First Place

Muhembo (Just north of Pangani)

Spread over some ten acres of dense bush are many traces of foundations and shards of a coarse pottery with a red glaze, which may have been local. A section of the foundation of a wall, eighteen inches thick and about six feet long, was stated by an inhabitant of Pangani to be all that remained of the ngome. Muhembo is in local tradition the old Pangani, the present Pangani having been occupied from Muhembo during the 18th and 19th centuries, the former site now being completely deserted. The reason for this change is that the Pangani river estuary silted up and moved to its present course four miles south. The connection by water with the interior was used from Pangani by Burton when he visited Sultan Kimwere of Vuga in 1857. There remains standing one small mosque 15 feet broad by thirty feet in length, with a room seven feet broad running down the whole of the west side. There is no trace of a well. The remains of the mihrab resemble that of the second mosque on Toten island. North of the mosque is a small group of more recent tombs. E. J. D. Pollard gives as dating of the site (based on more recent research) 13^th to 14^th century.

The next site Bweni Ndogo is also old enough but a mile upstream and so not visible from the ocean.

Kiungani

30 km south of Pangani but still a place from where the Pangani river valley could be used to easily transport inland but the first place to see on the continental shore when sailing passed Zanzibar Island. On the headland known as Kiungani, are the ruined remnants of two pillar tombs. One of these, which is remarkable for its height, has a doorway in its south - east corner, which is an unusual feature in a tomb of this type. Kiungani would seem to have been the site of a settlement in the 14th - 15th century. A further large pillar tomb, also in a poor state is to be seen some four miles to the north at Stahabu.

Taken from: When Did the Swahili Become Maritime?: A Reply to Fleisher et al. By Chapurukha M. Kusimba and Jonathan R. Walz in American Anthropologist Vol. 120, No. 3 September 2018.

About the commercial hinterland of the Pangani river. This has fortunately been investigated.

Systematic investigations at Mombo (at the foot of the Usambara Mountains) one hundred kilometers inland from Pangani found: Coastal finds included sixty marine shells, multiple aragonite (fossilized giant clam shell) beads, sixteen worked tubes of marine shell, and other non-local objects.

Other artifacts, of foreign origin, include thirty-four glass beads and beads of semiprecious stone (e.g., rock crystal, carnelian, and agate). The elemental signatures of eleven glass beads indicate Zhizo Series glass (eighth to tenth century CE) from Iran or Iraq, and later beads (post-1000 CE) of Indo-Pacific varieties made at localities in South Asia (Walz 2010). Specimens of hatched Sgraffiato ware (of Middle East origin) and coastal Swahili ceramics also were recovered, including red burnished and graphited feasting bowls typical of Swahili settlements during the middle second millennium. At Gonja (on the North side of the Pare Mountains) 200 km from Pangani were found: Pieces of rock crystal and a small number of Indo-Pacific glass beads and shards of glass typical at Swahili urban sites. Beads recovered from the overall project: 195 bead types generated 149 of imported glass and forty-six of other materials.

Taken from: A History of Tanzania (Historical Association of Tanazania, 1997, 288 p.) by I. N. Kimambo.

The customers for these luxury products:

In North Pare Mountains a kingdom led by the iron smiths was already existing. The power of the iron-smiths centered on their control of the supply of iron for making tools and agricultural implements on which prosperity depended and for making iron weapons to defend the community. Around these activities revolved the ideas connected with divine ritual functions ensuring continuity and success in society. But at the same time the iron-smiths were obliged to leave most administrative functions in the hands of appointed commoners and clan elders who were not strongly supervised from the center. It is likely that similar developments were taking place in Kilimanjaro and Usambara Mountains.

Taken from: The Medieval History of the Coast of Tanganyika: With Special Reference to Recent Archaeological Discoveries, Issues 55-57 1962.

Second Place

Saadani

At the north end of the village, not far from the ruins of the German boma, are the remains of a very large building. It is correctly orientated for a mosque. On the central axis of the building at the south end are three pillars. The external walls are nowhere more than 3’ above ground. There are two small cemeteries, with tombs of the 18th and 19th centuries, No pottery or porcelain

was found. E. J. D. Pollard gives as dating of the site (based on more recent research) 13th to 15th century.

From a later date. The house in which the slaves were held in Saadani village.