Talk:Ruins of Gedi

Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment
This article is or was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): BBTouag25.

Above undated message substituted from Template:Dashboard.wikiedu.org assignment by PrimeBOT (talk) 08:26, 17 January 2022 (UTC)

Intent to Edit
In addition to making further contributions to the page I intend to edit the existing content. One of the most easily observed issues with the existing text is that the “Legends” section is underdeveloped. I have found some, albeit very little information on this subject. However, the information I found may be able to contribute to the section and pertains to how the legends may have been the result of the sites abandonment and the identity of the local group who has associated supernatural elements to the site. Although my original intent was not to contribute to this section, since I have found information relating to it I will determine if the section can be expanded. Otherwise, if the section cannot be developed further, I will consider removing it, since it is linked with the Ajuran Sultanate page, which is associated with Somalia rather than the Swahili coastal settlements that Gedi is a part of. I will also modify the introduction due to the absence of some citations and its ad hoc presentation of information. However, much of the information contained within the body I will retain in different sections. Presently, the information in the introduction can be organized into sections relating to site location, occupation history, architecture, material culture, and the sites history as an archaeological and historic site, which need to be both expanded on and placed under the appropriate subheadings. Since most of the material in the introduction can be reorganized under different sections, it will have to be recreated to introduce the following subheadings. For the introduction, I intend to introduce the site according to its archaeological and historical significance, which can be obtained from the research questions developed from the scholarship on Gedi. In addition to the previously mentioned reorganization and expansion of headings and their content, there are additional topics that can be incorporated into the existing article. Although I will focus on expanding on the archaeological aspects of the site, it will be just as crucial to provide context and the theories that have been developed from the research at the site. One of primary focuses will be incorporating a section on excavations at the site, which can be divided by the rediscovery of the site by colonials, the initial excavations in the 1950s, and recent excavations that have taken place since the 1990s. The history of the excavations and their affiliated research questions also demands the incorporation of a section about the evolution of the sites interpretation initially as one of several Arab colonies on the Swahili coast to the analysis of both Arabic and African elements found at the site that show a fusion of cultures resulting in the formation of the modern Swahili culture. Also, since the description of the site’s architectural elements are crucial to both archaeological investigations and describing the site itself, I will incorporate a section dedicated to describing the sites layout related with the excavations. Additional sections I intend to create include “trade and exchange” associated with the material culture section, “art and iconography” associated with the Great Mosque and pottery, and “culture” associated with the sites architecture and pottery, which illustrate the sites political and social organization.BBTouag25 (talk) 09:10, 23 October 2016 (UTC)


 * Excellent job so far. This sounds like a great plan to me - detailed and ambitious, but doable! Your sections sound appropriate, and I think you can definitely turn this into a great article. Here's another reference that will help: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00672700309480369?journalCode=raza20. Pradines did a bunch of new work at the site recently, and while most of his publications are in French, this one is in English. At some point you'll also want to think about adding a map, but we can talk about how to do that in class. Good work!! Let me know how else I can help. Ninafundisha (talk) 20:54, 28 October 2016 (UTC)