Feasting in the Late Swahili: Zooarchaeological Remains from the Friday Mosque Complex at Mtwapa, Kenya

Abstract

Feasting played key roles in Swahili society during the medieval (c. 800–1500 CE) and colonial (c. 1500–1963 CE) periods, contributing to sociopolitical transformation and Islamic practice. However, the zooarchaeological signatures of feasting in the Swahili context remain poorly studied. Here, we report faunal remains recovered from the Friday Congregation Mosque Complex at Mtwapa to examine feasting and commemorative practices during the 15th–seventeenth centuries, a transitional period that saw the abandonment of stone towns and the beginnings of colonialism. Mtwapa experienced depopulation, but the Complex remained important for rituals, ancestor veneration, and socioeconomic display. Fauna from tombs and the fill of an abandoned guardhouse reveal that, although unexpected species (such as those forbidden under Islamic law) were found, feasts centered on marine fish, caprines, cattle, and chickens. These foods were not dissimilar from those found in quotidian contexts at other sites. Fish were dominated by Lethrinidae, a family of reef-dwelling species that can be caught with handlines, and caprines outnumbered cattle. Moreover, the abundance of fish relative to mammals and birds and the ratio of caprine-sized bovids to cattle-sized bovids grew over time, suggesting feasts increasingly relied upon common foods as the economic reach of elites contracted.