Who dug where: a history of archaeology in Somalia and Somaliland, 1854 to today

In short

This page lists who has done archaeological work in Somalia and Somaliland, when and where, and what became of the finds. It follows the overview by the Spanish archaeologist Jorge de Torres Rodríguez (de Torres Rodríguez, "Against All Odds: The History of Archaeological Research in Somaliland and Somalia", Northeast African Studies 18.1–2, 2018, pp. 271–310; page numbers below are from the author's open copy, which runs from p. 265). De Torres himself led the Spanish project described near the end.

De Torres writes that the Somali people's division among five countries after the colonial partition left research split into separate traditions "published in three main languages (Italian, English, and French)", which made cross-border work and the pooling of data difficult (p. 266).

Travellers and collectors, 1854–1920

• Richard Burton, 1854, noted ruined towns on his way from Zeila to Harar (pp. 267–268). See Abasa (Darbiyah Kola).
• Georges Révoil, who travelled along the coast and through the Darror valley in the early 1880s, was the first to describe the region's cairns. He brought back stone tools, Chinese, Indian and Yemeni pieces, and Roman and Egyptian glass and pottery from Heis (p. 268). See Heis (Xiis).
• Stone-tool collectors. Italian expeditions gathered stone tools near Hobyo (1891) and on the Shabelle (1901). In British Somaliland, H. W. Seton-Karr and others collected from 1897 the samples on which later Stone Age studies were built (p. 268).
• A pause, 1900–1920. De Torres writes that the war between the British and the Dervish movement of Sayyid Mohamed Abdullah Hassan stopped research in British Somaliland, and that only one expedition worked in Italian Somaliland, in 1913 (p. 268). See The Dervish movement.

The first proper surveys, 1920s–1950s

• Boundary commissions. The Anglo-Italian (1929–30) and British–Ethiopian (1932–34) border commissions brought scholars into the field (p. 268).
• Italian Somaliland. Expeditions in 1924 and 1935 dug caves and rock shelters with Stone Age material for the first time (Paolo Graziosi). Enrico Cerulli published notes on burial monuments in the Majeerteen country (p. 269).
• A. T. Curle, of the British–Ethiopian commission, surveyed ruined towns around Borama and dated them to the Adal period, 15th–16th centuries. De Torres calls his work "pioneering" for combining digging, aerial photographs and historical texts (p. 269). See Ruined towns of the Somali interior.
• J. D. Clark, serving in Somalia in 1941–1946, made field trips that led to his 1954 book, which de Torres calls "the only synthesis of the earlier stages of the prehistory of the Horn of Africa". It includes a chapter on rock art, first recorded in the 1940s (p. 270).
• Paolo Graziosi led a new Italian project in 1953 under the trust administration (p. 270).

After independence, 1960–1990

• 1960s. De Torres describes little activity. The exceptions were reports on earlier digs, studies of coin hoards and, in 1968, Neville Chittick's survey of the coast between Mogadishu and Kenya, the first academic paper on the historical remains of the Benadir (p. 270).
• The Soviet–Somali expedition, 1971 and 1973, led by S. A. Warsame, A. Nikiforov and L. L. Galkin, visited Amud, Gorbag and Abasa near Borama, Zeila, the rock art site of God-Hardune near Ceel Afweyn, and several cairn fields (p. 271).
• Chittick, 1975–1976. Invited by the Somali government, Chittick surveyed the coast north of Mogadishu looking for pre-Islamic sites. He found and later excavated Ras Hafun, found ancient trade goods at Damo, and recorded the deserted town of Maduna near Ceel Afweyn (pp. 271–272). After Chittick and his colleague Mathew Smith died, no final report was published; much of the record is in Nairobi and the material kept in Mogadishu "is certainly lost" (p. 272). See Opone and Ras Hafun.
• 1980 congress. The first congress of the Somali Studies International Association was held in Mogadishu in July 1980. For it Chittick dug two trenches near the Jaamac mosque in Mogadishu, six metres deep, which de Torres writes did not find evidence of the city before the 12th century (p. 272). See Early Mogadishu.
• Steven Brandt, 1980–1989. In the north he excavated Medishe, Gud and Karin Hegaan, giving the first systematic radiocarbon dates in the country, and recorded the Karin Hegaan paintings. In the south, at Gogoshiis Qabe in the Buur Heybe hills, he found the remains of 16 people from the early Holocene, buried under stone cairns with kudu horns, which de Torres calls the largest sample of prehistoric human remains in the Horn. A survey for the planned Baardheere dam on the Jubba in 1987 recorded 686 sites over 420 square kilometres, including 160 cairns and 11 rock art sites (pp. 273–275).
• Margherita Mussi, from 1982, surveyed the middle Jubba around Luuq and Baardheere. Her team defined the "Luuqian" stone-tool industries, dated about 10,000 to 5,000 years ago (pp. 275–276).
• Swedish support, from 1981. After a Somali delegation visited Sweden, the Swedish research agency SAREC funded training, a heritage law and a site register, led by Sune Jönsson from 1982. Somali students were sent abroad to train (pp. 276–279).
• Ahmed Dualeh Jama, one of those students, worked with Chittick at Biyo Gure near Berbera in 1984, and from 1986 to 1990 surveyed Barawa, Gezira, Mogadishu and the Benadir interior and dug at the Shangani mosque (1986), Xamar Jajab (1989) and Afgooye (1990). The Shangani dig reached five metres and nine layers, from before the 11th century to the 19th. In 1996 he became the first Somali to earn a doctorate in archaeology (pp. 279–280, 283).
• The National Museum. A new National Museum in Mogadishu, replacing the Italian-era Garesa Museum, opened its exhibitions in May 1987, and an Antiquities Law was in its final stages that year (p. 280).

After 1991

De Torres writes that the collections of the National Museum "were lost at some point during the early 1990s", and that almost all of Brandt's Buur Heybe material was destroyed in Mogadishu, though some public collections had been taken to universities in the United States with permission (pp. 282–283). He writes that fieldwork has since been possible mainly in Somaliland (p. 283):

• 2001. Fauvelle-Aymar and Hirsch visited Zeila, Amud, Abasa, Sheikh and Berbera and dug test pits at Zeila (p. 283). See Early Zeila.
• 2002. A French team from Toulouse led by Xavier Gutherz was taken by local guides to Laas Geel, and excavated there between 2003 and 2010 (pp. 283–284). See Laas Geel and Somali rock art.
• 2007. Sada Mire's work with the Somaliland authorities led to a Department of Archaeology that year, site surveys, and local wardens for key sites. The department was merged with tourism in 2010 and given its own funding again in late 2017 (pp. 285, 289).
• 2015 onward. The Institute of Heritage Sciences (Incipit-CSIC) of Spain began work, digging at Bulhar from 2016, surveying Heis in 2018 and studying the medieval towns of the west. By 2019 it had documented 30 sites, tested seven and recorded more than 200 cairns (pp. 285–287).

What de Torres sees as open questions

He lists three main challenges: the lack of laws and institutions to regulate research, the need to set clear research questions, and low public awareness of the need to protect heritage. He notes that an Antiquities, Monuments and Museums Act was being drafted in Somaliland (pp. 288–289). He names themes where Somali evidence could matter most: the medieval Muslim states, the spread of livestock, rock art, ancient trade and the archaeology of nomads, including the many undated cairns (pp. 289–292). See Ancient burials, standing stones and towns.

Related pages

• Before 1300: the ancient Somali lands
• The Stone Age in the Somali lands
• Heritage sites in Somalia