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143 Abstract Archaeological evidence for ancient glass vessels has been recovered in virtually all urban contexts in Africa. However, since no elemental and chemical analyses have been carried out on that type of material, the making, distribution, and use of glass vessels in Sub-Saharan Africa remain poorly known. Provenancing of African glass has remained speculative and provided fodder for controversy. From whence, when, and how did ancient Sub-Saharan Africans procure their glass? Archaeology suggests a number of sources, but no clear regions predominate . We recently undertook a chemical analysis using laser ablation–inductively coupled plasma– mass spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS) on a small but representative sample of glass vessel fragments from the Swahili town of Mtwapa in Kenya (about AD 900 to 1750). We report and discuss the results of our study in light of what is known about contemporary glass artifacts recovered from different regions known to have had relations with East Africa, including the Middle East, India, and Southeast Asia. The results provide invaluable data for sourcing and provenancing ancient African glass vessels and take us beyond the now thoroughly out-of-date conjectural and intuitive discourse so commonplace in discussions of technology transfer in Sub-Saharan Africa. 1. Introduction Archaeological excavations at the ancient urban site of Mtwapa in Kenya, inhabited from the 10th to the 18th century AD, yielded material in the form of glass beads and glass vessel fragments. In both cases the typological features of the artifacts were not distinctive enough to be easily provenanced (Kusimba 1993, 1999). All the glass beads are small, monochrome, drawn beads that were part of the Indo-Pacific Monochrome Drawn Bead tradition, a vast group of beads that were made and traded around the Indian Ocean and in Southeast Asia for more than 1500 years (Francis 1986). The majority of Mtwapa glass vessels were extremely small, fragmented , and badly corroded. Compounded with this condition, most vessels had lost their original shapes and even colors. These problems made comparative macroscopic analyses with glass material found elsewhere less than objective without the use of chemical characterization. In order to discern more information about the Mtwapaglassmaterial,elementalcompositionofboth typesofartifactswasundertakenusinglaserablation– inductively coupled plasma–mass spectrometry (LA- ICP-MS). Results obtained for the glass beads have been reported elsewhere (Dussubieux et al. 2008), and the chemical analysis revealed that glass beads were imported from the west coast of India. In this chapter we only report the results obtained for the glass vessel fragments. We also compare the main composition at Mtwapa with compositions Chapter 11 Glass Vessels in Sub-Saharan Africa A Compositional Study of Samples from Mtwapa, Kenya Laure Dussubieux and Chapurukha M. Kusimba 144 | OBSIDIAN AND GLASS PROVENANCE of contemporaneous glass artifacts recovered from regions known to have had relationships with East Africa, including the Middle East, India, and Southeast Asia. 2. Description of the site Mtwapa is one of 400 settlements that emerged along the eastern coast of Africa from Somalia to Mozambique around AD 800. A nominally Islamic and literate society that included farmers, fishers, traders, scribes, rulers, and enslaved persons is credited for building this civilization. Mtwapa is located on the Mtwapa Creek some 15 km north of Mombasa, Kenya (figure 11.1). The present site consists of abandoned houses, collapsed walls, and dry water wells. The remains include 5 mosques, 64 houses, 2 workshops , and possible commercial houses (Kusimba 1993). The site has always been under a thick coastal forest vegetation cover, and this cover possibly contributed to its conservation. The site of Mtwapa covers approximately 8 hectares out of which 4 still contain standing architecture. Between 1986 and 1997, C.M. Kusimba surveyed and mapped the site in its entirety and excavated 15 trenches at 9 localities. Archaeological excavations recovered large volumes of artifacts typical of urban societies. The finds included local and trade ceramics, iron and iron slag, rock crystal, spindle whorls, glass vessels, and beads of shell, stone, and glass. The local potteries are stylistically diverse and appear to have been made and traded along the coast and the immediate hinterland. Of the total pottery assemblage, about 8% comprise foreign wares (Kusimba 1993; Oteyo 1999; Oka 2008; Oka et al. 2009). The majority of traded ceramics are from Chinese and Islamic kilns. The rest originated from Indian, Indonesian, and Japanese kilns. The occurrence of Islamic and Chinese pottery and glass practically in all localities at Mtwapa indicates that it was an important port of regional and international trade. The town served as an...

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