ABSTRACT
Archaeological research in East Africa started over eighty years ago with two major spatial foci, one centred on the interior along the Eastern Rift Valley, and the other along the coast from Somalia south as far as Mozambique. Initially, research in the interior was mostly concerned with hominid evolution and the Early Stone Age, and Later Stone Age rock art, resulting in the discovery of numerous internationally famous archaeological localities and sites, that include Olduvai, Laetoli, Koobi Fora, and Lake Turkana and the rich collection of rock art sites in the Kondoa region of Tanzania. Pioneering researchers included Hans Reck, Ludwig Kohl-Larsen, Louis Leakey, Mary Leakey and E.J. Wayland (a geologist by profession). The work on the coast, on the other hand, focused on a much more recent period of the region’s history – the architectural monuments of the Swahili towns such as those at Kilwa Kisiwani, Kaole, Manda, Gedi, Lamu, Pate and many others. Much of this early research was conducted by the likes of James Kirkman, Neville Chittick, and Peter Garlake.
