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Note on connections between the Indonesian archipelago and East Africa:

Taken from: http://www.powerhousemuseum.com/collection/database/?irn=305381&img=114257

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2400215/How-900-year-old-African-coins-Australia-finally-solve-mystery-arrived-Down-Under-first.html

Five Kilwa coins lying in the sand, found by RAAF serviceman M. Isenberg during World War II on Australia’s Wessel Islands,

hail from the medieval sultanate of Kilwa and are estimated to date back to the 12th century.

The Kilwa coins were discovered alongside four Dutch coins from the 17th and 18th centuries.

Isenberg initially tried to sell the coins but was unsuccessful. He put them away for decades and it wasn't until 1979

that he sent them to a museum for identification, along with a map showing where he had found them.

The copper coins, which were not used outside of East Africa, probably held very little monetary value in Kilwa

(centered on an island off modern-day Tanzania). But they are found 10,000km east of where they originated, presenting

a very great mystery.

The coins have led to speculation that parts of northern Australia were visited by other mariners from as far away as the

Middle East and Africa. The argument for the involvement of Kilwa traders and also the Portuguese is quite compelling.

The sea route from Kilwa in east Africa to Oman and then onto India, Malaysia and Australia’s close neighbor Indonesia

was well established by the 1500s and probably for many hundreds of years before that.