Pemba Historical Archaeological Project: 17th Century Daily Life at Kichokochwe and Mjini Kiungon

My project explores the archaeology of the Swahili in Zanzibar Tanzania, during the Portuguese and Omani colonial occupations of the 16th-20th centuries CE. While early archaeological studies along the eastern African coast have engaged the period between 600-1500 CE, my research joins recent efforts to explore European and Arab colonialism which emerged in the second half of the last millennium. Through a lens of everyday life, material histories at various scales, and autochthonous perspectives, I seek to situate the Swahili in the context of the broader archaeological literature on colonialism from other regions of the world.