Architecturally, Pate is important because the quality and quantity of the standing remains offer unique insights into the architecture and life of the later Swahili world from about the seventeenth century (Garlake 1966; Ghaidan 1976; Allen 1974, 1979). There are two contemporary villages within the walls, Kitokwa to the west and Mitaayu to the east, (who live from farming tobacco in the post-medieval ruins as can be seen on the pictures) covering only a fraction of the site at its greatest extent. With 27 hectares within the town wall, and evidence of further settlement without, Pate is one of the largest sites on the coast, and as the excavations reveal, it is also one of the longest continuously occupied settlements in eastern Africa, with habitation spanning 1,200 years.

Periodisation of the strata and levels at Pate with dates based on the ceramic sequence.

Layer Ia late 8^th? -9^th : 3% of earthenware imported (Sasanian-Islamic)

Layer Ib 9^th-10^th : 1% of earthenware imported

Layer II 11^th to mid 12^th : 1.6% of earthenware imported

Layer III mid-12^th to mid 13^th : 1% of earthenware imported

Layer IV till end 15^th : 1% of earthenware imported

The first Far Eastern ceramic, a single sherd of Dusun Ware (from Guangdong province China) , appeared at Pate in the first half of the ninth century. White porcelain is represented by two sherds from two vessels from about the turn of the eleventh century. The first is possibly Ch'ing Pai. A steatite or chlorite-schist (soapstone) vessel, probably from north-eastern Madagascar, came by the mid-thirteenth century.

The other finds from Pate indicate a metal-working industry, possibly including iron- smelting, from earliest times. A found iron hook is suggestive of a deep-sea fishing industry. No specific evidence was recovered in the excavations of grain agriculture (or of tree crops such as bananas or coconuts). Bead-grinders found indicate local production of shell beads. These activities were also practiced at nearby Shanga. Glass, an import, and copper objects were in use by the earliest period. Coral was quarried and burned to make lime, presumably for building construction, from the tenth century. The people of earliest Pate were also connected with the larger Indian Ocean world through long distance trade, to judge from the appearance of the first Sasanian-Islamic sherds in 8^th-9^th century level. Rock crystal, which occurs at Manda and Shanga, was not found at Pate. Evidence from the artifacts underscores that Pate was participating in long-distance trade by the ninth century and that local industries for trade and subsistence were also in place.