An Assessment of an early 19th century AD Ceramic Assemblage from Mozambique Island

Summary

This is an abstract from the session entitled "Maritime Archeology of the Slave Trade: Past and Present Work, and Future Prospects", at the 2023 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology.

This paper discusses the results of a recent investigation of ceramics from Mozambique Island. This contributes to and builds upon previous archaeological work that has made a start on describing and dating the ceramic sequence and linking it to the history of the southeast African coast over the last 2000 years. The ceramics discussed here were excavate at a Muslim house, the Abdurrazaque Juma compound located within Macuti-town, south of the urban ‘stone town’ to the north, and the second sample was excavated from the tribunal courtyard of the Convent of São Domingos. We used a multidimensional analysis to classify the ceramics from the Muslim house dominated by coarse earthenware vessels, and in particular by carinated open bowls. The bulk of this assemblage dates to the early 19th century AD and can be linked to a kitchen, Swahili, and Slavery identity.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Maritime Archeology of the Slave Trade: Past and Present Work, and Future Prospects   •
• Society for Historical Archaeology 2023

Keywords

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Nicole Haddow