Abstract
Both mainland and maritime based evidence show that from the first millennium CE, Tanzania was connected to the Indian Ocean maritime trade networks and that for a period of more than a thousand years, the coast and hinterlands of Tanzania and other areas of the Swahili coast were central in maritime exchange in the Indian Ocean world. This global interaction is revealed in the material culture, including ceramics and beads, as well as shipwreck sites. Despite the practices of maritime, nautical and underwater archaeologies being in their infancy, a few of the recovered maritime and underwater cultural heritage traces have revealed potential in reconstructing the maritime history of the Tanzanian coast. These material records provide evidence indicative of the trade relations that took place not only between the Tanzanian coast and other parts of the world, but also between the coast and the hinterland. Slowly, scholars have begun to understand the influence of the sea and its role in past human activities. This paper presents the drivers, approaches and perspectives that have been used in reconstructing and managing the maritime and underwater patrimonies. Specifically, the paper takes a historical approach to assess the status quo of practices and activities aimed at maritime and underwater archaeological research.
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Ichumbaki, E.B. (2020). Methodological Approaches to Researching Maritime and Underwater Cultural Heritage Along the Swahili Coast in Tanzania. In: Parthesius, R., Sharfman, J. (eds) Maritime and Underwater Cultural Heritage Management on the Historic and Arabian Trade Routes. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-55837-6_3
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