ABSTRACT
This chapter emphasises economic and social entanglement inland of the Indian Ocean coastal fringe, but tied to it and to the Swahili world, c. 750–1550 ce (Horton 1996; Chami 1998; Kusimba 1999). Archaeologists continue to build a comparative knowledge base about the continental hinterland and past communities and linkages that bound inland people to the coast and vice versa (for example, Helm et al. 2012; Pawlowicz 2012; Kusimba et al. 2013; Walz 2013). Material evidence of inland entanglement can be gleaned directly from sites in the mainland interior or indirectly from littoral sites. Balanced study of regional connectivity across preconceived geographical areas, however, necessitates that inland people and pasts be treated with a quantity and quality of scholarly investigation equivalent in sophistication to coastal efforts. Equitable treatment can transform our understandings of regional pasts and the Swahili world.
