Kuvala (Kwale Island close to Kisiyu)
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Ibn Majid (1470) is the only author to mention this place.
Taken from: The Excavation at Kwale Island, south of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania by Felix Chami
The survey established that only eight hectares of the western tip of the island has been occupied since the beginning of the first part of first millennium AD. It was seen that since the 14th century AD the extreme eastern point, about three hectares, was earmarked for burial, mosque and a port. The further inland area is the one with the present settlement.
Level 4 and 5 (of the trenches) seem to offer materials identified here as Swahili (13th-15th centuries AD) with a variety of vessel and decoration types found in this tradition (Chittick 1974:342-345).
Other cultural materials collected from these two levels include shells, glass fragments, piece of cloth (linen), bones and pieces of concretes, and goat droppings. The imported pottery looked to be of Islamic type and Chinese. A few beads typical of the period were also found. Levels 6 and 7 yielded cultural materials of the 9th -12th centuries AD. The cultural indicator of this period is mostly plain ware with vessel types termed elsewhere as terminal TIW tradition (Chami 1994:80). (Triangular Incised Ware). Other finds include shells, an iron knife and spear, shell beads, a bead grinder, a coin and a milk-white sherd with greenish alkaline glaze and a sugary paste. It was in level 7 where the first EIW (Early Iron Working) pottery was recovered from a buried context.
It can be concluded, that if any, a very small population of TIW tradition occupied the island between the 5th and the 9th centuries AD. After the end of the EIW occupation on the island, the next major occupation began after the 10th century when the island is connected to the rest of the coastal communities through trade, as seen in the find of many imports and Kilwa coin of the 13th century AD. The coin was found in Trench 1 level 7 associated with 10th-12th centuries materials. The motto found on this coin is: Yathiq bil-Wahid al-Minuan (trusts is the one the (Lord of) Favours).
The Medieval site on the western tip of the island. And the Google maps picture of it.
The hinterland of this very small island must have been the Swahili settlements of Kisiyu on the mainland and other settlements deeper inside the mainland.
Taken from: Archaeological Work at Kisiju, Tanzania, 1994 Felix Chami and Emanuel T. Kessy.
A site was found a kilometer northeast of Kisiju town containing materials dating to the 11th-13th centuries A.D. The site is very extensive, covering an area of about 160,000 m2. Artifacts identified comprise local potsherds and pieces of crucibles. This find conformed Harding's (1960) report of 15 complete copper crucibles collected from the area.
A site was found north of Tonga village, four kilometers north of Kisiju. Under a thick brush cover, it seems to have been rich and extensive. Along the old beach, now covered in mangroves, are numerous local and foreign potsherds, glass fragments and beads. All these seem to belong to the 11th -14th centuries. A buried house foundation can be observed right behind the old beach.
Note: when in the 15th century Ibn Majid wrote his book the Island of Kwale seems to have been the only Swahili settlement around for import-export.
Taken from: The Tanzanian Coast in the first millennium AD by F. Chami 1994.
For Misasa site at 20 km south west inland from Kisiji at the south eastern end of a swampy area called Zakwati (no name in Google maps) a total of 5788 TIW potsherds was found in trenches 1-5. Other artifacts included 28 bead-grinders, 32 fragments of tuyeres, 83 fragments of slag, two iron rings, four key-like objects, one hook and many miscellaneous iron objects, ranging from wire wound on a fiber core to iron knives. Seventeen copper beads, two copper bangles and two copper rings were also found. Other artifacts similar to those found on littoral sites were eight Sassanid sherds, seven glass and stone beads and 45 pieces of yellowish-green and colorless glass. The dating from the site is from 4th to 7th century AD.
Taken from: Iron Age Settlement around Mkiu, south-eastern Tanzania 1990 Azania 25(1):19-26 William B. Fawcett; Adria LaViolette
The indicators of trade can be found inland, such as 25 kilometres west of Kisiju at Mkiu, there was iron working, glass beads, copper artifacts, as well as grains of gum copal and a notable concentration of lithic artifacts.
Evidence of early first-millennium (pre-Swahili), large-scale iron-smelting was recovered from the coastal hinterland south of Dar es Salaam, at the sites of Mkiu (9th century AD), and close by Limbo attesting to active iron production before the expansion of early Swahili villages. Limbo is a major iron-smelting center during the first centuries of the first millennium with Kwale pottery affinities. A latter Iron Age tradition is also attested, probably dating about the end of the same millenium or the beginning of the second millennium. The latter period is distinguished by undecorated pottery similar to that recovered from period II at Kilwa.