Local Ceramics from the Islamic Trade Center of Harlaa, Eastern Ethiopia: Markers of Chronology and Contacts

Nicholas Tait,Timothy Insoll

doi:10.1007/s10437-021-09435-9

Abstract

Locally made ceramics from Islamic sites in Ethiopia have been neglected in most archaeological studies, which tend to privilege imported Middle Eastern and Chinese/Southeast Asian ceramics. An assemblage of the local ceramics from the important trading site of Harlaa, in eastern Ethiopia (mid-sixth and fifteenth centuries AD), is the subject of this article. The study emphasizes the value of these ceramics as chronological markers, and for understanding regional and long-distance contacts, cultural innovations, processes of Islamization, and foodways.

Highlights

Archaeological research at Islamic sites in the Horn of Africa, and Ethiopia, in particular, has been limited (e.g., Begashaw, 2009; de Torres Rodríguez, 2020; Finneran, 2007, p. 237-238; Insoll, 2003, p. 39)
Made ceramics have been neglected in those studies, thereby missing out on the critical insights that these ubiquitous artifacts can provide into regional cultural contacts, the processes of innovation, Islamisation, and foodways, and as chronological markers
Cultural contacts occurred at Harlaa, and some of the population adopted Islam, but these did not lead to a transformed ontology as reflected in the persistence of local ceramics in the archaeological sequence

Summary

Introduction

Archaeological research at Islamic sites in the Horn of Africa, and Ethiopia, in particular, has been limited (e.g., Begashaw, 2009; de Torres Rodríguez, 2020; Finneran, 2007, p. 237-238; Insoll, 2003, p. 39). Made ceramics have been neglected in those studies, thereby missing out on the critical insights that these ubiquitous artifacts can provide into regional cultural contacts, the processes of innovation, Islamisation, and foodways, and as chronological markers. These topics are explored in this article with reference to the locally made ceramics from an Islamic site in Ethiopia. These local ceramics demonstrate that indigenous forms survived and were not replaced by an "Islamized" assemblage comprising imported vessels from the Middle East, Iran, or even China/Southeast Asia. The ceramics provide another indication of the complexity of African cultural hybridity (and survival) when exposed to international networks, in this instance, via the Red Sea and Indian Ocean (e.g., Basu, 2003; Beaujard, 2012; Lambourn, 2018)

Objectives

Findings

Conclusion