Summary
In 2026, the Institute of Heritage Sciences returned to the coast of Somaliland to conduct a survey in the region of Berbera and Xiis. The coastal deserts of Somaliland, today largely empty, were bustling with activity in Antiquity. The mountains near the sea were rich in frankincense, myrrh and turtle shell, wich were highly valued at the time. 2.000 yeras ago, merchants from all over the world, from Rome to India, came to the Somali peninsula in search of these valuables. We worked at the site of Salweyn. It is a large wadi near Xiis. It was known as Mundu in Antiquity. The landscape is harsh and desolate, but rich in archaeological finds. Between the 1st and 5th centuries CE, nomads came to trade near the beach. We have found remains of their camps and those of the foreign merchants. In these camps there are fragments of cooking pots, wine amphorae and perfume bottles. Nomads buried their dead in stone tumuli. Inside the larger tumuli, people were buried with objects from Persia and the Roman empire, fine pottery, delicate glass and glass beads. Proof of the purchasing power of the nomads two thousand years ago. Those buried in smaller cairns usually had few or no objects, yet even they deserved a funerary monument. We excavated one of the smaller cairns. There was a single individual with no funerary offerings. The tomb has been radiocarbon-dated to around the 4th century CE. But Salweyn has much older remains. There are 3.500 year-old cemeteries with flat tombs, instead of cairns. Inside the tombs, the dead were seated, legs tied, radiocarbon-dated around 1.500 BCE. One of the tombs had an incense-burner typical of the Sabir Culture in Yemen. This is the origin of trade networks well before the Romans arrived. During the first millennium CE, the Berbera coast was a key hub of international trade. The archaeological sites appear in dunes near the beach. Some are very old, from the Neolithic period. Others, more recent, from the Middle Ages. We found many pottery sherds, most were locally made, but others were imported. They came from Saba. A powerful kingdom that expanded between the 8th and 6th centuries BCE. Now we know that the people of Berbera and Saba traded frequently. Near Berbera we documented many cairns, never excavated and still undated. We excavated two cairns. The larger one had the remains of two individuals. It was radiocarbon-dated to the 10th century CE. At that time, powerful pastoral polities existed between Tadjoura and Berbera. This marked the end of cairn construction in Somaliland. Soon thereafter Islam arrived and cities flourished.
Keywords
Instituto de Ciencias del Patrimonio. Institute of Heritage Sciences. INCIPIT-CSIC. Cultural Heritage. Archaeology. Horn of Africa. Somaliland coast. Ancient trade. International trade. Archaeological field season. Berbera. Xiis. Somali peninsula. Stone tumuli. Cairn.