Salt production during the Plain Ware Phase along the Swahili coast of Tanzania

ABSTRACT

Pottery from archaeological sites on the Swahili coast of East Africa has enabled scholars to establish the social, political and economic dynamics of their inhabitants and helped them to determine forms of interaction between coastal communities and other societies within and outside Africa. This paper examines Plain Ware pottery (Plain Ware Phase) from the site of Nunge in Bagamoyo (Tanzania) to discover the reasons behind its production. Findings indicate that the elements associated with Plain Ware pottery were markers of the socio-economic (i.e. salt-making) and political contexts that the Swahili experienced during the Plain Ware Phase (tenth to thirteenth centuries AD). It is suggested that the use of pottery to make salt for exchange with people in the East African interior created wealth and socio-economic stratification and may have been one of the key elements that contributed to the development of the Swahili coastal states. Comparative data from other regions suggest that salt-making was an important component in socioeconomic interactions among communities and provided an opportunity for surplus production and the establishment of ties among polities.

RÉSUMÉ

La poterie provenant de sites archéologiques de la côte swahilie d'Afrique de l'Est a permis aux chercheurs d'établir les dynamiques sociales, politiques et économiques de leurs habitants et d’aider à déterminer les formes d'interaction entre les communautés côtières et d'autres sociétés à l'intérieur et à l'extérieur de l'Afrique. Cet article examine la poterie Plain Ware (Plain Ware Phase) provenant du site de Nunge à Bagamoyo (Tanzanie) afin de découvrir les raisons de sa production. Les résultats indiquent que les éléments associés à la poterie Plain Ware étaient des marqueurs des contextes socio-économiques (c’est-à-dire, la fabrication du sel) et politiques connus par les Swahili pendant la phase du Plain Ware (dixième au treizième siècles après J.-C.). Il est proposé que l'utilisation de la poterie pour la fabrication de sel à échanger avec les habitants de l'intérieur de l'Afrique de l'Est engendra de la richesse et une stratification socio-économique, et qu’elle peut donc avoir été l'un des éléments clés qui contribua au développement des États côtiers swahili. Des données comparatives provenant d'autres régions suggèrent que la fabrication du sel constitua un élément important dans les interactions socio-économiques entre les communautés, et que l’activité fournit une opportunité pour la production excédentaire et l'établissement de liens entre les entités politiques.

KEYWORDS:

• Plain Ware Phase
• Swahili coast
• Tanzania
• salt production
• economic transformation
• coast/interior connectivity

Acknowledgments

This paper would not have been possible without the contributions of many people. I therefore thank Prof. Felix Chami, Prof. Jeffrey Fleisher, Dr Amandus Peter Kwekason, Dr Elgidius Ichumbaki and Dr Elinaza Mjema for their critical review of it. I am also indebted to Mr Said Kilindo and Mr Gido Lasway for producing most of the figures. Special thanks go to the editors, particularly Prof. Peter Robertshaw, for their guidance and to the three anonymous reviewers for their stimulating feedback. Many thanks go to the University of Dar es Salaam for provision of funds with which to conduct fieldwork. I am also grateful to the Department of Antiquities, Ministry of Natural Resources and Tourism, Tanzania for granting my research permit, as well as the people of Bagamoyo, especially the Management of the Nunge Salt Works Industry, for being so generous during the whole period of my research.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Emanuel Thomas Kessy

Emanuel T. Kessy is a senior lecturer in archaeology at the University of Dar es Salaam. He received an MPhil from the University of Cambridge and his PhD from Simon Fraser University. His research interests include settlement archaeology, the African Later Stone Age and Iron Age and the transition to food production in Africa.