In this re-release of an EARLY classic, take a whirlwind tour of the Swahili coast and the economic and cultural exchanges over land and sea it has enjoyed for more than a thousand years, before zooming in on the very powerful, and very cool, medieval sultanate of Kilwa Kisawani. Interested in learning about how to use X-Rays and similar technology in archaeology? Check out the linked PaleoImaging course from James Elliot! [https://www.paleoimaging.com/about-the-paleoradiography-course] Links * Making History: An archaeologist unearths the history of the Swahili States (Bryn Mawr Alumnae Bulletin) [https://www.brynmawr.edu/bulletin/making-history] * East Africa: Five Million Years of History (The Public Medievalist) [https://www.publicmedievalist.com/five-million-years-history/] * Early African History: fire, farming, Egypt, and the Bantu (Quatr.us) [african-history.htm">https://quatr.us/history/early-african-history.htm] * Collins & Pisarevsky (2004). "Amalgamating eastern Gondwana: The evolution of the Circum-Indian Orogens". Earth-Science Reviews. * Richard Pankhurst, An Introduction to the Economic History of Ethiopia, (Lalibela House: 1961) * Recipe for ambergris and eggs [website-us-east-1.amazonaws.com/food/2008/01/ambergris.html">http://www.gourmet.com.s3-website-us-east-1.amazonaws.com/food/2008/01/ambergris.html] * Early Global Connections: East Africa between Asia, and Mediterranean Europe (Global Middle Ages) [http://globalmiddleages.org/project/early-global-connections-east-africa-between-asia-and-mediterranean-europe] * Kilwa Kisiwani: Medieval Trade Center of Eastern Africa (Thought.Co) [https://www.thoughtco.com/kilwa-kisiwani-medieval-trade-center-172886] * A lost city reveals the grandeur of medieval African civilization (Gizmodo) [https://io9.gizmodo.com/the-great-lost-cities-of-africa-1507656099] * Chami FA. 2009. Kilwa and the Swahili Towns: Reflections from an archaeological perspective. In: Larsen K, editor. Knowledge, Renewal and Religion: Repositioning and changing ideological and material circumstances among the Swahili on the East African coast. Uppsala: Nordiska Afrikainstitututet. [https://books.google.com/books/about/Knowledge_Renewal_and_Religion.html?id=VrhpPgAACAAJ] * Fleisher J, Wynne-Jones S, Steele C, and Welham K. 2012. Geophysical Survey at Kilwa Kisiwani, Tanzania. Journal of African Archaeology 10(2):207-220. [https://www.jstor.org/stable/43135949] * Pollard E. 2011. Safeguarding Swahili trade in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries: a unique navigational complex in south-east Tanzania. World Archaeology 43(3):458-477. [https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00438243.2011.608287] * Pollard E, Fleisher J, and Wynne-Jones S. 2012. Beyond the Stone Town: Maritime Architecture at Fourteenth–Fifteenth Century Songo Mnara, Tanzania. Journal of Maritime Archaeology 7(1):43-62 [https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11457-012-9094-9] * Wynne-Jones S. 2007. Creating urban communities at Kilwa Kisiwani, Tanzania, AD 800-1300. Antiquity 81:368-380. [https://www.researchgate.net/publication/273293118_Creating_urban_communities_at_Kilwa_Kisiwani_Tanzania_AD_800-1300] * Wynne-Jones S. 2013. The public life of the Swahili stonehouse, 14th–15th centuries AD. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 32(4):759-773. [https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0278416513000329] * Wynne-Jones S, and Fleisher J. 2012. Coins in Context: Local Economy, Value and Practice on the East African Swahili Coast. Cambridge Archaeological Journal 22(1):19-36. [https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/15221200.pdf] * Zhao B. 2012. Global Trade and Swahili Cosmopolitan Material Culture: Chinese-Style Ceramic Shards from Sanje ya Kati and Songo Mnara (K