ABSTRACT
T he research presented here was part of the Lundu Archaeology Project (Leiden University), developed to gain a better understanding of the ‘identity’ of the Iron Age Lundu state, which existed in what is now Malawi from at least 1500 to ca. 1860 C.E. (Welling 2002a, 2002b, 2003). Between 2001 and 2005 archaeological research was carried out in the Lower Shire Valley, the location of the Lundu state, at Mbewe ya Mitengo. e interdisciplinary project sought to investigate the Lundu state’s internal dynamics of authority in relation to such external factors as trade, war, slavery, migration, drought, and tribute systems. Archaeological and palaeoecological data were recovered to complement to existing documentary, ethnographic, and oral sources. is chapter focuses on the rst phase of the analysis of the archaeobotanical samples: those recovered from 2002 and 2003 (Heijen 2005) and limited further analysis in 2006. Whereas Welling (2002a, 2002b, 2003) surveyed and excavated various parts of the Lower Shire Valley, my archaeobotanical research was concentrated in the village of Mbewe ya Mitengo (Figure 16.1).
