Unguja Mkuu
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The first author to mention Unguja (on Zanzibar) was Al Jahiz (869) as Lunjuya and Langawiya. An uncertain mention from Hudud al Alam (982): M.ljan is possibly Unguja Mkuu according to M. Horton (1996). Second: Kitab Ghara'ib al-funun (1050): The island of Unjuwa. There are twenty anchorages around it. It has a town called Ukuh. (Unguja Mkuu). Third: Yakut (1220): Leikhouna, (or Bandjouya or Lendjouya (Unguja), Landschuja) is a big island and the seat of the elected kings in the land.
Taken from: A study of spatial organisation and harbour spaces in the early Swahili ports of the Zanzibar Archipelago, 550-1100CE by Thomas Fitton 2017.
Unguja Mkuu on Zanzibar.
Under: Interpretation of the sixth-eleventh century proto-Swahili settlement plan of Unguja Ukuu, based on geophysical and shoreline survey and excavations.
Horton and Clark’s (1985) survey of the site in 1984 mapped the extent of the site at around 15ha using surface sherd scatters. They reported a sequence of occupation extending from the seventh to the tenth century, and a later reoccupation around the fifteenth century based on their ceramic analysis. This survey also recorded robbed out coral walls attributed by locals to a fifteenth century ‘Arab’ house, and of a mosque which once stood close to the beach (remains have now disappeared).
The survey suggested that the main concentration of the site was spread across the northern base of the peninsula and extended 300m inland.
(Juma 1996, 2004) investigations included a series of trenches which contained the remains of various coral rag buildings and a mosque across the ridgeline which stretches north from the peninsula, in what may be considered the urban zone of the settlement.
Juma divides the occupation of the site into two major periods, each with two phases; Period I from 500 – 900 CE, divided into Period Ia, from 500-750, and Ib, from 750-900; Period II covering 1050 – 1600 CE, divided into Period IIa, from 1050 -1100, and IIb, from 1450 – 1600 (Juma 2004). His dating of the site highlights a sudden and unexplained abandonment of the site around 900 CE, and a short-lived phase of resettlement in the eleventh century.
In 2011 and 2012 test-pit excavations were conducted by the Sealinks Project. The radiocarbon dating of the early phases investigated by the Sealinks Project does not accord with Juma’s estimates of a fifth century date of occupation, and it was suggested that the earliest verifiable date of occupation was likely to be the early seventh century CE (Crowther et al 2013b:17).
Results of the Thomas Fitton survey: It is suggested that the early, ephemeral occupation of the site in the 5th century was arrayed around the north-eastern end of Menai Beach. The timber structure identified in Trench B1 has been given an estimated date of the seventh – tenth centuries. Similar structures indicate the presence of an extensive area of timber or wattle and daub buildings on the beachfront of Menai Bay.
It is suggested that the occupation of the eastern half of the site above the mangrove creek is likely to represent an expansion of the site around the eighth - ninth centuries.
In and around the narrow, low-lying ‘bridge’ linking the peninsula to the mainland into a midden at what was then the estimated southern limit of the settlement was found large quantities of iron slag, and no evidence of either daub or coral structures.
It is hypothesized that the beach mosque dates to a phase of construction around the ninth – tenth century.
Taken from: NGUJA UKUU ON ZANZIBAR An archaeological study of early urbanism 2004 by Abdurahman Juma
China Ware:
-Coarse stoneware called “Dusun” during the Tang and Song periods of China (8th–10th-centuries AD). Very few fragments of these vessels have been found at Unguja Ukuu.
-Coarse painted stoneware manufactured from Changsha kilns in Hunan province of China.
A few sherds of this stoneware have been recovered from the site of the 9thcentury AD.
However, the Changsha ware tradition developed from the 2nd century BC one example recovered from the site possibly represents a residual type of such early Changsha ware.
- Fine, light green-glazed stoneware. Two bowl rims of this ware were found and date before 700 AD.
- Longquan green celadon ware. Few examples from the early Ming period (late 14th century AD) have been found.
(Other types of pottery from the Far East were also found)
Near East:
- Blue-green glazed ware. Wilding (1988) reported this kind of pottery from Aksum collections and indicated that this ware was already widely distributed c. 500 AD. Indeed, it occurs at Unguja Ukuu from the earliest occupation levels. This ware continued to be produced appreciably unchanged from the Sasanian pre-Islamic period up to the early Islamic period. It has been reported on the east African coast from 8–9th century contexts. . A complete bottle recovered from this context at Unguja Ukuu is similar to an example that Whitehouse (1979) excavated at Siraf.
- Opaque white-glazed ware. Three fragments found. Tampoe (1989) has suggested a chronology of between 800–1000 AD for all varieties of the white-glazed ware. The white-glazed ware is also well known from Kilwa Period (Chittick 1974a) and many other sites.
- Lustre ware. The vessels were produced towards the end of the 9th century AD and in later periods.
- Lead-glazed ware , generally called “sgraffiato”. One among the recovered fragments of this ware
(4–5 mm thick) appears to be the early type sgrafiatto it is suggested that these date from the 8th century AD.
(Other types of pottery from the Near East were also found).
Taken from: Use of Zanzibar copal (Hymenaea verrucosa Gaertn.) as incense at Unguja Ukuu, Tanzania in the 7–8th century CE: chemical insights into trade and Indian Ocean interactions. Journal of Archaeological Science; Volume 53, January 2015, Pages 374-390 by Crowther, Alison; Veall, Margaret-Ashley et al.
Organic residue extracted from a 7th–early 8th century CE very rare brass lid of an incense burner of Unguja Ukuu was identified as Zanzibar copal showing early contact between coastal East Africa and the Indian Ocean world as copal is known to be an important export product of Zanzibar. The artefact was excavated by the University of Oxford's Sealinks Project.
Note: Medieval writers mentioning copal from Zanzibar are:
- Al Biruni: Kitab al-Saydanah fi Al-Tibb (Book on Pharmacy) (1050)
- Al-Biruni: Kitab al-Jamahir fi ma’rifat al-Jawahir. (The Book most Comprehensive in Knowledge on Precious Stones.)(1050)
- Written for Sultan al-Muzaffar: Nur al-ma'arif (Light of Knowledge) (1295)
So already in 1050 Zanzibar copal was known in Asia.