Hinterlands and Cities: Archaeological Investigations of Economy and Trade in Tsavo, Kenya

Drs。Chapurukha Kusimba和Sibel Kusimba将在肯尼亚东南部察沃地区进行考古和人种学研究的两个实地季节。他们正在研究公元前2000年至1800年期间，小规模但多样化的社会如何参与并受到新兴贸易系统的影响，这些贸易系统在旧世界的港口城市之间运送象牙、贵金属、农业食品、陶瓷、纺织品、人类和文化知识。在察沃，狩猎采集者、农民和牧民相互交流和交易，并与肯尼亚海岸的商人进行交易。察沃地区是非洲贸易货物的重要来源和通道，这些货物通过沿海城市进入印度洋和地中海贸易，如象牙、奴隶、犀牛角、动物皮和水晶。从公元1000-1500年，察沃象牙成为世界市场上越来越有价值的商品和货币形式。东非沿海城市有着多样化和明确的社会等级制度，由社会和宗教精英、平民、外国人和奴隶组成。精英们管理和资助复杂而广泛的区域间贸易网络。他们还资助工艺专家，包括炼铁工人、专业渔民和水手。他们拥有最高产的土地，并将土地租给平民、新移民和奴隶。他们还可能资助和支持内陆的专业猎人，以提供象牙等出口贸易商品。毫无疑问，城市精英的行动对东非参与全球贸易至关重要。然而，在察沃这样的内陆地区，普通人的参与使得精英们能够积累财富、权力和地位。由于精英阶层的行为几乎一直是东非考古学的独家焦点，所以人们对沿海贸易对察沃社区的影响知之甚少。项目小组汇集了西方和肯尼亚考古学、历史语言学、地理考古学、民族志和考古学专家，对察沃贸易的发展和文化/生态影响进行协调调查。在三个野外季节中，Kusimba及其同事已经确定了200多个地点，包括广泛的铁生产综合体，岩石庇护所农牧民和狩猎采集者定居点，包括保存完好的干石制牛圈和人类睡眠和食物加工区，露天地点和埋葬活动地点，包括二次重新埋葬。他们假设察沃社区和个人利用联盟、竞争和强化来增加他们对贸易的参与。这些策略可能由于对大象的过度开发而造成生态破坏，而大象以木本和灌木植被为食，维持着生态系统的生物多样性和人类牧民的牧区。他们的研究将通过在察沃的四个地区进行挖掘，以及随后对陶器、石器制品、动物遗骸和遗址建筑和位置的化学和属性分析，来检验这三种策略的使用和生态影响。古生态分析，包括孢粉学和土壤化学，将寻找与大象过度开采有关的环境退化的证据。

Drs. Chapurukha Kusimba and Sibel Kusimba will conduct two field seasons of archaeological and ethnographic research in the Tsavo region of southeastern Kenya. They are studying how small-scale but diverse societies participated in and were impacted by burgeoning trading systems that moved ivory, precious metals, agricultural foodstuffs, ceramics, textiles, human beings and cultural knowledge across port cities of the Old World during the period 2000 b.c.e. - 1800 c.e. In Tsavo, hunter-gatherers, farmers, and pastoralists interacted and traded amongst themselves and with merchants from the Kenyan Coast, where Muslim urban trading polities developed from 900-1700 c.e. The Tsavo region was an important source and conduit for African trade goods bound via Coast cities into Indian Ocean and Mediterranean trade, such as ivory, slaves, rhinoceros horns, animal skins, and rock crystal. From 1000-1500 AD Tsavo ivory became an increasingly valuable commodity and form of currency on the world market. The East African Coastal cities had a diverse and well-defined social hierarchy composed of a social and religious elite, commoners, foreigners, and slaves. The elite managed and financed complex and extensive interregional trade networks. They also sponsored craft specialists including ironworkers, specialized fishermen, and sailors. They owned the most productive land and leased out the land to commoners, newcomers, and slaves. They may also have financed and supported specialized hunters in the hinterland to provide export trade goods such as ivory. The actions of urban elite were no doubt important in the involvement of East Africa in global trade. However, the participation of ordinary people in hinterlands like Tsavo enabled elite accumulation of wealth, power, and status. Because elite actions have been an almost exclusive focus of East African archaeology, little is known about the impact of Coastal trade on Tsavo communities. The project team brings together Western and Kenyan specialists in archaeology, historical linguistics, geoarchaeology ethnography and archaeology to conduct a coordinated investigation into the development and cultural/ecological impact of trade in Tsavo. In three field seasons, the Kusimba's and colleagues have identified over 200 sites, including an extensive iron production complex, rockshelter agropastoralist and hunter-gatherer settlements including preserved dry stonework cattle pens and human sleeping and food processing areas, open-air sites, and sites of mortuary activity, including secondary reburial. They hypothesize that Tsavo communities and individuals used alliances, competition, and intensification to increase their participation in trade. These strategies may have caused ecological disruption through overexploitation of the elephant, whose foraging of woody and shrubby vegetation maintains ecosystem biodiversity and grazing areas for human pastoralists. Their research will examine the use and ecological effects of these three strategies through excavations in four areas of Tsavo and subsequent chemical and attribute analysis of pottery, lithic artifacts, faunal remains, and site architecture and location. Paleoecological analysis, including palynology and soil chemistry, will look for evidence of environmental degredation associated with elephant overexploitation.