The Archaeology of the medieval trade networks in Western Somaliland

Caroline Durand, Julie Marchand, Bérangère Redon and Pierre Schneider (ed.).[EN] 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.[FR] Pendant la période médiévale et jusqu’au xvie siècle, le Somaliland occidental a fait partie d’une série de royaumes musulmans qui ont prospéré grâce aux routes commerciales qui reliaient la mer Rouge à l’intérieur de la Corne de l’Afrique. Depuis 2015, le Conseil national espagnol de la recherche (Incipit‑CSIC) a mené un projet archéologique pour étudier le commerce international du Somaliland et son impact sur les communautés locales qui vivaient sur ce territoire. Ces travaux permettent de découvrir un monde complexe de points de contact côtiers, de routes commerciales et de sites urbains qui ont structuré un cadre sophistiqué pour le commerce. Cet article présente un aperçu de ce commerce du xiiie au xvie siècle, alors que les commerçants étrangers, les communautés nomades et les habitants des villes ont collaboré pour établir un réseau d’échanges et d’interactions qui s’est étendu à toute la Corne de l’Afrique. Il aborde également certaines spécificités du modèle somalien, telles que l’absence de villes marchandes côtières ou l’attitude de collaboration entre les nomades et les citadins.The Incipit‑CSIC archaeological project in Somaliland received funding by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (HAR2013–48495‑C2–1‑P) between 2014 and 2017 and by the Palarq Foundation since 2017 to the present. The author’s research is funded by the European Union Research and Innovation Framework Programme Horizon 2020, through the Marie Curie Actions Individual Fellowships (Proposal 795442)