Taken from: Mambrui and Malindi from: in The Swahili World by Dashu Qin, Yu Ding 2017.

Mambrui was called Quilimanci in Portuguese accounts [Kirkman 1964: 95].

After 1980 researchers began to think that Malindi might have been relocated in ancient times; it may have shifted to the city’s present site due to re-alignment of the estuary and desertification of the coastal area. C. Bita conducted a succession of small-scale excavations near Malindi (Bita 2006) and Mambrui (Bita 2012). From his results Bita concluded that Mambrui was probably the earliest settlement in the Malindi area, and possibly even the birthplace of Malindi civilisation (2012).

Between 2010 and 2013, Peking University and the National Museums of Kenya dug a total area of 1,227 m2 at Mambrui. The excavation centred on the cemetery, with Chinese-ceramic-decorated pillar tombs, and the Qubba Mosque.

Excavations yielded a large quantity of remains, including house foundations, sanitary facilities, smelting and casting furnaces, walls and wells. Many kinds of artefacts were found, including more than 500 Chinese ceramic sherds, approximately 3,000 Islamic sherds and more than 130,000 local earthenware sherds. Other remains recovered included iron slag, tools for casting, a few glass beads, Indian earthenware, and animal bone. Radiocarbon dating, indicated settlement as early as the late ninth century (Ding 2015).

-Stage I from 850 to 1000 ce, in some 5 ha. The quantity of local earthenware found is small and few imported wares were recovered; a ninth-century celadon storage jar made in Guangdong Province was found, possibly shipped on from Lamu as a container.

-Stage II from 1000 to 1150 ce, in an area of 10 ha. An increase in local earthenware sherds and Islamic pottery (sgraffiato) and both Yue and Longquan wares from China. At the same time, furnaces possibly used for iron smelting were found.

-Stage III from 1150 to 1275 ce. In a 15 ha area. The Qubba Mosque was established at this time as the centre of the settlement. Elite stone-built residences and iron-making workshops have been found near the mosque. Chinese ceramics increased and maritime trade was growing.

-Stage IV, the peak period for Mambrui, started in 1275 and continued until 1435 ce covering 30 ha. The central area containing stone structures that could have covered as much as 7–8 ha. Remains of Islamic pottery and Chinese ceramics are present in large quantities. The cultural layers contain furnace wall fragments and significant quantities of slag, indicating that iron working continued to flourish. Furthermore, Chinese official blueand-white and Longquan porcelains excavated from these layers indicate that the Zheng He fleet may well have arrived in Mambrui at this time.

-Stage V from 1435 to 1520 ce, when indications are that Mambrui began to decline: the settlement area shrank to some 15 ha. Remnants of iron making and Chinese ceramics diminished.

Present day: an area of 8–10 ha.

Chinese ceramics in Mambrui: we found ceramic sherds which are likely evidence that Zheng He’s renowned fifteenth-century fleet reached the eastern African coast. We found a piece of Ming Yongle (1403–1424 ce) imperial kiln blue-and-white porcelain and a ‘Yongle Tong Bao’ copper coin cast between 1403 ce and 1424 ce. Furthermore, fragments of Hongwu (1368 ce–1398 ce) Longquan official kiln porcelain from the early Ming period have been found at Mambrui (Ding 2015). The two porcelain fragments are of special significance. Since official kiln porcelains were made exclusively for the central government or imperial family in the early fifteenth century, neither Chinese elites nor members of the general population could use them. Consequently, the most probable explanation for their presence is that Zheng He’s fleet brought them as gifts from the highest reaches of the Chinese government to local rulers. They provide important evidence of communication between ruling elites.

One of the ceramics (both sides) and the coin discussed.

Taken from: A study of 11th-15th centuries AD glass beads from Mambrui, Kenya: An archaeological and chemical approach; Julian Henderson; Alex I Siu (2021).

Conclusion:

Based on the analysis, the glass beads from Mambrui in Kenya are made of a subtype of soda- alumina glass called m-Na-Al 6 glass. This type of glass is mostly found in different archaeological sites (e.g. Manda and Gede) in Kenya in the 9th–13th centuries AD. The study shows that the east African wound bicones, wound ellipsoid, barrel and tubular beads are all made of m-Na-Al 6 glass. Lead isotope analysis suggests the colourants and opacifiers used in the Mambrui glass beads might have originated from four different regions including India, northern Thailand and possibly China.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Conclusions

Taken from: Mambrui and Malindi from: in The Swahili World by Dashu Qin, Yu Ding 2017.

For Mambrui and Malindi; both sites began in the ninth century. In light of the discovery of numerous iron artefacts in Mambrui, the ‘Malindi’ mentioned by al-Idrisi is more likely to be Mambrui. Mambrui and Malindi Old Town reached their heyday successively in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. The quantity of excavated Chinese ceramic material indicates that Malindi Old Town began to play a more important role in maritime trade after the fourteenth century. As a consequence, Malindi Old Town may come to replace Mambrui as the centre of the Malindi kingdom. It was at this time, when the two settlements were flourishing, that Zheng He’s fleet visited.

There is also another idea about the original Malindi; not Mambrui but Gedi:

Taken from: Swahili pre-modern warfare and violence in the Indian Ocean by Stephane Pradines 2020.

Gedi is probably the site of the ancient city of Malindi (Pradines, 2010, pp. 273-278) and the city would have been displaced at the same time as the course of the Sabaki River at the beginning of the 15th century. At the time of the re-establishment of the Gedi site, a section of its population emigrated to a coastal village, situated at the new mouth of the Sabaki River. These events took place between the end of the 14th century and the middle of the 15th century. This village was to become the city of Malindi, visited by the Portuguese in 1498. Cut off from its access to the Ocean, the ancient city of Malindi/Gedi fell into obscurity after 1589 and the city was abandoned once and for all after 1631. From the 11th century up until the end of the 15th century, Gedi was the largest Swahili site of North Kenya. One of the striking aspects of the Gedi ruins lies in the protection of the city by two concentric city wall circles.