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A tale of Persian Princes settling on the Swahili Coast and intermarrying with locals.
Medieval tombs in Kenya yielded DNA that revealed overseas roots of the region’s trading culture.CHAPURUKHA KUSIMBA/UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH FLORIDA
The Swahili coast, stretching more than 3000 kilometers from southern Ethiopia to Tanzania, was a hub of medieval trade, exporting ivory and other resources from the African interior to South Asia, the Arab world, and Persia. Its cultural legacy remains potent: Swahili is now spoken across large parts of Africa, and the ruins of ancient towns, many with mosques and other buildings cut from shoreline coral deposits, record the coast’s heyday. But whether Swahili culture was indigenous to Africa or arrived from overseas has been an ongoing debate.
One seemingly fanciful account dates from the 1500s, when Arab chroniclers recorded the stories Swahili people told about their origins. According to one version, known as the Kilwa Chronicle, seven Persian princes fleeing persecution set sail from the trading hub of Shiraz. After washing up on the coast of Africa, they founded a dynasty that ruled the Swahili coast for centuries.
An analysis of 54 genomes from people buried in Swahili coastal towns between 1250 and 1800 C.E. now gives that tale scientific support—while showing much of Swahili culture was derived from local African ancestors. The DNA of medieval people buried in elite Swahili cemeteries around 1200 C.E. shows their male forebears were closely related to people in modern-day Iran. Their female ancestors, meanwhile, were almost entirely local, with genomes resembling Bantu groups living in the region today.
University of South Florida archaeologist Chapurukha Kusimba, who led the study, published today in Nature, believes it finally resolves the mysterious history of the Swahili coast. “This long-standing question has been answered,” he says.
Gathered at seven sites in modern-day Kenya and Tanzania, the data represent the largest ancient DNA study yet from an African context. Combined with archaeological evidence from towns all along the Swahili coast and genetic evidence from people living there today, “It’s really an extraordinary piece of scholarship,” says Peter Schmidt, an archaeologist at the University of Florida who was not involved in the research.
The study does not support the simple picture that colonial-era British archaeologists favored. “The dominant paradigm was that this was a foreign civilization, with African involvement,” Schmidt says. “The idea was Persians or Arabs brought civilization with them to benighted, primitive Africans,” adds Mark Horton, an archaeologist at the Royal Agricultural University. ...
https://www.science.org/content/art...helped-found-medieval-african-trading-culture
DNA shows ‘Persian Princes’ helped found medieval African trading culture
Merchants from abroad married into powerful local families on the Swahili coast
- 29 MAR 2023 11:40 AM BY ANDREW CURRY
The Swahili coast, stretching more than 3000 kilometers from southern Ethiopia to Tanzania, was a hub of medieval trade, exporting ivory and other resources from the African interior to South Asia, the Arab world, and Persia. Its cultural legacy remains potent: Swahili is now spoken across large parts of Africa, and the ruins of ancient towns, many with mosques and other buildings cut from shoreline coral deposits, record the coast’s heyday. But whether Swahili culture was indigenous to Africa or arrived from overseas has been an ongoing debate.
One seemingly fanciful account dates from the 1500s, when Arab chroniclers recorded the stories Swahili people told about their origins. According to one version, known as the Kilwa Chronicle, seven Persian princes fleeing persecution set sail from the trading hub of Shiraz. After washing up on the coast of Africa, they founded a dynasty that ruled the Swahili coast for centuries.
An analysis of 54 genomes from people buried in Swahili coastal towns between 1250 and 1800 C.E. now gives that tale scientific support—while showing much of Swahili culture was derived from local African ancestors. The DNA of medieval people buried in elite Swahili cemeteries around 1200 C.E. shows their male forebears were closely related to people in modern-day Iran. Their female ancestors, meanwhile, were almost entirely local, with genomes resembling Bantu groups living in the region today.
University of South Florida archaeologist Chapurukha Kusimba, who led the study, published today in Nature, believes it finally resolves the mysterious history of the Swahili coast. “This long-standing question has been answered,” he says.
Gathered at seven sites in modern-day Kenya and Tanzania, the data represent the largest ancient DNA study yet from an African context. Combined with archaeological evidence from towns all along the Swahili coast and genetic evidence from people living there today, “It’s really an extraordinary piece of scholarship,” says Peter Schmidt, an archaeologist at the University of Florida who was not involved in the research.
The study does not support the simple picture that colonial-era British archaeologists favored. “The dominant paradigm was that this was a foreign civilization, with African involvement,” Schmidt says. “The idea was Persians or Arabs brought civilization with them to benighted, primitive Africans,” adds Mark Horton, an archaeologist at the Royal Agricultural University. ...
https://www.science.org/content/art...helped-found-medieval-african-trading-culture
