Public lecture at the Society of Antiquaries, featuring York research in Tanzania

Dr Stephanie Wynne-Jones will present a public lecture at the Society of Antiquaries this Tuesday (9th Feb), showcasing the results of her large-scale excavation project on the southern Swahili coast. Lots of York students have worked on the excavations over the years, as well as using the artefacts in their dissertations and learning on their modules. The site of Songo Mnara was one of the grandest towns on the coast, with coral-built palaces, mosques and houses on a scale not seen elsewhere. Excavations at Songo Mnara have used a massive range of cutting-edge techniques to explore the ways people lived on the 14th and 15th-century Swahili coast, for the first time recovering details of local practices and value systems. This lecture presents the results of this work, as part of a consideration of the Swahili urban phenomenon more generally. It precedes the publication of a major site monograph, due 2020-2021.

You can watch the lecture online here: https://www.sal.org.uk/event/belief-and-belonging-daily-life-on-the-medieval-swahili-coast/