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Séminaire « Archéologie de l’est de l’Océan Indien : échanges préhistoriques et du début de la période historique depuis les confins iraniens jusqu’à la Mer de Chine Méridionale »&#160;&#160;Organisateur : Bérénice Bellina (CNRS- UMR “Mondes iranien et indien”)Séminaire de l’UMR 7528 « Mondes iranien et indien », Maison de l’Asie, Salon 1er étage22, avenue du Président Wilson, Paris 16èmeLe séminaire se tient de 10h à 11h30.Dr Stephanie Wynne-Jones, University of York interviendra le 28 mai 2013Titre : Objects and interactions: exploring Indian Ocean connections on the Swahili coast of East AfricaRésumé : Ancient Swahili towns, on the east coast of Africa, are known as trading centres, deeply interconnected with a wider Indian Ocean world. From the 7th century AD we can chart through archaeology the development of complex townscapes from earlier villages. Cosmopolitanism is indicated for these centres throughout their existence, in their rich record of imported objects, as well as in the ways that the ‘stonetowns’ developed with coral-built houses and mosques evoking styles from overseas.  Archaeology on this coast has explored the trading links of these societies, charting their changing connections, initially with the Persian Gulf and later with the Red Sea and as far afield as China.In this presentation, I draw on this archaeology and on recent excavations at Songo Mnara in Tanzania, to suggest an alternative means of looking at objects in this world. The numbers and types of imports in Swahili towns, combined with what we know from historical records of trade, suggest that archaeology is a poor means of quantifying commerce. Yet, the ability to look at the objects contextually, and to think about the ways they were used in East Africa, can lead us to a different model, viewing objects as traces of connections and shared practices rather than as quantifiable indicators of trade.  The Swahili material world will be considered, from the built environment to the artefacts found through archaeology, to explore the ways that the Swahili engaged with the Indian Ocean world, and made those connections locally meaningful.