Collaborative Research--Decoding the Swahili: An Integrated Archaeological and Genetic Study of the Swahili of East Africa

合作研究--斯瓦希里语解码：东非斯瓦希里语的综合考古学和遗传学研究

• 批准号: 1030081
• 负责人: Chapurukha Kusimba
• 金额: $ 12.41万
• 依托单位: Field Museum of Natural History
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2010
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2010-09-15 至 2013-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1030081&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Collaborative; Research; Decoding; Swahili; Integrated

With National Science Foundation support, Drs. Chapurukha Kusimba, Ryan Raaum, and Sloan Williams will conduct two field seasons of archaeological, ethnohistoric, and archaeogenetics research on the Kenyan coast. The archaeological excavations will be centered at the site of Mtwapa, a prominent Swahili port town dating from ca. 1732 BCE to 1750 AD. Ethnographic research will be carried out amongst Swahili ethnohistorians, elders and other indigenous interlocutors about their origins to identify possible source populations. Archaeogenetic data from human remains excavated from Mtwapa will be compared with African, Middle Eastern and Asian genetic databases. Finally, physical and chemical analysis of ceramic, iron, and trade artifacts, and faunal and botanical remains will be conducted to reconstruct subsistence and technology and to identify relationships both with other regions of East Africa and throughout the Indian Ocean. These new technologies when combined with careful excavations and detailed ethnographic information will allow Drs. Kusimba, Raaum, and Williams to address the following hypotheses: 1) that early Swahili populations, while primarily of African origin, were much more diverse composition than commonly supposed; 2) that some non-African migration to the coast did occur prior to the 19th century 3) that Swahili stone towns were ethnically diverse. Dr. Kusimba's long-term research agenda has focused on understanding the origin and biological composition of the towns and city-states that developed on the East African coast in the late first millennium CE. Archaeological investigations in Kenya and Tanzania have demonstrated that the artifactual traditions in the early city-states show a clear evolutionary development from earlier villages. Thus preindustrial urbanism in East Africa and elsewhere owes its rise, sustenance, and demise to wider regional and interregional interaction spheres. In the case of East Africa, this development was furthered by relationships with the African hinterland and connections to the wider Indian Ocean trading system. This collaborative research is addressing key questions, which have important implications for understanding human population relationships both within and beyond Africa. The researchers hope this project will demonstrate the long suspected but still as yet proven shared biological genealogy of East African peoples and their Indian Ocean neighbors. In East Africa, this study may have positive implications for national unity, often fractured by ethnicity and 'tribalism'. The rich historic, anthropological, linguistic evidence coupled with ancient and contemporary genetic data to be collected in this project will contribute new knowledge and open new avenues in interdisciplinary research between archaeologists and geneticists. Additionally the project will train two graduate students, one American Colin LeJeune, and the other Kenyan, Ibrahim Busolo, for their PhD in Swahili archaeology and genetics. It will also enable the recruitment and training undergraduate students in field and laboratory research from Lehman College and the University of Illinois-Chicago.

在国家科学基金会的支持下，博士。 Chapurukha Kusimba，Ryan Raaum和Sloan Williams将在肯尼亚海岸进行两个考古，民族历史和考古学研究。考古发掘将集中在Mtwapa的遗址上，Mtwapa是一座著名的斯瓦希里郡港口城镇。公元前1732年至1750年。民族志研究将在斯瓦希里语民族历史学家，长老和其他土著对话者中进行，以识别可能的来源人群。从MTWAPA发掘的人类遗体的考古数据将与非洲，中东和亚洲遗传数据库进行比较。最后，将对陶瓷，铁和贸易文物以及动物和植物遗体进行物理和化学分析，以重建生存和技术，并确定与东非其他地区以及整个印度洋的其他地区的关系。这些新技术与仔细的发掘和详细的人种学信息结合使用，将允许DRS。 Kusimba，Raaum和Williams解决以下假设：1）斯瓦希里语的早期人口虽然主要是非洲起源，但比通常所假设的要多样化得多。 2）一些非非洲迁移到19世纪之前确实发生了沿海地区。 Kusimba博士的长期研究议程致力于理解在第一千年末期在东非海岸开发的城镇和城市国家的起源和生物组成。肯尼亚和坦桑尼亚的考古调查表明，早期城市国家的人为传统显示出早期村庄的明显进化发展。因此，在东非和其他地方工业前的城市主义将其上升，寄托和灭亡归功于更广泛的区域和区域间互动领域。就东非而言，与非洲腹地的关系以及与印度洋贸易体系更广泛的联系进一步发展了这一发展。这项协作研究是在解决关键问题，这对了解非洲内部和以外的人口关系具有重要意义。研究人员希望该项目能够证明长期以来的可疑但仍有证明是东非人民及其印度洋邻居的共享生物族谱。在东非，这项研究可能对民族统一具有积极影响，这常常因种族和“部落主义”而破裂。丰富的历史性，人类学，语言证据以及该项目中要收集的古代和当代遗传数据将为考古学家和遗传学家之间的跨学科研究提供新的知识和开放新途径。此外，该项目将培训两名研究生，一个美国的科林·莱吉恩（Colin Lejeune）和另一个肯尼亚人易卜拉欣·布斯洛洛（Ibrahim Busolo），以获得斯瓦希里语考古学和遗传学的博士学位。它还将使雷曼学院和伊利诺伊大学 - 芝加哥大学的现场和实验室研究中的招聘和培训本科生。