The trade fairs of the Berbera coast and their Asian imports, about 1000–1600

In short

This page follows a survey report by the Incipit-CSIC team of Spain (González-Ruibal, de Torres et al., "Asia in the Horn. The Indian Ocean trade in Somaliland", Archaeological Research in Asia 27, 2021, article 100289, open access). Section numbers below refer to it. The team looked at four sites near Berbera, recorded 1,485 objects, and found that over 90% were imported and only 8.5% were local handmade pottery (§1). Test pits were dug at three sites; the rest of the finds came from the surface. For the earlier history of the town, see Early Berbera before 1300.

The authors note that Berbera appears in Arabic texts from the 13th century as a lesser port than Zeila, that Ludovico di Varthema mentioned it in 1505, and that the Portuguese sacked it in 1518. They could not find the medieval town itself, which they think lies under later buildings (§1).

Bandar Abbas, 11th–13th centuries

The site lies on the coast about 8 km east of Berbera. The authors note that the name is first recorded by Richard Burton in 1854–55, and that bandar is Persian for "port" (§1.1, note 1).

• What is there. On about 2 hectares of dune are hearths, heaps of butchered bones, pots buried in stone-lined pits, a hut built of camel bones, two graves and a mosque with a mudbrick qibla wall and mihrab. The authors write that mudbrick is "unknown in Somaliland but common across medieval Yemen" (§§1.1, 1.1.2).
• Finds. Most of the pottery is Yemeni cooking and storage ware of the 11th–12th centuries, with Indian cooking pots, Iranian sgraffiato, Chinese celadon and Qingbai, glass perfume flasks, kohl sticks and beads of Indian carnelian and agate (§1.1.1).
• Reading. Because camels are usually killed only for feasts and religious occasions, the authors interpret the site as "a place for intercultural religious celebrations", where Yemenis and local people feasted together, with some trade on the side. They date its main use to the 12th century (§1.1.2).

Siyaara, 11th to early 19th century

Siyaara is about 30 km east of Berbera. It covers about 8 hectares of sandy plain beside the beach, with a fort, two coral-stone buildings and Muslim cemeteries with thousands of graves (§1.2).

• Sources. The authors note that the 15th-century navigator Ibn Majid names it as a port with sailing seasons different from Zeila's. Burton recorded a local story that in 1266 it was ruled by a non-Muslim chief, a magician, who was driven out by two holy men from Arabia; the authors suggest this "might be an allegory" for the arrival of Muslim missionaries (§1.2).
• Finds. With 525 items, it has yielded more imports than any other site in the survey, including the largest set of Chinese blue-and-white porcelain known in Somaliland: 48 sherds, mostly cups and bowls from Jingdezhen (§1.2.2).
• Dates. About 61% of the datable imported pottery belongs to the Adal period, 31% to the 11th–14th centuries and 8% to the 17th–19th (§1.2.2).
• Reading. The earliest finds cluster round a large cairn, with mounds of ash and bone. The authors suggest trade began there "with a ritual element", and note that siyaaro is the Somali word for a pilgrimage to the tombs of holy men. From the 13th or 14th century, they write, it became "a more conventional kind of fair" (§1.2.3). See From cairns to cemeteries.

Farhad, 13th to 16th century

Farhad is a rocky hill 3.5 km south of Berbera port, beside the main road inland. Sailors used it as a landmark until colonial times. The finds cover about 5 hectares, but quarrying and new building have destroyed most of the site since 2017 (§1.3). With no buildings, grinding stones or cemetery, the authors read it as an open fair rather than a village. Compared with Siyaara, half of its fine wares are from Yemen, and 30% of its pottery is storage jars. They suggest the two fairs "catered to different customers" (§§1.3.1–1.3.2). A fort, perhaps Ottoman, was later built on the hilltop (§1.3.2).

Biyo Gure, 15th to 16th century

Biyo Gure is a village of perhaps 30 buildings on a spur above the Biyo Gure river, 10 km from the sea. The authors estimate about a hundred people lived there (§1.4).

• Farming and trade. Grinding stones point to farming. Imports were unusually rich for a village, including Myanmar celadon, one bowl possibly marked with a letter of the Pyu script. Glass slag suggests glass was melted there, the only such evidence the team has found in Somaliland (§§1.4–1.4.1).
• Burned. Three houses far apart from each other had burned, with layers of ash 40 cm thick. The authors write that who destroyed it is "difficult to say" in a century of wars and foreign intervention (§1.4.2).
• Reading. They suggest that its people sold food and water to caravans and to traders waiting on the coast for ships (§1.4.2).

How the sources of goods changed

The authors' table of imported pottery from all four sites (§2, table 1):

They add that Indian trade continued in beads, bangles and probably cloth, and that Egypt also sent glass (§§1.2.3, 2). They place the peak of Asian imports between about 1450 and 1525, and link the fall to Ming export bans from about 1521, Portuguese action in the Indian Ocean, and the wars and collapse of the Adal sultanate (§§2–3).

Where the goods went

Inland, the authors note, local pottery makes up about 99% of finds, against an average 7% on the coast. They read Somaliland as "more a transition zone that conveyed goods to the interior than a destination", with Berbera probably second to Zeila. Fardowsa is the exception, which they explain by its place at the top of the main pass (§2). See Fardowsa.

Related pages

• Early Berbera before 1300
• Ruined towns of the Somali interior
• Chinese records of the Somali coast
• Mogadishu, Zeila, Berbera and Barawa, 1331–1586
• Zeila and Berbera in João de Barros's Décadas da Ásia, 1513–1518