The Archaeology of the medieval trade networks in Western Somaliland

During the medieval period and well into the 16th century, Western Somaliland was part of a series of Muslim kingdoms which thrived thanks to the trade routes that connected the Red Sea with the interior of the Horn of Africa. Since 2015, the Spanish National Research Council (Incipit-CSIC) has conducted an archaeological project to study the international trade in Somaliland and its impact in the local communities which inhabited the territory. This research is unravelling a complex world of coastal contact points, trade routes and urban sites which structured a sophisticated framework for trade. This paper presents an overview of this trade from the 13th to the 16th centuries, when foreign traders, nomad communities and urban dwellers collaborated to establish a network of exchanges and interactions which spread throughout the Horn of Africa. It will also address to some specificities of the Somali model, such as the lack of coastal trading towns, or the collaborative attitude between nomads and urban dwellers.

Somaliland. Medieval Period. Trade. Sultanate of Adal. Archaeology. Nomads. Horn of Africa. Caravan station. Red Sea.