{"id":1137,"date":"2014-03-10T09:29:19","date_gmt":"2014-03-10T09:29:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sealinksproject.com\/?p=1137"},"modified":"2014-03-23T07:39:51","modified_gmt":"2014-03-23T07:39:51","slug":"new-evidence-from-ukunju-cave","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sealinksproject.com\/?p=1137","title":{"rendered":"New evidence from Ukunju Cave"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Crowther, A., Horton, M., Kotarba-Morley, A., Prendergast, M., Quintana Morales, E., Wood, M., Shipton, C., Fuller, D.Q., Tibesasa, R., Mills, W. &amp; Boivin, N. 2014. Iron Age agriculture, fishing and trade in the Mafia archipelago, Tanzania: New evidence from Ukunju Cave.<em>Azania<\/em>\u00a049(1): 21-44. \u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.sealinksproject.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/09\/Crowther-et-al.-2014-Azania-Ukunju.pdf\">PDF<\/a><\/p>\n<p><b>Abstract<\/b><\/p>\n<p>Small-scale excavations were recently undertaken at the site of Ukunju Cave in the Mafia archipelago, Tanzania, to collect new bioarchaeological and material culture data relating to the site\u2019s occupation, and the nature of early subsistence and long-distance trade in the region. Our findings suggest that occupation of the cave began during the Middle Iron Age (MIA, c. 7<sup>th<\/sup>\u201310<sup>th<\/sup> centuries AD), as indicated by the presence of local Early Tana Tradition (ETT) \/ Triangular Incised Ware (TIW) pottery in the lowest layers above bedrock, as well as small quantities of imported ceramics and glass beads also dating from the mid to late first millennium AD. Small assemblages of faunal and botanical remains, including introduced African crops (pearl millet, sorghum, baobab and possibly cowpea) were found in association with these finds, indicating that these MIA communities practiced a mixed economy of fishing, domestic livestock keeping, and agriculture. In addition, the presence of cotton suggests they may have also been producing fibres or textiles, most likely for local use but possibly for long distance trade. Although some quartz lithics were recovered, we found no evidence of pre-Iron Age LSA culture at the cave, contrary to previous claims.<\/p>\n<p><b>Keywords<\/b><\/p>\n<p>Middle Iron Age; Tana Tradition\/Triangular Incised Ware pottery; African crops; stone tools; Indian Ocean trade; Tanzania<\/p>\n<p>Des fouilles \u00e0 \u00e9chelle r\u00e9duite ont \u00e9t\u00e9 r\u00e9cemment men\u00e9es dans la grotte d\u2019Ukunju, sur l\u2019\u00eele de Juani, dans l\u2019archipel de Mafia en Tanzanie. Elles avaient pour objectif de collecter de nouvelles donn\u00e9es bioarch\u00e9ologiques, en association avec le mat\u00e9riel arch\u00e9ologique, relatives \u00e0 l\u2019occupation du site, aux modes de subsistance anciens et au commerce \u00e0 longue distance dans la region. Nos r\u00e9sultats sugg\u00e8rent que l\u2019occupation a commenc\u00e9 au cours du Second \u00c2ge de Fer (\u00c2ge du Fer Interm\u00e9diaire, Middle Iron Age, MIA, VII<sup>ieme<\/sup>-X<sup>ieme<\/sup> siecles\u00a0 ap. J.-C. environ) comme l\u2019indique la pr\u00e9sence de poterie de fabrication locale de la phase la plus ancienne de tradition Tana au triangles incis\u00e9es\u00a0 (Early Tana Tradition (ETT) \/ Triangular Incised Ware (TIW)) ainsi que de petites quantit\u00e9s de c\u00e9ramiques et des perles de verre import\u00e9es dans la deuxi\u00e8me moiti\u00e9 du premier mill\u00e9naire ap. J.-C. Des niveaux contenant des quantit\u00e9s r\u00e9duites de restes fauniques et botaniques, notamment des esp\u00e8ces cultives en Afrique (millet, sorgho, baobab et peut-\u00eatre ni\u00e9b\u00e9) ont \u00e9t\u00e9 trouv\u00e9s, en association avec les mat\u00e9riaux arch\u00e9ologiques. Ceci indiquerait que ces communaut\u00e9s du MIA avaient une \u00e9conomie vari\u00e9e comprenant activit\u00e9s de p\u00eache, gestion de b\u00e9tail et agriculture. La pr\u00e9sence de coton sugg\u00e8re la possibilit\u00e9 qu&#8217;ils fabriquaient des fibres ou des textiles, soit pour une utilisation locale ou\u00a0 pour du commerce sur de longues distances. Bien que certains lithiques en quartz aient \u00e9t\u00e9 retrouv\u00e9s, nous n\u2019avons d\u00e9cel\u00e9 aucune preuve de l\u2019occupation de la grotte \u00e0 l\u2019\u00c2ge de Pierre tardif (Late Stone Age, LSA) ou au N\u00e9olithique dans la grotte, contrairement \u00e0 ce qui avait \u00e9t\u00e9 affirm\u00e9 pr\u00e9c\u00e9demment.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Crowther, A., Horton, M., Kotarba-Morley, A., Prendergast, M., Quintana Morales, E., Wood, M., Shipton, C., Fuller, D.Q., Tibesasa, R., Mills, W. &amp; Boivin, N. 2014. Iron Age agriculture, fishing and trade in the Mafia archipelago, Tanzania: New evidence from Ukunju Cave.Azania\u00a049(1): 21-44. \u00a0PDF Abstract Small-scale excavations were recently undertaken at the site of Ukunju Cave [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1138,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1137","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-publications"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sealinksproject.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1137","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sealinksproject.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sealinksproject.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sealinksproject.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sealinksproject.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1137"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sealinksproject.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1137\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1145,"href":"https:\/\/sealinksproject.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1137\/revisions\/1145"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sealinksproject.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1138"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sealinksproject.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1137"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sealinksproject.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1137"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sealinksproject.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1137"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}