Transoceanic Interconnectivities Between India- Tanzania Coastal Communities from the Antiquity to Contemporaries: The Archaeologic Perspectives from the Ancient Maritime Trade Connections via the Indian Ocean

Abstract

The currently available archaeological and historical records indicate that since the prehistoric times, India and Tanzania shared a very long antiquity in terms of human civilization through the Indian Ocean maritime trade especially during the Neolithic period in aspects such as maritime trade links, ancient technology transfer, and intermarriages, expressly in monumental built heritage assets along the coast of the Indian Ocean. Outstandingly, the East African coast and its offshore islands preserve a lot of ancient remnants of built heritage assets, religious and symbolic entities, and socio-cultural traditions. Archaeologically, Swahili culture, which is one of the most powerful African civilizations along the coastal towns and littoral regions in East Africa is to some extent predisposed and inspired by Indian elements of early civilizations. The prehistoric contacts between the Indian Ocean communities of East Africa and Indian subcontinent have left some legacies in terms of language, crop and animal domestication, trade, architecture, and intermarriage. Some of these cultural elements are clearly visible in the forms of a spectacular series of historic stone towns along the coast and littoral regions of Tanzania for instance, especially ones that contain ruins of houses, mosques, and tombs built of coral limestones are typically Indian heritage inspired, which significantly influenced coastal and littoral societal socio-cultural developments in Tanzania.