Archaeologists working on Zanzibar’s famous Stone Town have discovered that the settlement was not built by Omani Arabs, who were major traders in the area in the 18th century. Instead, it was established by local Swahili people.

“Our excavations found walls of houses, stone architecture and established it was urbanized in a much earlier period than historically thought,” said Tim Power, an archaeologist with UAE University, in an interview with the National. 

“We can now say that the town was built centuries before the Omanis arrived.”

It proves the town — previously thought to be an 18th-century Omani Arab town — was established much earlier by local Swahili people, archaeologists believe.

During a major dig this summer, they unearthed traces of homes, cooking pits and significant amounts of pottery from this era.

They could then pinpoint the settlement’s transition to stone buildings by the 14th century.

These stone houses gave the trading centre on the east African coast its unique appearance and were ultimately how it got its name.

Stone Town became the mighty capital of the Omani Arab Empire in the 19th century, and many significant buildings were constructed at this time.

But the Emirati-funded work has shown how the trading centre developed much earlier.

“Our excavations found walls of houses, stone architecture and established it was urbanised in a much earlier period than historically thought,” said Prof Tim Power of UAE University.

“We can now say that the town was built centuries before the Omanis arrived.”

The project, which started this year, is a collaboration between UAE University, New York University Abu Dhabi, the Royal Agricultural University in the UK and the Department of Antiquities in Zanzibar.

Archaeologists from Abu Dhabi’s Department of Culture and Tourism and students from the State University of Zanzibar also volunteered for the project.

Stone Town’s Old Fort, built during the Omani era, was the focus of the dig. The fort could be compared with Abu Dhabi’s Qasr Al Hosn, said Prof Power, as it was the nexus of military and political power and also functioned as a customs house.

A test pit dug in the 1980s unearthed pot sherds suggesting this, but Prof Power said this could be described as background noise. Another dig led by Prof Power in 2017 also yielded promising results.

This year, two trenches made in the fort’s courtyard were dug to a depth of two metres, uncovering rubbish pits, cooking fires, walls, floors, the remains of a Portuguese church, significant amounts of pottery and even evidence of a mosque — structures that show an intensification of human settlement.

The teams could date the pieces by comparing the types of pottery unearthed to those found in other excavations.

“We found a lot of imported pottery, especially from China,” said Nour Al Marzooqi, an archaeologist at Abu Dhabi’s Department of Culture and Tourism, who worked at the site over the summer.

“It is similar to what we found in the UAE,” said Ms Al Marzooqi. “But we also found local Swahili pottery such as cookware.”

Archaeologists stumbled upon a carved block from a mosque that once existed at the site but has yet to be found. The project also uncovered one of the walls of a Portuguese church that had been demolished and integrated into the fort.

Archaeologists found the wall footings and floor of the church, under which dozens of Christian graves were found dating to the 16th and 17th centuries when an Augustinian mission stood on the site.

“The excavations go back in time in a focused way,” said Prof Robert Parthesius, who leads NYUAD’s Dhakira Centre for Heritage Studies, the entity funding the project.

“And the ceramics found to come from so many different periods. It gives an insight into all those centuries, and we have come to the 11th century.”

Stone Town started as a small fishing village but increased on the back of trade networks that developed across the Indian Ocean.

It came under Portuguese, Omani and European influence but always retained its Swahili identity. It was the capital of the Omani Arab empire in the 19th century and became very wealthy.

“It was like the Venice of East Africa,” said Prof Power. “There was a major trade in ivory, ebony wood and slaves. Omani Arabs also developed clove plantations, becoming the leading supplier of cloves in the world.

“This prosperity is reflected in the architecture,” said Prof Power. “There are beautiful merchant houses with carved doors and blocks. They are absolutely gorgeous.”

The project explores the cosmopolitan and multifaceted history of the town and how it plugs into the intricate and vibrant trade networks that existed across the Indian Ocean into the Gulf through the centuries from its foundation.