Collaborative Research--Decoding the Swahili: An Integrated Archaeological and Genetic Study of the Swahili of East Africa

在国家科学基金会的支持下，Chapurukha Kusimba，Ryan Raaum和Sloan威廉姆斯博士将在肯尼亚海岸进行两个考古，民族历史和考古遗传学研究的实地季节。考古发掘将集中在Mtwapa遗址，这是一个着名的斯瓦希里港口城镇，可追溯到公元前2000年。公元前1732年至公元1750年。将在斯瓦希里民族历史学家、长老和其他土著对话者中进行民族志研究，以查明可能的来源人口。从Mtwapa挖掘出的人类遗骸的考古遗传学数据将与非洲、中东和亚洲的遗传学数据库进行比较。最后，将对陶瓷、铁和贸易文物以及动植物遗骸进行物理和化学分析，以重建生计和技术，并确定与东非其他地区和整个印度洋的关系。当这些新技术与仔细的发掘和详细的人种学信息相结合时，将使Kusimba，Raaum和威廉姆斯博士能够解决以下假设：1）早期斯瓦希里人虽然主要起源于非洲，但其组成比通常认为的要多样化得多; 2）一些非非洲移民到海岸确实发生在世纪之前3）斯瓦希里石头城镇是种族多样的。 Kusimba博士的长期研究议程侧重于了解公元第一个千年后期在东非海岸发展的城镇和城邦的起源和生物组成。肯尼亚和坦桑尼亚的考古调查表明，早期城邦的人工传统显示了早期村庄的明显进化发展。因此，东非和其他地方的前工业化城市化的兴起、维持和消亡都要归功于更广泛的区域和区域间互动领域。就东非而言，与非洲内地的关系以及与更广泛的印度洋贸易体系的联系进一步推动了这一发展。这项合作研究正在解决一些关键问题，这些问题对了解非洲内外的人口关系具有重要意义。研究人员希望这个项目能够证明东非人民和他们的印度洋邻居长期以来一直被怀疑但尚未被证实的共同生物谱系。在东非，这项研究可能对民族团结产生积极影响，民族团结往往因种族和“部落主义”而破裂。丰富的历史，人类学，语言学证据加上古代和当代的遗传数据将在这个项目中收集将贡献新的知识，并在考古学家和遗传学家之间的跨学科研究开辟新的途径。此外，该项目还将培训两名研究生，一名是美国人Colin LeJeune，另一名是肯尼亚人Ibrahim Busolo，攻读斯瓦希里考古学和遗传学博士学位。它还将使招聘和培训本科生在现场和实验室研究从雷曼学院和伊利诺伊大学芝加哥分校。

With National Science Foundation support, Drs. Chapurukha Kusimba, Ryan Raaum, and Sloan Williams will conduct two field seasons of archaeological, ethnohistoric, and archaeogenetics research on the Kenyan coast. The archaeological excavations will be centered at the site of Mtwapa, a prominent Swahili port town dating from ca. 1732 BCE to 1750 AD. Ethnographic research will be carried out amongst Swahili ethnohistorians, elders and other indigenous interlocutors about their origins to identify possible source populations. Archaeogenetic data from human remains excavated from Mtwapa will be compared with African, Middle Eastern and Asian genetic databases. Finally, physical and chemical analysis of ceramic, iron, and trade artifacts, and faunal and botanical remains will be conducted to reconstruct subsistence and technology and to identify relationships both with other regions of East Africa and throughout the Indian Ocean. These new technologies when combined with careful excavations and detailed ethnographic information will allow Drs. Kusimba, Raaum, and Williams to address the following hypotheses: 1) that early Swahili populations, while primarily of African origin, were much more diverse composition than commonly supposed; 2) that some non-African migration to the coast did occur prior to the 19th century 3) that Swahili stone towns were ethnically diverse. Dr. Kusimba's long-term research agenda has focused on understanding the origin and biological composition of the towns and city-states that developed on the East African coast in the late first millennium CE. Archaeological investigations in Kenya and Tanzania have demonstrated that the artifactual traditions in the early city-states show a clear evolutionary development from earlier villages. Thus preindustrial urbanism in East Africa and elsewhere owes its rise, sustenance, and demise to wider regional and interregional interaction spheres. In the case of East Africa, this development was furthered by relationships with the African hinterland and connections to the wider Indian Ocean trading system. This collaborative research is addressing key questions, which have important implications for understanding human population relationships both within and beyond Africa. The researchers hope this project will demonstrate the long suspected but still as yet proven shared biological genealogy of East African peoples and their Indian Ocean neighbors. In East Africa, this study may have positive implications for national unity, often fractured by ethnicity and 'tribalism'. The rich historic, anthropological, linguistic evidence coupled with ancient and contemporary genetic data to be collected in this project will contribute new knowledge and open new avenues in interdisciplinary research between archaeologists and geneticists. Additionally the project will train two graduate students, one American Colin LeJeune, and the other Kenyan, Ibrahim Busolo, for their PhD in Swahili archaeology and genetics. It will also enable the recruitment and training undergraduate students in field and laboratory research from Lehman College and the University of Illinois-Chicago.