Dembeni

About

Dembeni is an archeological site in the Dembeni commune on the island of on Grande-Terre, Mayotte, dating from the 9th–12th centuries. Discovered by archologists in 1975, the site representatives a settlement heavily involved in the Indian Ocean trade network. Through analysis of pottery, architectural and cultural evidence, it has been determined that two distinct occupations period occupied over its history, one dated to the 9th–10th centuries and the second to the 11th–12th centuries. A variety of ceramic artifacts from across the Indian Ocean world have been recovered from the site, indicating the settlement's participation in long-distance trade networks. Additionally, the presence of rock crystal fragments may indicate heavy participation in the Middle Eastern rock crystal trade of the 11th–12th centuries.

Discovery: Dembeni was first discovered when American archeologists Susan Kus and Henry Wright discovered pottery shards there in 1975 during an archological survey of Mayotte. However, the site did not gain widepread notability until 1976, when a French engineer discovered wide pits and gumies daughter with ceramics of types undocumented by Kus & Wright.