Kua Ruins
Kua or Ruins of Kua is a Medieval Swahili, National Historic Site located in Jibondo ward of Mafia District in Pwani Region of Tanzania. The site is located on Juani Island of the Mafia Archipelago. As of 2016, the site is currently on the list of 50 at-risk cultural heritage sites in 36 countries.
Overview
Kua is located on Juani Island's southwest shore in Tanzania's Mafia Archipelago. The main settlement appears to have been occupied in the early sixteenth century and abandoned in the early nineteenth century, however there is evidence of the older occupation to the south of the site. There hasn't been any systematic archaeological investigation of the site's standing remains and the material culture that surrounds them. Regarding the quality of the demolished buildings from an architectural standpoint, there are differing viewpoints.Kua, according to European historians and archaeologists is known as the "Pompeii of East Africa," is a vast complex of coral-stone buildings that may have been encircled by a web of smaller settlements akin to those seen around other stone town sites along the Swahili coast. Recent site surveys reveal that the settlement, which once covered over 30–40 acres, included seven mosques, four cemetery areas, a sizable double-story "palace," at least 10 "complex structures", about 30 "walled courts," which may have been connected to homes made of non-stone materials, and a large number of internal and external latrines. Numerous historical records mention the site's significant overgrowth as an issue, and it appears that this has affected how much of the site has been examined and recorded in the past.
According to the "Kua Chronicle," a history of Kua written by Freeman-Grenville in 1955, Shirazi people "who had come long ago from Persia" established the location. Although the exact date of the founding of Kua is uncertain, it is depicted on the maps of Arab geographer Al-Idrisi in 1154 as Kahua. The ancient settlement was focused in an area south of the main ruin complex, known as Mkokotoni. The Mkokotoni site may have been inhabited from at least the 13th century AD, according to numismatic evidence from the area, and Freeman-Grenville cites the potential existence of celadon pottery from the 14th century AD.
Many historians have cited an account of the collapse and subsequent abandonment of the site derived from local traditions, even though dates for the foundation of Kua still need to be firmly established through additional archaeological reconnaissance. According to a common myth, the Sakalava from Madagascar stormed Kua in the early 19th century A.D. and "arrived in their small canoes called 'laka' and captured many people." It's believed that this raid was planned by a Kua craftsman who, after becoming dissatisfied with how slaves and other people were treated by their overlords, escaped and brought reinforcements back.
The raid may be more precisely pinpointed to sometime between "1810 and 1835" because the Sultan of Zanzibar, whose authority over the Mafia Archipelago was well-established by 1812, was informed of the attack. This led to "an expedition being formed and sent to pursue the invaders... ... were found on a small island and defeated, the prisoners brought triumphantly back to Mafia." It is also likely that the raid took place before 1838, the year in which the Sultan is believed to have "made a treaty with Queen Seneekoo of the Sakalava," given the alleged reaction to the raid. Kua was abandoned after the Sultan's capital was moved to adjacent Chole Island because, despite this triumph, legend has it that Kua never fully recovered from the attack.
Chole was heavily involved in long-distance commerce networks during this time, and it was crucial to the supply of cowrie shells to other parts of Africa. Although Kua participated in long-distance trading networks, as shown by the substantial amounts of imported goods, including as ceramics and beads, Piggott hypothesised that the "population have depended on sea trade" due to the harbor's characteristics. Uncertainty exists on whether this comment applies to local networks and maritime exploitation as well as long-distance trade; yet, fishing was probably a significant component of the local population's sustenance economy.
Freeman-Grenville claimed that the domestic architecture at the location achieved a not insignificant level of elegance since "many of the houses have elaborate plasterwork, both at the doorways and in the decoration of cupboards and niches." Chittick's assessment that "most of the buildings at Kua are uninspiring" is less flattering.
Site
In 2010, as part of the initiative to evaluate the sociocultural settings of maritime contacts in the archipelago, the structures at Kua were plotted, photographed, and recorded. The Kua settlement site is overgrown, which lessens the visibility of the archaeology. Due to the poor visibility, conflicting information about the settlement's size has been reported. The northernmost portion of the site contains the majority of the constructions that have been recorded. This area, which spans more than 12 acres, is home to a vast complex of coral-stone buildings that include the following: Thirty-one sizable coral-stone enclosures known as "surrounding walls," six mosques, and thirteen intricate complexes with a network of open rooms, corridors, and courts were also discovered.These buildings are about 250 and 500 meters inland from the shore and run almost parallel to it. Additionally, there are at least four cemeteries in this area, each of which has a large number of built graves, head and foot monuments, and two pillar tombs. At least five circular mounds of coral rocks and debris can be found in the southernmost section of the village, which is known as Mkokotoni. One of these mounds was excavated, and the ruins of collapsed dwellings were found there in the form of standing plastered masonry, structural wreckage, foreign and domestic pottery, and remains of local wildlife.
A tiny mosque's ruins as well as a cemetery's remains at the site, which were identified by graves and head- and foot-markers, were noted. While the exact date of the settlement's founding is unknown, Kahua is depicted on the maps created in 1154 by Arab cartographer and geographer Muhammad Al-Idrisi. The Kua Chronicle's historical accounts indicate that the southern part of the settlement may have been inhabited before the northern part. According to Freeman-Grenville, "Arabs" approached the residents of Mkokotoni and asked them if they needed a spot to develop. They "were given the north part... After they had finished building their town, they called their hosts... and said to them: 'The name of our town will now be called Kua'" The interpretation that Swahili landmarks and culture were the results of alien development is where this allusion to Arabs comes from.
The Mkokotoni area is thought to have existed before the main ruins complex at Kua, according to archaeological evidence. At a 95% confidence level, radiocarbon dates from previous deposits found during excavations in the Mkokotoni area point to a dating range between roughly 1325 and 1346 AD, 1393 and 1437 AD. On the other hand, radiocarbon dates that were improved utilizing archaeological, architectural, and historical information fall within the range of 1619-1699 AD with a 95% confidence level from the excavations within the ruins complex.
Archaeology
Materials used in Kua
The constructions that have been preserved were mostly constructed from coral rags quarried locally, with sporadic additions of Porites solida and non-coral quartz-like stones. While these materials typically aren't finished, dressed slabs of Porites coral have been seen around the mihrabs as well as the entryway. Non-coral rag materials are present in 18 of the 43 non-mosque structures that have been identified, with the complex structures having the highest concentrations. Nine of the buildings all include quartz-like stone inclusions in addition to pórite coral. There were dressed coral blocks surrounding seven of the nine constructions' doors and niches.Many of the walls at Kua display signs of layered construction, a method adapted from Middle Eastern mud-brick building construction in which the stones are polished off to a smooth horizontal surface before the next course of masonry was installed. As for timber, there are some examples of both square and circular impressions where timber would have been used to support ceilings, niches, windows, and doors, even though none of the wood used to create the buildings at Kua has remained.
16 of the structures were discovered to have these wooden accents, with mosques accounting for the remaining four and complex buildings for the other 12. It's likely that the mangrove wood used to create Kua's structures was also used to build Shanga and other nearby stone-town locations on the Swahili coast. Several of the buildings include plug holes, which Horton describes as "rows of roughly circular holes up to 200mm in diameter on either the inside or the outside of the buildings," which is proof that timber scaffolding was employed in their construction.
To create a smooth surface over the uncut coral rag, a lime-and-sand plaster mixture was applied over a matrix of smaller rocks, pottery shards, and shells. Buildings were plastered to varying degrees; in some cases, they were totally coated on the inside, outside, or both; in other cases, the outside was plastered with bands. Of the 43 non-mosque structures, at least 27 have plaster on their walls. Of these 27 buildings, 18 have all of their plastering in place—10 on the inside, 3 on the outside, and 5 on both sides. Nine out of the 43 non-mosque constructions have intricate structures with banded plaster, making up 72% of them.
Bands can be seen at the top or just below the external walls of the structures, and it's probable that more of them had plastering similar to this that was hidden by structural failure or collapse. Only K030 is a complicated construction out of the nine buildings with banded plaster, and the banded plastering only surrounds the house structure.