Preliminary Report on Excavation at Pangani Bay, Tanga Region on Northern Tanzania coast

Abstract

The study of Pangani Bay archaeological sequence stratified with ceramic and other artefactual evidence is a key to understanding continuity and change in maritime culture of the Bay and even wide area of the Tanzania coast from 1^st to 2^nd Millennium A.D. An important question is: Can the maritime settlement history of the Pangani Bay be understood as a single continuous cultural tradition from 500 A.D. to 1500 A.D., or were there major cultural discontinuities during the course of its history? This paper presents preliminary excavation and analysis results from Pangani Bay. The excavation and then analysis conclude that the evidence points to an overall cultural continuity with notable incursions of foreign cultural elements into Pangani Bay.