Project

Socio-Economic Aspects of Early Iron Working Period on Tanzanian Northern Coast; a Case of Maramba

Program

African Humanities Program Dissertation Fellowships

Department

Archaeology

Abstract

This proposed work aims at using the ubiquitous scattered materials found at Maramba to examine the Socio- economic aspects of Early Iron Working (EIW) period on Northern Coast of Tanzania. Maramba is found at 30 kilometers from the coastal strip of Tanga Bay. It is known that, for more than 40 years, the archaeologists have learnt about the culture of EIW period particularly on the coast of Tanzania mainly through their ceramic and iron technology. Some aspects such as subsistence, art and exchange were not thoroughly examined. While this proposed research seeks to establish the culture history of Maramba area, it also aims at understanding other socio-economic activities associated with EIW culture period. Survey and Excavation are the basic techniques that will be employed. The survey will be used to allocate and identified potential sites with EIW materials while the excavation will be used recover the subsurface archaeological data.