African Power Plays: Inland Beads, Shells, and Shell Beads in Tanzania, AD 700-1350

Summary

This paper grapples with seemingly mundane objects frequently encountered, but largely ignored, in East African archaeology: beads and shells. I report on beads of various materials, shells, and other residues identified during systematic research in hinterland NE Tanzania, AD 700-1350. Finds of glass and stone beads with Indian Ocean origins and local beads of landsnail shell alter, in a meaningful manner, archaeological views of oceanic ties to interior East Africa. Material patterning suggests, for instance, that Africans were conscious to shifts in the region’s political economy a millennium ago as ties to the Swahili Coast waned. Copious landsnail shell discs produced in the continent’s hinterland may have served to help reforge ties with the littoral as the coastal Swahili increasingly oriented themselves to the Indian Ocean. Beads, shells, and shell beads in hinterland Tanzania demonstrate early Indian Ocean ties and African power plays in antiquity. Attention to the socially embedded nature of African objects helps to remake the region’s archaeology.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 81st Annual Meeting, Orlando, FL (2016)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage