Mtambwe Mkuu on Pemba

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Taken from: Shanga: The Archaeology of a Muslim Trading Community on the ... by Mark Chatwin Horton, ‎Helen W. Brown, ‎Nina Mudida · 1996

 

Recent survey at Mtambwe Mkuu on Pemba Island has also produced surprising quantities of schist vessels as well as waste stone, suggesting that some of the raw material may have been exported from Madagascar and worked on the East African coast and islands.

 

Shanga on Lamu Archipelago

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Taken from: Shanga: The Archaeology of a Muslim Trading Community on the ... by Mark Chatwin Horton, ‎Helen W. Brown, ‎Nina Mudida · 1996

 

Rather few chlorite - schist vessels and fragments were found. Most comprised body sherds, although three vessel rims and part of a base were also found. The vessel fragments were lathe - turned with decorative horizontal cordons and sharp base angles. The schist was a pale - blue grey in colour with white talc spotting, typical of the stone from Madagascar, although petrographic analysis would be needed to confirm this identification. In addition to vessels, schist was used as a material for a spindle whorl and for a pendant. The distribution of this material is limited from 1050 to 1200. Similar vessels were. The provenance of these lathe-turned vessels has long been assumed to be northern Madagascar where a large group of similar vessels was found in a cemetery at Vohémar (Vernier & Millot 1971, 28-50).

 

Mkia wa Ngombe on Pemba

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Taken from: Buchanan, L. A. C. 1932. The Ancient Monuments of Pemba. Zanzibar: Government Printer, Zanzibar Museum.

According to Buchanan (1932: 18), Mkia wa Ngombe has one of the most extensive sets of ruins on Pemba. These include a large stone mosque, several tombs, and rubble from collapsed stone houses (Clark and Horton 1985). The site is dated from the eleventh to fourteenth or fifteenth
centuries, and covers around 18 ha, located on a peninsula in north-west Pemba. Fleisher (2003: 154-158) investigated the site during his work in northern Pemba, which included surface and STP surveys and the excavation of one trench. He recovered the usual imported and local
ceramics, but also chlorite schist, pumice, and a coin. Despite the impressive number of stone architecture, the majority of the site would have been built with timber and daub, as was the case with other Pemba sites during this time.

 

Sharma in Yemen

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Taken from : Sharma: Un entrepôt de commerce medieval sur la côte du Ḥaḍramawt (Yémen, ca ... By Axelle Rougeulle

 

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).

 

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.

 

Manda on Lamu Archipelago.

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Taken from: THE SWAHILI WORLD: MANDA by Chapurukha M. Kusimba, Sloan R. Williams, Gilbert Oteyo, et al.

 

Manda: Calcite sandstones and chlorite schist artefacts abound in all periods. Smooth, often round pebbles recovered were common in graves and tombs suggesting that tombs were often dressed with such pebbles akin to an old Shiite or Jewish ritual of offerings to the dead. Elsewhere, these stones served multiple functions from burnishing stones to slingshots. Highly micaceous stones were utilised for sharpening, pottery temper and perhaps as iron ore. The uses of well-cut blocks and slabs mostly of schist remain ‘obscure’. A curved chlorite schist bowl recovered was very likely acquired from Southeast Africa or Madagascar and points to regional trade connections. Vessels were found at Manda (Chittick 1984, 194) in Layers dating after c. 1050. The provenance of these lathe-turned vessels has long been assumed to be northern Madagascar where a large group of similar vessels was found in a cemetery at Vohemar (Vernier & Millot 1971, 28-50).

 

Kisimani Mafia

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Taken from: Kilwa: The finds By H. Neville Chittick British Institute in Eastern Africa, 1974

 

One of the pieces of chlorite-schist found on the surface at Kisimani Mafia is described as being 5.9 cm splayed out at the broken end to a maximum diameter of about 9 cm. The other end of this piece of height 9.8 cm has no drilled hole. The most probable explanation of this object is that it is a fragment of knobs from the centre of the lid of a three-legged cooking vessel that was turned on a lathe, and decorated with low ridges on the exterior.