Tanzania's venerable past

Updated September 2010

Archaeological finds at the Olduvai Gorge in the Serengeti in North Eastern Tanzania include the fossilized remains of Homo habilis ("handy man"), who lived about 1.75 million years ago. Associated with these finds are Stone Age tools which suggest that the earliest tool-making by the Human genus occurred in Tanzania (Emuseum undated). Earlier levels contain remains of Homo erectus and Australopithecus boisei, as well as H habilis; scientists disagree on whether H habalis or Homo erectus are the direct ancestors of modern humans (Emuseum undated, Columbia Encyclopedia 2004). The site also includes finds of a complete Homo sapiens skeleton and microlithic tools, which are dated to 17 000 years ago, indicating the long established human presence in Tanzania (Emuseum undated).

Evidence indicates that land trade between East Africa and the Mediterranean, via Meroë and the Nile, probably predated sea trade, and that sea trade with India was carried out prior to the beginning of the Common Era (Chami 2002a). Peter Byrne observes: "It is now believed that there was contact between Azania [the East African Coast] and Arabia [Nabataea] from well before Christ, with Phoenicians, Egyptians (a BC600 expedition sent by Pharaoh Necho) and Ethiopians. The Indonesians reached Madagascar 1500 years ago" (Byrne undated). Of the people who engaged in this trade from early on, Felix Chami writes: "East Africa had a thriving population with trade centres from the last centuries BC or even earlier. The people of the Late Stone Age who also domesticated animals like chicken, dogs and cats, first entered into contacts with other cultures of the west, north and east. It is likely that those Late Stone Age people of the coast of East Africa occupied caves as living houses or just for sanctuary. They used pottery and used small quartz pebbles to make their microlithic tools and blades. Apart from domesticates, they also hunted wild animals and fished" (Chami 2002a).

Chami's work on the island of Mafia has uncovered iron working sites dating from at least as far back as 100 BCE (Byrne undated). Along with these developments in cultural and economic contacts, and in technology, came a more settled agricultural based life-style and expanding populations. Moreover, these elements were diffused deep into the interior (Chami 2002a, 9). Finds of Graeco-Roman and Indian artefacts in Zanzibar and Mafia Island suggest that, at the beginning of the first millennium, the Romans obtained mastery over the Red Sea. They created a naval trade network in the Indian Ocean from the first century BCE until about 300CE, that bound Arabia, Persia, India and the East Coast of Africa to the Mediterranean (Chami 2002a, 2).

The demise of the Graeco-Roman Mediterranean trade did not mean the end for these coastal cultures, for trade in the Indian Ocean seems to have continued. Indications are that settlements on the mainland flourished and population densities rose steadily until the early sixth century CE. There are indications that the quest for food to support the growing population led to the development or adoption of crop irrigation (Chami undated). The culture eventually came under the southward spreading influence of Swahili (from 1250CE onwards) and was eventually absorbed by them (Chami 2002b, 1).

References

BYRNE, P UNDATED "A Short History of Mafia Island", IN Nabataeans in Africa, Nabataea.net, [www] http://nabataea.net/mafia.html [opens new window] (accessed 22 Feb 2010).

COLUMBIA ENCYCLOPEDIA 2004, Sixth Edition, "Tanzania", [www] http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=101273670 [opens new window] (accessed 22 Feb 2010).

CHAMI, FA 2002a "The Graeco-Romans and Paanchea/Azania: sailing in the Erythraean Sea", IN Red Sea Trade and Travel, The Society for Arabian Studies/The British Museum, 8 [www] http://www.thebritishmuseum.ac.uk/ane/fullpapers.doc [MS Word document].

CHAMI, FA 2002b "Kaole and the Swahili World" IN Chami, F and Pwiti, G (eds), Southern Africa and the Swahili World, Dar es Salaam University Press.

CHAMI, FA UNDATED "New archaeological finds from the coast of Tanzania" IN Nabataeans in Africa, Nabataea.net, [www]http://nabataea.net/tanz.html [opens new window] (accessed 22 Feb 2010).

EMUSEUM "Olduvai Gorge" Minnesota State University, [www] http://www.mnsu.edu/emuseum/archaeology/sites/africa/olduvai_gorge.html [opens new window] (accessed 22 Feb 2010).