa and may have been locally produced . If iron formed a major commodity of Indian Ocean trade it may have crossed the ocean in many directions at different manufacturing stages—as bloom or finished artifacts. Coastal iron technology and its trade may have played a key role in Indian Ocean trade and social complexity among the Swahili. This chapter considers the role of ironworking technology in Iron Age communities of the East African coast, where standing stone ruins attest to the development of city-states during the 12th–16th centuries AD. The city-states are attributed to Swahili-speaking peoples and were found along the coasts of Somalia, Kenya, Tanzania, Mozambique, Madagascar, and the Comoros (Sinclair 1991, 1993).The region has many exploitable resources that have attracted settlement by different peoples and subsistence economies throughout time. A large number of archaeological sites along the Swahili Coast possess standing ruins of coral and coral rag (Fig. 7.1). Many sites also contain mosques,the earliest of which has been dated to the 9th century AD (Horton 1996, 1997; C. Kusimba 1997). Written sources have documented contact between East Africa, the Mediterranean, the Near East, and South Asia from East African Archaeology: Foragers, Potters, Smiths, and Traders 100 0 1,000 km N INDIAN OCEAN M A D A G A S C A R ETHIOPIA KENYA S O M A L I R E P U B L I C SUDAN TANZANIA ZAMBIA M OZAM BIQUE Mogadishu Raas Xaafuun Baraawe Lamu Archipelago (Manda, Shanga, Lamu, Pate) Gede Mombasa Sofala Mahilaka Chibuene Comoro Islands (Mbashile, M'beni, Sime, Mro Dewa, Dembeni) Pemba Island Mafia Island Kilwa Kisiwani Ungwana Zanzibar Island Mtwapa Fig. 7.1 Archaeological sites along the Swahili Coast. [54.224.52.210] Project MUSE (2024-03-19 04:16 GMT) the 1st century AD (Casson 1989; Chami, Chapter 6 this volume; Chami and Msemwa 1997b). Contact between coast peoples and Near Easterners and Indians was largely commercial in nature, yet such interactions stimulated cultural and technical communication between these societies.Trade resulted in the accumulation of wealth and the development of hierarchy (Ehrenreich 1995) among previously egalitarian communities. Friendships, alliances, and other relationships necessary to foster peaceful trade and exchange networks may also have provided opportunities for biocultural and technological transfers (e.g., Gibbons 1997:535–536). Even before the coast’s entry in the international maritime trade network in the Red Sea,Persian Gulf,and Indian Ocean,the Swahili peoples had developed trading partnerships with each other and traded up river and overland with hinterland peoples. For example, 10th-century Malindi north of Mombasa had large-scale iron smelting and forging industries and was the main supplier of most iron needed by hinterland societies. Kilwa and Sofala, south of Mombasa, supplied most of the textiles, beads, and iron tools to interior societies,which provided the coastal towns with ivory,gold,copper, and cereals (C. Kusimba 1993, 1999a, 1999b). The relationships between the coastal settlements and the interior may have been relatively egalitarian, including clientship, trade partnerships, debt patronage, fictive or real kinship, friendships, and gift exchange (Nicholls 1971:42, 56). The coastal towns offered finished manufactured goods in exchange for hinterland products, inducing the hinterland to enter into the regional economy voluntarily. Coastal settlements had large, stable populations drawn from different communities including hinterland traders and foreign merchants, and a lucrative economy that attracted and supported settlement of a skilled clientele. In order to get the maximum profit from trade, these settlements sought to produce as many goods as possible themselves , through techniques which hinterland peoples could not duplicate. Excavated sites have yielded evidence of manufacturing activities, possibly in excess of local needs (Abungu 1990; Chittick 1974, 1984; Horton 1996; C.Kusimba 1996a;Mutoro 1979;T.Wilson 1982).Thus some Swahili towns had specialized craftspeople to make finished items (Bakari 1981:159). Coastalproduced items, including marine shells...