African imports.

Imports from East Africa are very abundant in Sharma. These ceramics were fairly evenly distributed across the site, rather than being found in a specific ‘African quarter’. All the vessels lie within the range of Tana / TIW ceramics.

Not taking into account the very many "finger jars", present in Africa but which could have been manufactured in Sharma itself, and various pieces whose origin is not yet absolutely certain, about 420 African shards were identified, i.e. 12.5% of the identifiable corpus. And over the period of occupation varies between 21.5% (c. 1000 CE) and 14% (c. 1150 CE) of  the unglazed pottery. The vast majority of the corpus is made up of pots. By far the best-represented type (320 copies) is that of globular pots or pots with a rounded bottom and a wide opening surrounded by a short, slightly concave neck in the extension of the walls. In fact, most of these pieces are carbonized, suggesting that they are cooking or storing pots rather than jars or bowls.

 

They measure 20 to 30 cm in diameter for about fifteen centimetres in height on average. These pots are characteristic of East African ceramics and have been recorded from Kenya to Mozambique. They are dated in Kilwa from (IX-XII and XIII centuries); at Shanga they appear in the levels of the IX-XIV centuries, with varied incised decorations. Many other pieces would also be of African origin.

 

- Pot with arca (sea shell) imprint: 4 of them, from the end of the tenth-begin eleventh century. From Comoros and N-Madagascar. In Shanga three were found; also at Manda; some at Unguja Ukuu. They were older then in Sharma which is the reason why few were found in Sharma.

-Pot decorated with hatched triangles, only 3 of them. In East Africa many of the oldest pots (eight-tenth century) are from this type. Found in: Shanga, Pate, Manda, Unguja Ukuu, Kilwa, Chibuene (in Mozambique). Not many pots found in Sharma because they are older than Sharma.

-Pots decorated with incised lines; 20% of all African pots. They start appearing after 1050. Found in: Shanga, Kilwa, Manda.

-Pot decorated with a framework: 6 of them. Second half eleventh century. Only found in Manda and Shanga.

-Pots bordered with beads: 20 of them. Eleventh-twelfth century. Found in Manda, Shanga, Kilwa. 

-Pots streamlined decorated with grooves: 4 of them. Twelfth century. Only found in Manda and Shanga.

-Pots with marked hull: 50 of them. Eleventh-twelfth century. Found in Manda, Shanga, Kilwa, Comoros.

-Pots with a red slip: 190 of them. Tenth-twefth century. Found in Comoros, N-W Madagascar, Manda, Unguja Mkuu, Kilwa, Chibuene: Eleventh-thirteenth century.

-Pots with a red slip and decorated with graphite. 40 of them. Tenth-Eleventh century. Mostly from the Comoros. Also; Manda, Shanga, Gedi, Unguja Ukuu, Kilwa, Chibuene.

 

All the archaeological data suggest that Sharma was rather a transit warehouse, a fortified set of stores founded at the crossroads of their trade routes between the Persian Gulf, Africa and the Far East by merchants foreigners whose trade networks were already well established, the stopover where ships came to stock up on incense and other local foodstuffs and restock their cargo before setting sail for new destinations. As travelling down the African coast required the north-east monsoon, while sailing out of the Gulf of Aden towards India required the south west monsoon. Essentially composed of administrators, soldiers and craftsmen, the population of such a warehouse would have been quite small, which would correspond much better with the reduced size of the mosque as well as with the limited water resources of the place. This would also explain the rather crude character of most of the buildings, the absence of coins and the scarcity of luxury items, the unearthed material probably representing mostly the remains of fragile broken cargo, ceramics and glassware.

 

The interpretation of this puzzling assemblage remains controversial, and suggests that Africans were living in Sharma. A trade in African slaves is mentioned (Goitein & Friedman 2008: 454)(See my webpage: Letter from Khalaf b. Isaac to Halfon ha-Levi b. Nethanel (1140)), but it seems odd that slaves would be using (and importing) such high status pottery.

It is likely that there was an African merchant community resident in Sharma, in contact with East Africa, most likely Pemba (most of the pottery is also found in Pemba), and who were receiving familiar pots from home on a regular basis.

 

Hints of what might have been traded emerge from the volume: 124 pieces of gum or resin were analysed, of which around half were East African copal. Copal is used as a basis for incense and was detected on a near contemporary incense burner at Unguja Ukuu (Crowther et al. 2015)(See my webpage on Unguja Ukuu). Another possible ancient use is to caulk sewn boats.

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.

 

Food may also have been reaching Sharma, as quantities of Sorghum (Sorghum bicolor) were recovered in a tenth century phase as well as some millet (Panicoideae). Intriguing small artefacts of African origin include worked pumice, chlorite schist (from Madagascar) and aragonite. Four rock crystal beads were recorded, but no waste crystal often found on East African sites (Horton et al. 2017).

Another possible clue about the activity of the African community were 355 fragments of what the excavators called ‘jars with traces of fingers’ but published from Shanga as terracotta vessels (Horton 1996: 335), but also widely distributed along the coast, and undoubtedly of African origin. They are unfired and crudely made vessels, and the Sharma team propose that they might have bene used by slaves. Their form is similar to large jars employed in medieval sugar production (Wartburg 1983), and they may have been to collect the molasses.

 

Taken from: Sharma. Un entrepôt de commerce Medieval ……. Reviewed by Stéphane Pradines.

 

The study of the stone crockery is: The majority of the vessels are cylindrical in shape and carved in steatite or chlorite schist. This rock is found in Yemen and in Arabia. Nevertheless, Axelle Rougeulle mentions similar objects found by Chittick in Kilwa and which, undoubtedly, come from the Madagascan site of Vohemar. As quite rightly noted, an African provenance of some of these objects

cannot be ruled out. This observation is very important for two reasons: firstly, because of the international trade of Rock Crystal coming from the same regions of Madagascar as the steatite, and secondly, because of the food supply. The chapter on the carpological study by Dabrowski, Tengberg, Guillemarre and Bouchaud indicates the discovery of a grain of rice, supposedly imported from Egypt or India. Alas, this is to be unaware of the historical data pointing towards Madagascar

being a supplier of rice to Aden via Kilwa. (Pradines, 2010, 14) This food provision could, in itself,

explain the presence of the African general-purpose ceramics and the Madagascan stone crockery. An African presence that was not explained in the preceding chapter.

 

Taken from : Sharma et l’essor du commerce islamique dans l’océan Indien occidental (Xe-XIIesiècle) by Eric Vallet

 

It should also be emphasized that the appearance and development of Sharma also coincided with important changes on the coast of East Africa, which Arab geographers referred to as Bilad al-Zanj. Excavations carried out in various places, from the islands of Pemba and Zanzibar to Madagascar, show the appearance during the second half of the tenth century of veritable small Islamic towns, from more modest pre-existing sites or from ex nihilo foundations, as in Mtambwe Mkuu and Ras Mkumbu (Pemba), Kilwa or Sanje ya Kati (Horton, forthcoming; Pradines 2009). The spread of local monetary minting also shows the entrenchment of new Islamic local powers. The most famous example is that of the coins minted in the name of al‑Ḥasan b. 'Ali, a personage identified with the founder of the first dynasty of Kilwa, according to the Chronicles of Kilwa, and whose reign took place at a time which is not yet precisely known between the end of the tenth century and the mid-eleventh century (Horton et al. 1986). Even if it remains difficult to prove, this general urban development supposes a development of commercial exchanges, within the East African space itself, and with the more distant regions of the Indian Ocean. Even if the presence of Muslim merchants is attested well before this period, probably from the earliest days of Islam, the urbanization and Islamization of this long coastal strip thus reached a decisive threshold in the second half of the tenth century. We can grasp a little of the renewed enthusiasm for trade with the Zanj in al-Muqaddasi: arriving in Aden in the 980s, it was towards this trade that he oriented himself – more than towards the one towards the Gulf, India and China (al-Muqaddasi 1906, p. 97).

 

Taken from: Mark Horton · Nicole Boivin · Alison Crowther · Ben Gaskell · Chantal Radimilahy · Henry Wright: East Africa as a Source for Fatimid Rock Crystal. Workshops from Kenya to Madagascar. 2015

 

The ceramic connection between Sharma and Mtambwe Mkuu (on Pemba) is particularly significant, as from this site on Pemba a hoard of over 2000 locally produced silver coins and at least 13 gold dinars were found. Eight of the latter were from Fatimid mints, the latest of which was dated 458 (AD 1066). From the hoard, eight coins were from Fatimid mints, but three were »imitation« Fatimid coins that could have been locally minted in East Africa or on the Arabian coast; these bore nonsensical Arabic inscriptions, in a bulls-eye design found on the coins of al-Mustansir (1036-1094). These »imitation« Fatimid coins have been found farther south – one from Kisimani Mafia on Mafia Island, and two hoards of probable identical coins from »Diego Suarez« and Mananara in northern Madagascar. This distribution pattern of Fatimid-style coins is remarkable and provides a trail from Egypt to the northern coast of Madagascar in the 11th century.