Historical Archaeology in Kenya 1948–56

Abstract

In 1948 the ruined Arab town, sixty-five miles north of Mombasa, known as Gedi was declared a National Park, and an archaeologist was appointed as Warden of the Royal Gedi National Park and the Coastal Historical Sites of Kenya. In the ensuing eight years dangerous trees were cut down, crumbling walls were consolidated, and the fallen rubble round the principal buildings was removed. Gedi is now presented to the world as a place of interest and public resort. Excavations were carried out to discover when it was built, and by whom, and the way of life of its inhabitants. Excavations were also undertaken at a number of other sites to recover the history of the coast of Kenya (pl. XII). From these excavations it has been proved that from the thirteenth century there were extensive Arab or Arab-African settlements all down the coast of Kenya. The extent to which the East African coastal culture of the later middle ages can be regarded as truly ‘Arab’ is still undecided. I am beginning to think that there is a tendency to overstress, or to assume, a state of ‘arabism’ in provincial towns, such as Gedi and Ungwana, which never existed. These towns from their foundation would have comprised a mixed population which had come from the older settlements in Somalia. This mixed population would have contributed Hamitic, Bantu, Persian, Indian, and perhaps Indonesian elements to the predominantly Arab culture of East Africa.