Daahir Riyaale Kaahim, and handed him a report (Mire 2007b). We met with Somaliland’s President at the time, Mr. After discussing the results of my survey, the Minister was keen to hire me to head a new archaeological department. There, I met the newly appointed Minister, Abdirisaq Rooble Waaberi. He then suggested that I visit the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, which was said to be looking at various archaeological sites for tourism purposes. He had endorsed the project and offered to meet me in Somaliland. When I returned to Hargeysa after a month’s exploration, I had contact with the then Minister of Foreign Affairs, Abdulahi Dualeh, who kindly responded to an email I sent to him prior to my visit. I spent the most time at the site of Aw-Barkhadle in Hargeysa region, which was the basis of my PhD research on archaeology, art, religion, rituals and statehood. During a month of exploration on my own, I located rock art sites, ruined towns and decorated stelae cemeteries, ancient Christian burials and sites with Himyaritic and Sabaean writing. I later travelled towards the south and west, crossing the Ethiopian border. I had gone to do archaeological research for my PhD and travelled immediately from Hargeysa to the east, to Berbera and to the Dhaymoole area (Map 1: 7 and 17), the home base of my maternal family, who made me aware of a great diversity of archaeology there including rock art and megalithic sites. Returning to the region for the first time in 16 years, I was unaware of the 2007 work by the Ministry of Culture. Earlier work that scholars such as Chittick ( 1969) and Brandt ( 1992) initiated, among others, has recently begun again through local initiatives after a fallow period. Now, almost five decades into the post-colonial era, archaeology is still in its infancy in Somalia and Somaliland. Les empires islamiques de la Corne de l'Afrique ont développé de très importantes richesses, liées au commerce au long cours -y compris avec des marchandises en provenance de Chine, de la dynastie Tang à la dynastie Ming- comme en témoigne l'ampleur de certaines de leurs capitales, à l'image de la ville en ruines de Aw-Barkhadle et de ses sépultures. Elles ont aussi été intégrées très tôt à l'économie mondiale, notamment avec la Route de la Soie. Des écrits grecs et des vestiges archéologiques ont démontré que ces populations côtières étaient des marins aguerris et qu'elles étaient également interconnectées avec les phéniciens et les gréco-romains. Cette région comptait de vastes empires couchitiques pré-chrétiens et pré-islamiques, qui à certaines époques, ont fait partie des cultures himyarite et sabéenne de l'Arabie du Sud, de l'empire axoumite et de l'empire islamique de la Corne de l'Afrique. Ce témoignage archéologique traite de la complexité sociale et de la diversité culturelle de cette région, en tant que carrefour culturel depuis des millénaires, stratégiquement situé sur la Mer Rouge et l'Océan Indien. Cependant, les cartes ne sont nullement une énumération exhaustive du nombre de sites archéologiques connus au Somaliland. Le travail d'enquête a été mené par plusieurs membres du Département d'Archéologie du Somaliland, sous la direction de Mohamed Ali Abdi, ainsi que par l'auteur du présent rapport. Il comprend près de 100 nouveaux sites inédits et non publiés. Islamic Empires of the Horn of Africa show an enormous wealth of long-distance trade-including material from Tang Dynasty to Ming Dynasty China-and the magnitude of some of their capitals such as the ruined town and burials of Aw-Barkhadle.Ĭet article présente les résultats d'un certain nombre d'études sur la cartographie de sites archéologiques du Somaliland. They also formed part of an early global economy including the Silk Road. The coastal populations were active seafarers according to Greek records as well as archaeological remains, linking to the Phoenician and Graeco-Roman worlds. The region had vast Cushitic, pre-Christian and pre-Islamic Empires that at times formed part of the Himyarite and Sabaean cultures of Southern Arabia, the Aksumite Empire and early Islamic Empires of the Horn of Africa. However, the maps by no means exhaust the number of archaeological sites known to us in Somaliland. This report is an archaeological testimony to the social complexity and cultural diversity of this region as a cultural crossroads for millennia, being strategically located on the Red Sea and Indian Ocean. The survey work was conducted by several of Somaliland’s Department of Archaeology staff, including Mohamed Ali Abdi, a Departmental survey officer, and the present author. This paper presents the results of some of the surveys conducted to map archaeological sites of Somaliland and includes almost 100 new and previously unpublished sites.
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