Salweyn, also known as Salwine, is a

proto-Somali Proto-Somalis were the ancient people and ancestors of Somalis who lived in present-day Somalia. Literature on proto-Somalis largely uses a time-frame pertaining to the 1st millennium BC and 1st millennium AD. History The Puntites were ancient C ...

archaeological site An archaeological site is a place (or group of physical sites) in which evidence of past activity is preserved (either prehistoric or historic or contemporary), and which has been, or may be, investigated using the discipline of archaeology an ...

located in the

Sanaag Sanag ( so, Sanaag, ar, سَنَاج) is an administrative region ('' gobol'') in north eastern Somaliland.Regions o ...

region of Somaliland.

Overview

Salweyn is situated to the east of the old coastal town of Heis. A small eponymous creek is located in the area. The site contains a very large field of cairns, which stretches for a distance of around 8 km. An excavation of one of these

tumuli A tumulus (plural tumuli) is a mound of earth and stones raised over a grave or graves. Tumuli are also known as barrows, burial mounds or ''kurgans'', and may be found throughout much of the world. A cairn, which is a mound of stones built ...

by Georges Révoil in 1881 uncovered a tomb, beside which were artefacts pointing to an ancient, advanced civilization. The interred objects included pottery sherds from

Samos Samos (, also ; el, Σάμος ) is a Greece, Greek island in the eastern Aegean Sea, south of Chios, north of Patmos and the Dodecanese, and off the coast of western Turkey, from which it is separated by the -wide Mycale Strait. It is also a se ...

, some well-crafted enamels, and a mask of

Ancient Greek Ancient Greek includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Dark Ages (), the Archaic peri ...

design. Additionally, close to the cairns are a number of rows of standing stones. These

menhir A menhir (from Brittonic languages: ''maen'' or ''men'', "stone" and ''hir'' or ''hîr'', "long"), standing stone, orthostat, or lith is a large human-made upright stone, typically dating from the European middle Bronze Age. They can be foun ...

s are similar to those at Heis and

Botiala Botiala ( so, Butiyaalo), also known as Bottiala or Bandar Kor, is an archaeological site in the northeastern Bari region of Puntland. History Botiala is located in a valley to the east of the ancient port city of Qandala, between Cape Guardafui ...

. Along with

Macajilayn Macajilayn, also spelled Mecajilayn, is a proto-Somali archaeological site located in the Sanaag region of Somaliland. Overview Macajilayn is situated to the east of the old coastal town of Heis. The site contains a number of cairns, from whic ...

, Salweyn is also the only local site where specialized ancient disc-like monuments have been found.

References

{{reflist Archaeological sites in Somaliland Sanaag