1.2.3. Interpretation
Multicultural trade in Siyaara may have started with a ritual element, in the southern part of the site around the eleventh or twelfth century (González-Ruibal and de Torres, 2018: 8). Evidence for this is that the earliest materials appear surrounding a large funerary cairn. Mounds with charcoal, animal bones and local, hand-made incense burners may be related to this ritual aspect of the trade. Further proof of this ritual dimension is the name of the site. Siyaaro is the Somali name for the pilgrimage to ancestral sites, where the tombs of notorious holy men are venerated (Lewis, 1998). This religious character of Siyaara was remembered through the above-mentioned myth gathered by Burton in the mid-nineteenth century. However, from the thirteenth or fourteenth century onwards the site became a more conventional kind of fair, as it moved away from the cairn.
The apex of long-distance trade came during the Adalite period, between the early fifteenth and mid-sixteenth century. The seventeenth century saw a steep decline of the site, but some commerce was still conducted until the early nineteenth century: we have discovered around 20 sherds that can be dated between c. 1600 and 1800, including Qing porcelains (blue and white porcelain and grey and white), manganese-painted ware and Khunj pottery from Oman. During our survey of the coast south of Siyaara, we recorded two minor sites with imports from the seventeenth-eighteenth centuries, including a Swatow bowl and Khunj pottery.
A look at the provenance of imported ceramics from the medieval period tells us of the evolving nature of the trade. The analysis shows that ceramic imports during the twelfth to the fourteenth century came primarily from Yemen (50% of the vessels), India (30%), East Asia (12%) and Iran (8%). China might have a better representation, but we have been unable to precise the chronology of some of the celadon sherds. The percentage of Yemeni imports also increases if we include seven soapstone vessels. The entire ceramic assemblage that we have been able to identify comes from Asia. However, there are some plain pottery and monochrome glazed wares that could come from Egypt or Syria. To the trade ceramics, we have to add glass vessels that were undoubtedly from Egypt. Still, Asian goods probably represented as much as 90% of the trade.
During the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries the ratios changed. Yemeni materials fell to only 27% of the assemblage. Pottery categories also changed: in the previous period, it was cooking and storage wares that got the lion share, whereas during the Adalite phase it is mostly underglaze painted ceramics (Blue, Blue and White and Bleeding-Green Tihama). This is related to the change in the nature of the site, from a ritual space where feasts were celebrated involving cooking and consumption of food to a marketplace for fine wares, perfumes, adornments and other commodities. The Yemeni presence in the trade remained strong, however, the more so if we add part or all of the monochrome glass bangles. Iran got a larger share of the ceramic trade during the fifteenth-sixteenth centuries, rising from 8% to 28%. However, we have to be careful, as some of the ubiquitous speckled wares may have been produced in South Arabia as well. East Asian ceramics increased from 12% to 35% (30% China, 5% SE Asia), a phenomenon that is general along the East African coast and the Middle East. India disappears in terms of pottery (albeit some of the SBBW may have still arrived during the fifteenth century), but the trade persisted in other goods (glass bangles, beads), some of which may not have left archaeological traces (cloth). Egypt appears now for the first time with 10% of the ceramic imports—but Egyptian glass vessels were traded already in the previous period. Actually, if we put together pottery and glass, the contribution of Egypt to the volume of trade increased noticeably during the time of the Adal Sultanate, representing perhaps as much as 15% of the goods that were entering the Horn. All in all, if ceramics are an indicator, it can be argued that trade during the Adalite period became more international: pottery from outside South Arabia increased from around 40% to 70% of the assemblage, and trade with the Far East increased exponentially—as elsewhere in Arabia and East Africa. Despite the growing relevance of Egypt, Asian imports still represented at least 80% of the trade goods and perhaps as much as 90% of the imported pottery.
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