ABSTRACT

The existence of ruined towns in interior Somalia, most of them in the northwest, has been known to Western observers since 1854. Some were briefly surveyed during the last century. Although new investigations have been undertaken recently in northwest Somalia and on the neighbouring Somali plateau of eastern Ethiopia, northeastern Somalia has mostly remained unexplored. However, several ruined towns, three of them relatively large, have recently been discovered in the Nugaal Valley. These new discoveries enhance our current limited knowledge of the history of these towns. The three larger towns are located in the same region where the first interior city in Somalia was reported in 1154. It is possible that one of the newly reported sites represents that forgotten city. This paper presents preliminary data from a surface investigation of the three sites and then explores their ramifications for the history of the region.

摘要

自 1854 年以来，西方观察家就已经知道索马里内陆地区存在被毁坏的城镇，其中大部分位于西北部。上个世纪对一些城镇进行了简要调查。尽管最近在索马里西北部和邻近的埃塞俄比亚东部索马里高原进行了新的调查，但索马里东北部大部分地区仍未被勘探。然而，最近在 Nugaal 山谷发现了几个被毁坏的城镇，其中三个比较大。这些新发现增强了我们目前对这些城镇历史的有限了解。这三个较大的城镇位于 1154 年报告的索马里第一个内陆城市所在的同一地区。新报告的地点之一可能代表了那个被遗忘的城市。