Swahili cuisine is known across Africa and globally as a highly distinctive product of a cosmopol... more Swahili cuisine is known across Africa and globally as a highly distinctive product of a cosmopolitan, coastal, urban society. Here we present a comprehensive study of precolonial Swahili diet and culinary practices at the coastal town of Songo Mnara, positioning archaeological and ethnographic understandings of cuisine in a longterm coastal tradition. We explore contemporary food cultures and then present the first direct evidence for precolonial cuisine by combining ceramic lipid residue analysis with archaeobotanical, zooarchaeological, and faunal and human stable isotopic data. Integrating these datasets produces a detailed picture of diet at the site of Songo Mnara during the peak of precolonial Swahili urbanism. Lipid residue analysis demonstrates how plant and animal products were consumed and valued in ways not discernible from plant and animal remains alone. We also note special treatment for particular foodstuffs, including an association of fish consumption with highstatus spaces and vessels, and preferential management of cattle for milk. A more complex picture of urban life emerges, recognizing influences of taste, class, and culture. Our findings demonstrate the potential of multilayered anthropological studies for exploring cuisine and urban life in coastal contexts across the globe.
This monograph examines Swahili plant subsistence and food production patterns through the analys... more This monograph examines Swahili plant subsistence and food production patterns through the analysis of macrobotanical remains from four archaeological sites on Pemba Island, Tanzania, dating to A.D. 700-1600. Specifically towns and villages are compared before and during the emergence of stonetowns, settlements characterized by stone/coral household and ritual architecture, which have been described as urban, based on their roles as economic, political, and religious centers along the eastern African coast. Swahili stonetowns are hypothesized to have exerted political control over the immediate hinterland for the purposes of obtaining trade items and staple goods, including plant products. Based on ethnohistoric reports, a wide variety of collected and cultivated plants have been previously proposed as being central to Swahili consumption and production economies including trees in mangrove habitats, coconut, sorghum, pearl millet, and Asian rice. Moreover, it has often been assumed that stonetowns obtained plant products, including staple grains, from the countryside and were not themselves primary food producers. These assumptions are tested directly against the archaeological record in this first comprehensive study of ancient Swahili plant foods.
This paper presents the results of a consensus-driven process identifying 50 priority research qu... more This paper presents the results of a consensus-driven process identifying 50 priority research questions for historical ecology obtained through crowdsourcing, literature reviews, and in-person workshopping. A deliberative approach was designed to maximize discussion and debate with defined outcomes. Two in-person workshops (in Sweden and Canada) over the course of two years and online discussions were peer facilitated to define specific key questions for historical ecology from anthropological and archaeological perspectives. The aim of this research is to showcase the variety of questions that reflect the broad scope for historical-ecological research trajectories across scientific disciplines. Historical ecology encompasses research concerned with decadal, centennial, and millennial human-environmental interactions, and the consequences that those relationships have in the formation of contemporary landscapes. Six interrelated themes arose from our consensus-building workshop mod...
... Horton, M. 1996. Shanga: A Muslim Trading Community on the East African Coast , Nairobi: Brit... more ... Horton, M. 1996. Shanga: A Muslim Trading Community on the East African Coast , Nairobi: British Institute in Eastern Africa. ... ĀSwahili urbanization, trade, and food production: botanical perspectives from Pemba Island, Tanzania, AD 700Ā1500Ā. ... Science , 323: 1607Ā10. ...
The Routledge Handbook of Global Historical Archaeology, 2020
Historical ethnobotany has much to offer historical archaeologists. Using historical and arch- ae... more Historical ethnobotany has much to offer historical archaeologists. Using historical and arch- aeological methods to recover information about past humanāplant relationships, we can infer foodways, agricultural practices, landscape use, and environmental interactions. These all tie in to current problems and themes of inquiry for historical archaeology, including identity, colonialism, plantation economies, landscape management, and urbanization, among others. Botanical subjects can also tie historical archaeology to current trends in food politics and food history, such as globalization, food security and sovereignty, āingredientsā biographies, and observations and responses to climate change. In this chapter, we review major trends in floral studies within historical archaeology since 2000. In the first section, we outline sources of botanical information and present the opportun- ities and constraints offered by each method. In the sections that follow, historical ethnobotan- ical studies are discussed by theme, highlighting unique contributions that floral analyses can bring to historical archaeology.
The Austronesian settlement of the remote island of Madagascar remains one of the great puzzles o... more The Austronesian settlement of the remote island of Madagascar remains one of the great puzzles of Indo-Pacific prehistory. Although linguistic, ethnographic, and genetic evidence points clearly to a colonization of Madagascar by Austronesian language-speaking people from Island Southeast Asia, decades of archaeological research have failed to locate evidence for a Southeast Asian signature in the islandās early material record. Here, we present new archaeobotanical data that show that Southeast Asian settlers brought Asian crops with them when they settled in Africa. These crops provide the first, to our knowledge, reliable archaeological window into the South- east Asian colonization of Madagascar. They additionally suggest that initial Southeast Asian settlement in Africa was not limited to Madagascar, but also extended to the Comoros. Archaeobotanical data may support a model of indirect Austronesian colonization of Madagascar from the Comoros and/or elsewhere in eastern Africa.
This paper presents the results of a consensus-driven process identifying 50 priority research qu... more This paper presents the results of a consensus-driven process identifying 50 priority research questions for historical ecology obtained through crowdsourcing, literature reviews, and in-person workshopping. A deliberative approach was designed to maximize discussion and debate with defined outcomes. Two in-person workshops (in Sweden and Canada) over the course of two years and online discussions were peer facilitated to define specific key questions for historical ecology from anthropological and archaeological perspectives. The aim of this research is to showcase the variety of questions that reflect the broad scope for historical-ecological research trajectories across scientific disciplines. Historical ecology encompasses research concerned with decadal, centennial, and millennial human-environmental interactions, and the consequences that those relationships have in the formation of contemporary landscapes. Six interrelated themes arose from our consensus-building workshop model: (1) climate and environmental change and variability; (2) multi-scalar, multidisciplinary ; (3) biodiversity and community ecology; (4) resource and environmental management and governance; (5) methods and applications; and (6) communication and
Swahili cuisine is known across Africa and globally as a highly distinctive product of a cosmopol... more Swahili cuisine is known across Africa and globally as a highly distinctive product of a cosmopolitan, coastal, urban society. Here we present a comprehensive study of precolonial Swahili diet and culinary practices at the coastal town of Songo Mnara, positioning archaeological and ethnographic understandings of cuisine in a longterm coastal tradition. We explore contemporary food cultures and then present the first direct evidence for precolonial cuisine by combining ceramic lipid residue analysis with archaeobotanical, zooarchaeological, and faunal and human stable isotopic data. Integrating these datasets produces a detailed picture of diet at the site of Songo Mnara during the peak of precolonial Swahili urbanism. Lipid residue analysis demonstrates how plant and animal products were consumed and valued in ways not discernible from plant and animal remains alone. We also note special treatment for particular foodstuffs, including an association of fish consumption with highstatus spaces and vessels, and preferential management of cattle for milk. A more complex picture of urban life emerges, recognizing influences of taste, class, and culture. Our findings demonstrate the potential of multilayered anthropological studies for exploring cuisine and urban life in coastal contexts across the globe.
This monograph examines Swahili plant subsistence and food production patterns through the analys... more This monograph examines Swahili plant subsistence and food production patterns through the analysis of macrobotanical remains from four archaeological sites on Pemba Island, Tanzania, dating to A.D. 700-1600. Specifically towns and villages are compared before and during the emergence of stonetowns, settlements characterized by stone/coral household and ritual architecture, which have been described as urban, based on their roles as economic, political, and religious centers along the eastern African coast. Swahili stonetowns are hypothesized to have exerted political control over the immediate hinterland for the purposes of obtaining trade items and staple goods, including plant products. Based on ethnohistoric reports, a wide variety of collected and cultivated plants have been previously proposed as being central to Swahili consumption and production economies including trees in mangrove habitats, coconut, sorghum, pearl millet, and Asian rice. Moreover, it has often been assumed that stonetowns obtained plant products, including staple grains, from the countryside and were not themselves primary food producers. These assumptions are tested directly against the archaeological record in this first comprehensive study of ancient Swahili plant foods.
This paper presents the results of a consensus-driven process identifying 50 priority research qu... more This paper presents the results of a consensus-driven process identifying 50 priority research questions for historical ecology obtained through crowdsourcing, literature reviews, and in-person workshopping. A deliberative approach was designed to maximize discussion and debate with defined outcomes. Two in-person workshops (in Sweden and Canada) over the course of two years and online discussions were peer facilitated to define specific key questions for historical ecology from anthropological and archaeological perspectives. The aim of this research is to showcase the variety of questions that reflect the broad scope for historical-ecological research trajectories across scientific disciplines. Historical ecology encompasses research concerned with decadal, centennial, and millennial human-environmental interactions, and the consequences that those relationships have in the formation of contemporary landscapes. Six interrelated themes arose from our consensus-building workshop mod...
... Horton, M. 1996. Shanga: A Muslim Trading Community on the East African Coast , Nairobi: Brit... more ... Horton, M. 1996. Shanga: A Muslim Trading Community on the East African Coast , Nairobi: British Institute in Eastern Africa. ... ĀSwahili urbanization, trade, and food production: botanical perspectives from Pemba Island, Tanzania, AD 700Ā1500Ā. ... Science , 323: 1607Ā10. ...
The Routledge Handbook of Global Historical Archaeology, 2020
Historical ethnobotany has much to offer historical archaeologists. Using historical and arch- ae... more Historical ethnobotany has much to offer historical archaeologists. Using historical and arch- aeological methods to recover information about past humanāplant relationships, we can infer foodways, agricultural practices, landscape use, and environmental interactions. These all tie in to current problems and themes of inquiry for historical archaeology, including identity, colonialism, plantation economies, landscape management, and urbanization, among others. Botanical subjects can also tie historical archaeology to current trends in food politics and food history, such as globalization, food security and sovereignty, āingredientsā biographies, and observations and responses to climate change. In this chapter, we review major trends in floral studies within historical archaeology since 2000. In the first section, we outline sources of botanical information and present the opportun- ities and constraints offered by each method. In the sections that follow, historical ethnobotan- ical studies are discussed by theme, highlighting unique contributions that floral analyses can bring to historical archaeology.
The Austronesian settlement of the remote island of Madagascar remains one of the great puzzles o... more The Austronesian settlement of the remote island of Madagascar remains one of the great puzzles of Indo-Pacific prehistory. Although linguistic, ethnographic, and genetic evidence points clearly to a colonization of Madagascar by Austronesian language-speaking people from Island Southeast Asia, decades of archaeological research have failed to locate evidence for a Southeast Asian signature in the islandās early material record. Here, we present new archaeobotanical data that show that Southeast Asian settlers brought Asian crops with them when they settled in Africa. These crops provide the first, to our knowledge, reliable archaeological window into the South- east Asian colonization of Madagascar. They additionally suggest that initial Southeast Asian settlement in Africa was not limited to Madagascar, but also extended to the Comoros. Archaeobotanical data may support a model of indirect Austronesian colonization of Madagascar from the Comoros and/or elsewhere in eastern Africa.
This paper presents the results of a consensus-driven process identifying 50 priority research qu... more This paper presents the results of a consensus-driven process identifying 50 priority research questions for historical ecology obtained through crowdsourcing, literature reviews, and in-person workshopping. A deliberative approach was designed to maximize discussion and debate with defined outcomes. Two in-person workshops (in Sweden and Canada) over the course of two years and online discussions were peer facilitated to define specific key questions for historical ecology from anthropological and archaeological perspectives. The aim of this research is to showcase the variety of questions that reflect the broad scope for historical-ecological research trajectories across scientific disciplines. Historical ecology encompasses research concerned with decadal, centennial, and millennial human-environmental interactions, and the consequences that those relationships have in the formation of contemporary landscapes. Six interrelated themes arose from our consensus-building workshop model: (1) climate and environmental change and variability; (2) multi-scalar, multidisciplinary ; (3) biodiversity and community ecology; (4) resource and environmental management and governance; (5) methods and applications; and (6) communication and
In this monograph I examine Swahili plant subsistence and food production patterns through the an... more In this monograph I examine Swahili plant subsistence and food production patterns through the analysis of macrobotanical remains from four archaeological sites on Pemba Island, Tanzania, dating to A.D. 700-1600. Specifically, I compare towns and villages before and during the emergence of stonetowns, settlements characterized by stone/coral household and ritual architecture, which have been described as urban based on their roles as economic, political, and religious centers along the eastern African coast. Swahili stonetowns are hypothesized to have exerted political control over the immediate hinterland for the purposes of obtaining trade items and staple goods, including plant products. Based on ethnohistoric reports, a wide variety of collected and cultivated plants has been proposed as being central to Swahili consumption and production economies, including trees in mangrove habitats, coconut, sorghum, pearl millet, and Asian rice. Moreover, it is assumed that stonetowns obtained plant products, including staple grains, from the countryside and were not themselves primary food producers. I test these assumptions directly against the archaeological record in this first comprehensive study of ancient Swahili plant foods.
The rich archaeobotanical record on Pemba contained wood, parenchyma, coconut, fruits/nuts, cotton, pearl millet, finger millet, sorghum, Asian rice, pea, and mung bean, among others. Archaeobotanical comparisons of contemporaneous towns and villages suggest relative economic independence. Before A.D. 1000, this independence is inferred through taxonomic representation. The smaller village site showed reliance upon more local fruits and starchy plants, while the contemporaneous town residents had access to grains (African millets and Asian rice), and more coconut and cotton. After A.D. 1100, stonetown and village plant assemblages resemble one another taxonomically, relying on Asian rice, coconut and other fruit/nut taxa, and cotton, yet they exhibit economic independence in terms of production. An analysis of crop processing strategies reveals a predominance of household-based production in both the village and stonetown. Thus, it appears that the stonetown was not being provisioned by rural farming settlements. Preliminary animal food and craft production data from these same sites lend further support for household production and the relative economic autonomy of Swahili settlements in northern Pemba Island.
Swahili cuisine is known across Africa and globally as a highly distinctive product of a cosmopol... more Swahili cuisine is known across Africa and globally as a highly distinctive product of a cosmopolitan, coastal, urban society. Here we present a comprehensive study of precolonial Swahili diet and culinary practices at the coastal town of Songo Mnara, positioning archaeological and ethnographic understandings of cuisine in a longterm coastal tradition. We explore contemporary food cultures and then present the first direct evidence for precolonial cuisine by combining ceramic lipid residue analysis with archaeobotanical, zooarchaeological, and faunal and human stable isotopic data. Integrating these datasets produces a detailed picture of diet at the site of Songo Mnara during the peak of precolonial Swahili urbanism. Lipid residue analysis demonstrates how plant and animal products were consumed and valued in ways not discernible from plant and animal remains alone. We also note special treatment for particular foodstuffs, including an association of fish consumption with highstatus spaces and vessels, and preferential management of cattle for milk. A more complex picture of urban life emerges, recognizing influences of taste, class, and culture. Our findings demonstrate the potential of multilayered anthropological studies for exploring cuisine and urban life in coastal contexts across the globe.
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Papers by Sarah Walshaw
In this chapter, we review major trends in floral studies within historical archaeology since 2000. In the first section, we outline sources of botanical information and present the opportun- ities and constraints offered by each method. In the sections that follow, historical ethnobotan- ical studies are discussed by theme, highlighting unique contributions that floral analyses can bring to historical archaeology.
In this chapter, we review major trends in floral studies within historical archaeology since 2000. In the first section, we outline sources of botanical information and present the opportun- ities and constraints offered by each method. In the sections that follow, historical ethnobotan- ical studies are discussed by theme, highlighting unique contributions that floral analyses can bring to historical archaeology.
The rich archaeobotanical record on Pemba contained wood, parenchyma, coconut, fruits/nuts, cotton, pearl millet, finger millet, sorghum, Asian rice, pea, and mung bean, among others. Archaeobotanical comparisons of contemporaneous towns and villages suggest relative economic independence. Before A.D. 1000, this independence is inferred through taxonomic representation. The smaller village site showed reliance upon more local fruits and starchy plants, while the contemporaneous town residents had access to grains (African millets and Asian rice), and more coconut and cotton. After A.D. 1100, stonetown and village plant assemblages resemble one another taxonomically, relying on Asian rice, coconut and other fruit/nut taxa, and cotton, yet they exhibit economic independence in terms of production. An analysis of crop processing strategies reveals a predominance of household-based production in both the village and stonetown. Thus, it appears that the stonetown was not being provisioned by rural farming settlements. Preliminary animal food and craft production data from these same sites lend further support for household production and the relative economic autonomy of Swahili settlements in northern Pemba Island.