UC Berkeley

Uneven Ground synthesizes archaeological field survey, historical map analysis, ceramic analysis, and geospatial modeling to investigate a region of northern Zanzibar, Tanzania across multiple environmental zones and time periods. Results address fundamental anthropological questions related to landscapes of settlement, historical ecology, and social change. I reconstruct settlement systems in the inland areas of the island, across four transformative historical periods: 1) the initial recolonization of the island by early Swahili people in the late first millennium, 2) social stratification and precolonial urbanism in the early second millennium, 3) Portuguese and Omani rule in the early colonial period (1500-1830 CE), and 4) during the development of the plantation system starting around 1830, and the formation of the Omani (1749-1856) and Zanzibari (1856-1963) states.Results show that inland villages of the early second millennium (1000-1400 CE) and plantation estates of the late colonial period (1830-1963 CE) developed across similar contexts in the central and western regions of north Zanzibar, where environmental conditions favored intensive agricultural production. These areas supported large settlement systems, but sociopolitical changes disrupted occupation in this region across multiple periods. In contrast, the agriculturally marginal and rocky eastern regions supported enduring small-scale occupations from the earliest period to the present. Landscapes of the east have the longest and most consistent history of settlement and land use in the survey region. This was made possible by specific techniques of agricultural landscape modification and proximity to near-shore reefs. Parts of the eastern region may have served as a refuge during politically turbulent periods. I also demonstrate that starting around 1830, the development of the plantation system transformed settlements across rural inland areas in north Zanzibar. Archaeological and geospatial analyses show the effects of this episode on rural communities. Settlement systems clustered spatially and became more politically integrated for the first time. Imported ceramics increased in count and variability, and local ceramics became more standardized in temper, fabric color, clay color, and form. Settlement and ceramic trends reflected the impacts of the mass importation of enslaved East Africans into rural areas on the island, the entrainment of Zanzibar’s agricultural landscapes within global commodity flows, and the contours of state formation and political integration across the island. Spatial analyses show that while 19th-century elites in the urban center of Stone Town were able to extract wealth from the rural areas, they did not successfully integrate heterarchical elements within their state. This pattern shaped anti-colonial resistance and revolution at the end of the late colonial period.