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The early Swahili trade village of Tumbe, Pemba Island, Tanzania, AD 600–950

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 November 2013

Jeffrey Fleisher  and
Adria LaViolette
Jeffrey Fleisher
Affiliation:
1Department of Anthropology, Rice University, Houston, TX 77251-1892, USA (Email: [email protected])
Adria LaViolette
Affiliation:
2Department of Anthropology, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA 22904-4120, USA (Email: [email protected])
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Abstract

Indian Ocean maritime networks have become a special focus of research in recent years, with emphasis not only on the economics of trade but also the movement of domesticated plants and animals (see Fuller et al. in Antiquity 2011: 544–58). But did such contacts inevitably lead to radical social change? Excavations at Tumbe reveal a settlement of the late first millennium AD that was heavily engaged in the traffic in exotic materials and may have been producing shell beads for export. This activity seems to have flourished within a domestic context in a village setting, however, and does not seem to have stimulated pronounced social stratification nor to have led inexorably towards urbanisation. These results demonstrate that some communities were able to establish a stable balance between the demands of the domestic economy and long-distance trade that could persist for several centuries. Activities at Tumbe should hence be viewed in their own right, not as precursors to the formation of the Swahili trading towns of the later medieval period.

Keywords

TanzaniaPemba IslandTumbeAD 600–950Swahilitradesettlementcopperglassshell beads
Type
Research articles
Information
Antiquity , Volume 87 , Issue 338 , December 2013 , pp. 1151 - 1168
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd 2013

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