Abstract

This paper offers a mesoscale approach to the study of the urban landscape surrounding the fourteenth–sixteenth century Swahili site of Songo Mnara just off the southern Tanzanian coast. The study is based on a systematic, intensive survey of the town’s immediate island hinterland. Such an approach, we argue, exposes a set of activities that extend out from the urban core and situates the traditional objects of study (urban center, rural villages) in an integrated landscape. This scale of activity is particularly apparent in an island context where urban activities encompassed the island itself. This example demonstrates why urban societies in island contexts must be considered in their landscape setting, as a range of territorial relationships can be discerned in the past that were an integral part of the ways that urban lives were constructed.

摘要

本文提供了一种中尺度方法来研究坦桑尼亚南部海岸附近十四至十六世纪斯瓦希里语遗址松戈姆纳拉 (Songo Mnara) 周围的城市景观。该研究基于对该镇紧邻岛屿腹地的系统、深入调查。我们认为，这种方法暴露了一系列从城市核心延伸出来的活动，并将传统的研究对象（城市中心、乡村）置于一个综合景观中。这种活动规模在岛屿环境中尤其明显，因为城市活动涵盖了岛屿本身。这个例子说明了为什么必须在景观环境中考虑岛屿环境中的城市社会，因为过去可以辨别出一系列领土关系，这些关系是城市生活构建方式的一个组成部分。