Posted at Dec 10/2007 08:18AM:
elisa foster: Gao was the central site of the Songhai Empire in West Africa. It was founded by the 11th century and florished during the 13th - 14th centuries. Gao is actually a dual settlement consisting of a center and periphery site that would become the pattern for emerging cities in Africa. This dual settlement thus positioned the site with interior/exterior tensions within the physical landscape. The Muslim community settled at Gao Senai (sp?) while the older site was maintained and subsequently Islamicized. Much material culture exisits from this site (excavated primarilly by Insoll's team - our "Archaeology of Islam" scholar). Among the more prominent sites of archaeological interest at Gao is the merchant's house that contained a cash of hippopotamus ivory and a harpoon head. It is thought that this cash is an indicator for shipment to the rest of the muslim world (international trade); however, more local movement through Africa itself has been neglected in the scholarship of Gao. Gao also saw the development of rectalinar architecture, which has been interpreted as a Muslim adapation. However, the causal relationship between religion and architectural settlement is not clear. Many luxury ceramics also survive from Gao, however, most of them are imported. These ceramics thus show a connection between Gao (the periphery) and the center of the Islamic world, and also indicate a taste for foreign aesthetics. In addition to these ceramic goods, glassware and beads from India are also present at this site, indicating the far-reaching trade throughout the Islamic world.

Posted at Dec 10/2007 08:32AM:
ian: This is pretty comprehensive nothing more really for me to add.