User:DaFlyingFishmonger/sandbox

East African Maritime Archaeology

Maritime Archaeology in East Africa spans the range from the horn of Somalia south to Mozambique, and includes the various islands and island chains dotting the map off the coast of Somalia, Mozambique, Tanzania and Kenya. Primary areas along this coast include the Island of Zanzibar, and the Mafia, Lamu, and Kilwa, Archipelagoes. Although East African societies developed nautical capabilities for themselves, most of the maritime artifacts point to external merchants from Mediterranean cultures like Egypt and Greece, and Chinese from East Asia in the early stages, to the great European powers during the Ages of Colonialization and Imperialism.

Sea Movement

While the use of ocean marine resources dates back to as early as 60 kya in South African sites such as Blombos Cave, and later along the East coast, the record for the use of nautical technologies is less known. Based on dating of LSA sites in Zanzibar Cave on the island of Zanzibar, the use of nautical technology would date at least to the seventh or eighth century AD for the Tanzanian coastal cultures that moved from the mainland to inhabit the island. That date can be pushed back even further by sites discovered in the Mafia Archipelago, sites which suggest colonization during the Early Iron Age, which has been dated to between the first and sixth century AD.

Archaeologists believe that as coastal areas were easier to reach than inland areas along Eastern Africa, most interactions between cultural groups were Longitudinal in nature. This trade started long before the implementation of boats, but was made easier after the fact.

Outside Contact

When outside cultures like Rome and China encountered the East African coast, they did not come to people foreign to the concept of boat usage, though the scale was much different. While both came in large trading vessels the local Africans relied more on vessels that kept close to the coast which were used more for local trading and fishing than long expeditions.

Coastal Subsistence, Maritime Trade, and the Colonization of Small Offshore Islands in Eastern African Prehistory - Alison Crowther, Patrick Faulkner, Mary E. Prendergast, Eréndira M. Quintana Morales, Mark Horton, Edwin Wilmsen, Anna M. Kotarba-Morley, Annalisa Christie, Nik Petek, Ruth Tibesasa, Katerina Douka, Llorenç Picornell-Gelabert, Xavier Carah & Nicole Boivin

The Archaeology of Aquatic Adaptations: Paradigms for a New Millennium - http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/0043824042000185838
 * Jon M. Erlandson

http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10963-006-9002-z

https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=xpKzCwAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PR8&dq=East+African+underwater+archaeology&ots=0lqgSigsIT&sig=U8vX4vQbeSlC82LcBe_lwTDhiOw#v=onepage&q&f=false

https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=_UXuBwAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PA3&dq=East+African+underwater+archaeology&ots=5UOCWxrDtG&sig=ndVJ-VrAYNww2WJfjUwc8aaUFZQ#v=onepage&q=East%20African%20underwater%20archaeology&f=false

http://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/25615565.pdf

http://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/284208.pdf

Nice start! One quick thing - you need to type these references out so that readers can see them without having to copy and paste the URLs. In terms of content, I'd focus much less on the early hominid stuff and the pastoralism angle, and focus on the archaeology of seafaring on the eastern African coast. I'd focus on underwater archaeology along the Swahili Coast - e.g. http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11457-012-9102-0. I'd also look up work by Edward Pollard: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0278416508000330. Hope that helps to narrow down your topic a bit. Good work so far - keep going and let me know how else I can help! Ninafundisha (talk) 03:14, 28 October 2016 (UTC)