A Comparison of the Glass Bead Trade at Unguja Ukuu and Kizimkazi Dimbani, Zanzibar

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Current Research on Ancient Glass around the Indian Ocean" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Unguja Ukuu (sixth–eleventh cenuries CE) and Kizimkazi Dimbani (twelfth century CE) are early trading sites on Zanzibar, an island off the coast of Tanzania in eastern Africa. Here we investigate patterns of glass bead trade at these sites, examining continuities and change between sites and over time. Glass bead samples from each site were subject to LA-ICP-MS analysis to determine their elemental composition and provenance. Comparison of the results shows a variance in glass bead distribution patterns that is likely due to the difference in the main periods of occupation of each site. This allows us to observe changing exchange trends over time on the island of Zanzibar. The results of this study show that while patterns of trade may change in some significant ways, the fundamental connection established at least in the first millennium CE between Zanzibar and the Indian Ocean World remained intact for centuries.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 88th Annual Meeting, Portland, OR (2023)   •
• Current Research on Ancient Glass around the Indian Ocean

Keywords

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 35725.0