Abstract
Understanding the timing and nature of human influence on coastal and island ecosystems is becoming a central concern in archaeological research, particularly when investigated within a historical ecology framework. Unfortunately, the coast and islands of eastern Africa have not figured significantly within this growing body of literature, but are important given their historically contingent environmental, social, and political contexts, as well as the considerable threats now posed to marine ecosystems. Here, we begin developing a longer-term understanding of past marine resource use in the Mafia Archipelago (eastern Africa), an area of high ecological importance containing the Mafia Island Marine Park. Focusing on the comparatively less researched marine invertebrates provides a means for initiating discussion on potential past marine ecosystem structure, human foraging and environmental shifts, and the implications for contemporary marine resource management. The available evidence suggests that human-environment interactions over the last 2000 years were complex and dynamic; however, these data raise more questions than answers regarding the specific drivers of changes observed in the archaeomalacological record. This is encouraging as a baseline investigation and emphasizes the need for further engagement with historical ecology by a range of cognate disciplines to enhance our understanding of these complex issues.
Highlights
Human impacts on oceans and coastal margins from over-exploitation, urbanization, industrialization, and resulting pollution have caused habitat loss, reduced species diversity, and accelerated oceanic and atmospheric warming on a global scale
The aim of this paper is to develop an understanding of past marine mollusk use at the Juani Primary School site in the Mafia Archipelago, an area contained within the Mafia Island Marine Park
A significant development for marine ecosystem and resource management in this region was the establishment of the Mafia Island Marine Park (MIMP) in 1995 (Figure 1)
Summary
Human impacts on oceans and coastal margins from over-exploitation, urbanization, industrialization, and resulting pollution have caused habitat loss, reduced species diversity, and accelerated oceanic and atmospheric warming on a global scale (as summarized by Jackson et al 2001) While these issues have garnered worldwide attention, the contemporary situation can be viewed as part of a much longer-term history of humans exploiting coasts and islands (Braje et al 2017; Jackson et al 2001). Possible multidirectional changes in past socio-economic organization may be recognized within a historical ecological approach, broadening the scope and significance of zooarchaeological research, feeding long-term data into the development of more effective conservation, management, and environmental policies (Balée 2006; Braje et al 2017; Rick and Lockwood 2013). Encompassing ~822 km, this area contains the highest marine biodiversity in Tanzania and potentially the richest in eastern Africa (Andersson and Ngazi 1995:476; Moshy and Bryceson 2016:3)
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