Salt production during the Plain Ware Phase along the Swahili coast of Tanzania

ABSTRACT Pottery from archaeological sites on the Swahili coast of East Africa has enabled scholars to establish the social, political and economic dynamics of their inhabitants and helped them to determine forms of interaction between coastal communities and other societies within and outside Africa. This paper examines Plain Ware pottery (Plain Ware Phase) from the site of Nunge in Bagamoyo (Tanzania) to discover the reasons behind its production. Findings indicate that the elements associated with Plain Ware pottery were markers of the socio-economic (i.e. salt-making) and political contexts that the Swahili experienced during the Plain Ware Phase (tenth to thirteenth centuries AD). It is suggested that the use of pottery to make salt for exchange with people in the East African interior created wealth and socio-economic stratification and may have been one of the key elements that contributed to the development of the Swahili coastal states. Comparative data from other regions suggest that salt-making was an important component in socioeconomic interactions among communities and provided an opportunity for surplus production and the establishment of ties among polities.