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Shanga, Pate Island
Shanga is an archaeological site located in Pate Island off the Eastern Coast of Africa. The site covers about . Shanga was excavated during an eight-year period in which archaeologists examined Swahili people, Swahili origins. The archaeological evidence in the form of coins, pottery, glass and beads all suggest that a Swahili community inhabited the area during the eighth century. Evidence from the findings also indicates that the site was a Muslim trading community that had networks in Asia. Location Shanga is located on Pate Island — part of the Lamu Archipelago in the Indian Ocean. It is near the northern coast of Kenya. Coordinates: 41.04 E 2.08 S. Topography Pate Island was formed as a result of fossilized coral reefs. Shanga itself is located on the southern part of the island that faces the Indian Ocean. The island is bordered by mangroves on land and by coral reefs on the shore. Mangroves tend to grow along the shore because they require the salt. Overall the isla ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pate Island
Pate (Paté) Island () is located in the Indian Ocean close to the northern coast of Kenya, to which it belongs. It is the largest island in the Lamu Archipelago, which lie between the towns of Lamu and Kiunga in the former Coast Province. The island is almost completely surrounded by mangroves. Like much of the Swahili Coast, Pate's history was marked by a steady transition from agricultural communities in the early first millennium into a specialized, urban trading society around the 10th century, likely earlier. Islam spread down the coast from African Muslims in the Horn of Africa, helping to develop what would be known as the Swahili culture. Despite myths to the contrary, Pate was neither an Arab nor Persian colony, but an African town frequented by trading Arabs, Persians, Indians, and others. It was the centre of the Pate sultanate from the 13th–19th centuries. The Swahili port of Pate long vied with Lamu and Takwa (on Manda Island) for economic dominance of the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Siyu
Siyu is a settlement on the north coast of Pate Island, within the Lamu Archipelago in Kenya's Coast Province. The age of Siyu is not known, but it might date from the 13th century.Martin, 1973, p. 23 There are some other accounts that mention Chinese ships of Zheng He's fleet sinking near Lamu Island in Kenya in 1415. Survivors settled on the island and married local women. This has been proven recently by archaeological work on the island that has resulted in the finding of evidence to suggest this connection. Further DNA testing done on some residents from Siyu show that they indeed have Chinese ancestors. Gaspar de Santo Bernadino visited the town in 1606, and stated that it was the largest town on the island. Siyu's main claim to historical fame is that it through several battles withstood the Sultans of Zanzibar. In 1843 the Sheikh of Siyu, Bwana Mataka, and the new Sheikh of Pate, repudiated the sovereignty of Seyyid Said, Sultan of Oman and Zanzibar. In response, Se ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mortar (masonry)
Mortar is a workable paste which hardens to bind building blocks such as stones, bricks, and concrete masonry units, to fill and seal the irregular gaps between them, spread the weight of them evenly, and sometimes to add decorative colors or patterns to masonry walls. In its broadest sense, mortar includes pitch, asphalt, and soft mud or clay, as those used between mud bricks, as well as cement mortar. The word "mortar" comes from Old French ''mortier'', "builder's mortar, plaster; bowl for mixing." (13c.). Cement mortar becomes hard when it cures, resulting in a rigid aggregate structure; however, the mortar functions as a weaker component than the building blocks and serves as the sacrificial element in the masonry, because mortar is easier and less expensive to repair than the building blocks. Bricklayers typically make mortars using a mixture of sand, a binder, and water. The most common binder since the early 20th century is Portland cement, but the ancient binder lim ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lime (material)
Lime is a calcium-containing inorganic material composed primarily of oxides and hydroxide, usually calcium oxide and/or calcium hydroxide. It is also the name for calcium oxide which occurs as a product of coal-seam fires and in altered limestone xenoliths in volcanic ejecta. The International Mineralogical Association recognizes lime as a mineral with the chemical formula of CaO. The word ''lime'' originates with its earliest use as building mortar and has the sense of ''sticking or adhering''. These materials are still used in large quantities as building and engineering materials (including limestone products, cement, concrete, and mortar), as chemical feedstocks, and for sugar refining, among other uses. Lime industries and the use of many of the resulting products date from prehistoric times in both the Old World and the New World. Lime is used extensively for wastewater treatment with ferrous sulfate. The rocks and minerals from which these materials are derived, typ ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Coral Rag
Corals are marine invertebrates within the class Anthozoa of the phylum Cnidaria. They typically form compact colonies of many identical individual polyps. Coral species include the important reef builders that inhabit tropical oceans and secrete calcium carbonate to form a hard skeleton. A coral "group" is a colony of very many genetically identical polyps. Each polyp is a sac-like animal typically only a few millimeters in diameter and a few centimeters in height. A set of tentacles surround a central mouth opening. Each polyp excretes an exoskeleton near the base. Over many generations, the colony thus creates a skeleton characteristic of the species which can measure up to several meters in size. Individual colonies grow by asexual reproduction of polyps. Corals also breed sexually by spawning: polyps of the same species release gametes simultaneously overnight, often around a full moon. Fertilized eggs form planulae, a mobile early form of the coral polyp which, when m ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Porites Solida
''Porites'' is a genus of Scleractinia, stony coral; they are small polyp stony (SPS) corals. They are characterised by a finger-like morphology (biology), morphology. Members of this genus have widely spaced Calice (zoology), calices, a well-developed wall reticulum and are symmetry (biology), bilaterally symmetrical. ''Porites'', particularly ''Porites lutea'', often form microatolls. Corals of the genus ''Porites'' also often serve as hosts for Christmas tree worms (''Spirobranchus giganteus''). Aquarium trade Specimens of ''Porites'' are sometimes available for purchase in the aquarium trade. Due to the strict water quality, lighting and dietary requirements, keeping ''Porites'' in captivity is very difficult. Paleoclimatology Porites corals have been shown to be accurate and precise recorders of past marine surface conditions. Measurements of the oxygen isotopic composition of the aragonitic skeleton of coral specimens indicate the sea-surface temperature conditions an ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Neville Chittick
Dr. Neville H. Chittick (September 18, 1924 – July 27, 1984) was a British scholar and Archaeology, archaeologist. He specialized in the historic cultures of Northeast Africa, and also devoted various works to the Swahili Coast. Biography Chittick was born in 1924. In a professional capacity, he initially worked with Max Mallowan as general field assistant in Nimrud in 1951 and later in Sudan as the Director of Antiquities.Ogot, 2003. (p. 308). He later lived in Tanganyika Territory, Tanganyika, serving as the colonial territory's first Conservator of Antiquities. In 1961, Chittick was appointed the first Director of the British Institute in Eastern Africa in Nairobi. He worked in that position until 1983. After a long career in archaeology, Chittick died in 1984. He is buried in the Ascension Parish Burial Ground, Cambridge, Parish of the Ascension Burial Ground. Expeditions Chittick's expeditions and residence on the Swahili Coast produced a body of research into the pre-c ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Radiocarbon Dating
Radiocarbon dating (also referred to as carbon dating or carbon-14 dating) is a method for determining the age of an object containing organic material by using the properties of radiocarbon, a radioactive isotope of carbon. The method was developed in the late 1940s at the University of Chicago by Willard Libby. It is based on the fact that radiocarbon () is constantly being created in the Earth's atmosphere by the interaction of cosmic rays with atmospheric nitrogen. The resulting combines with atmospheric oxygen to form radioactive carbon dioxide, which is incorporated into plants by photosynthesis; animals then acquire by eating the plants. When the animal or plant dies, it stops exchanging carbon with its environment, and thereafter the amount of it contains begins to decrease as the undergoes radioactive decay. Measuring the amount of in a sample from a dead plant or animal, such as a piece of wood or a fragment of bone, provides information that can be used to calc ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dating Methodologies In Archaeology
Chronological dating, or simply dating, is the process of attributing to an object or event a date in the past, allowing such object or event to be located in a previously established chronology. This usually requires what is commonly known as a "dating method". Several dating methods exist, depending on different criteria and techniques, and some very well known examples of disciplines using such techniques are, for example, history, archaeology, geology, paleontology, astronomy and even forensic science, since in the latter it is sometimes necessary to investigate the moment in the past during which the death of a cadaver occurred. These methods are typically identified as absolute, which involves a specified date or date range, or relative, which refers to dating which places artifacts or events on a timeline relative to other events and/or artifacts. Other markers can help place an artifact or event in a chronology, such as nearby writings and stratigraphic markers. Absolute ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mark Horton (archaeologist)
Mark Chatwin Horton, FSA (born 15 February 1956) is a British maritime and historical archaeologist, television presenter, and writer Academic career Horton attended Peterhouse, Cambridge, graduating and receiving a doctorate. He is Professor of Archaeology and Cultural Heritage at the Royal Agricultural University in Cirencester, and Emeritus Professor at the University of Bristol. One of his former students is the archaeologist and television presenter Sam Willis. He is part of a new project to establish the Cultural Heritage Institute in the former Great Western Railway carriage works at Swindon, that will offer research and masters training from 2020. He has conducted excavations in Zanzibar, Egypt, the Caribbean, North America, Central America and France, as well as sites in Britain. His chief publications are on the Swahili site of Shanga, Kenya between 1980 and 1986 and more recently sites on the islands of Zanzibar and Pemba, notably Tumbatu, Ras Mkumbuu, Mtambwe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pottery
Pottery is the process and the products of forming vessels and other objects with clay and other ceramic materials, which are fired at high temperatures to give them a hard and durable form. Major types include earthenware, stoneware and porcelain. The place where such wares are made by a ''potter'' is also called a ''pottery'' (plural "potteries"). The definition of ''pottery'', used by the ASTM International, is "all fired ceramic wares that contain clay when formed, except technical, structural, and refractory products". In art history and archaeology, especially of ancient and prehistoric periods, "pottery" often means vessels only, and sculpted figurines of the same material are called "terracottas". Pottery is one of the oldest human inventions, originating before the Neolithic period, with ceramic objects like the Gravettian culture Venus of Dolní Věstonice figurine discovered in the Czech Republic dating back to 29,000–25,000 BC, and pottery vessels that were ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
National Museums Of Kenya
The National Museums of Kenya (NMK) is a state corporation that manages museums, sites and monuments in Kenya. It carries out heritage research, and has expertise in subjects ranging from palaeontology, archeology, ethnography and biodiversity research and conservation. Its headquarters and the National Museum ( Nairobi National Museum) are located on Museum Hill, near Uhuru Highway between Central Business District and Westlands in Nairobi. The National Museum of Kenya was founded by the East Africa Natural History Society (E.A.N.H.S.) in 1910; the society's main goal has always been to conduct an ongoing critical scientific examination of the natural attributes of the East African habitat. The museum houses collections, and temporary and permanent exhibits. Today the National Museum of Kenya manages over 22 regional museums, many sites, and monuments across the country.NMK, "National Museums of Kenya," 2006-03-31, Museums.or.ke, webMuseumsOR/ref> Nairobi National Museum o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
