Resumen
Handoga is the only known medieval site in Djibouti, and it is one of the most important medieval cities in the Horn of Africa. The site was briefly investigated by French teams in the 1970s and 2007, but no major excavations had taken place. Between 2021 and 2025, a team of archaeologists from INCIPIT-CSIC completed a series of systematic surveys and excavation campaigns over a large area of Handoga. The findings shed light on the urbanism, material culture and way of life of its inhabitants, suggesting that Handoga was an important urban center along the medieval routes linking the Gulf of Tadjoura with the interior of Africa, of which very little is known.The archaeological materials found in Handoga (ceramic, metal, glass...) are temporarily available at INCIPIT-CSIC for analysis, with the aim of determining their composition and manufacturing techniques and, therefore, informing geographical origins. This research will generate new and relevant knowledge about the medieval trade routes in the region and, more broadly, about the role played by Handoga within the sultanates of the Horn of Africa and their similarities or differences with other sites from the same period in other regions.The glass samples require instrumentation that is sensitive to very light elements, so protons of 3.5 MeV have been used for Proton Induced X ray Emission analysis to characterize the composition of fifteen samples of glass from Handoga, strategically selected by typology (beads, bracelets and slag), color, suspected origin (Egypt, Indo-Pacific...), location within the city and chronology. Proton Gamma Induced Emission spectra were simultaneously acquired to compare the surface sodium content with respect to the in-depth sodium content from the 440 keV gamma, much less affected by surface alterations. Preliminary results show very high calcium content in most samples and low sodium and potassium. Some fragments are characterized by high lead or tin content.