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On the Swahili Coast in southern Tanzania lie the ruins of a stone town known as Songo Mnara. The stone town was occupied from the 14th to 16th centuries. Songo Mnara has been recognized at a UNESCO World Heritage Site, along with nearby stone town Kilwa Kisiwani. In total, archaeologists have found six mosques, four cemeteries, and two dozen house blocks along with three enclosed open spaces on the island. Songo Mnara was constructed from rough-coral and mortar. This stonetown was built as one of many trade towns on the Indian Ocean.〔 == Layout of Swahili Towns == Archaeologists have been working on a new key concept: the layout of stone towns on the Swahili coast. The reason they are looking at the layout of the town space is because not many archaeologists have looked at it in the past. It brings to light why the building was built the way it was to make it the town that it was in the past. They are mainly focusing on the relationship of the mosques and houses that are on the Swahili coast. This focuses on the importance of these places within the community in the culture they are living in.〔 Houses and mosques are an important aspect in understanding the purpose of the Swahili coast in Islamic culture. There is a specific place where the mosque has to be within the city in order to understand the importance of the function of the town.〔 According to archaeologists, the mosque plays a huge role in the symbolic meaning of the town it is in.〔 Houses also play a role in how the town’s function within the community. The houses were part of both the complex economic and ritual processes of owning a piece of land.〔 Open spaces are another aspect of Swahili towns that have not been given much attention in the past. The purpose is of this space is used in two different ways: a functional space and a specific place of social organization. Within the open spaces, there are locations of tombs and cemeteries. There are many different areas found within the cemetery, one being inside and other outside the walls of the town.〔 Songo Mnara is one of many towns on the Swahili coast set up in the same ways as the other stone towns of the same type. The wall around Songo Mnara is different than the other towns on the coast. There are outer houses along the south and east side of the town, and the north and west had a purpose behind the building. This makes it hard to enter the stone town because there is no access toward it.〔 The two cemeteries are located within the town, and two are places outside the town like many other stone towns on the Swahili coast.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Songo Mnara」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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