The complexity of public space at the Swahili town of Songo Mnara, Tanzania

• Evidence of multi-purpose use of open space in a Swahili town.
• Review of how archaeology approaches ‘empty’ or open space.
• Consideration of access, visibility and perspective as attributes of public space.
• Commemorative activities in open areas alongside more functional ones.

Public spaces have been long recognized as integral parts of urban settings, often granted importance by the public ceremonies and spectacles that they hosted. Interpretations of such public arenas often focus on elites that use them to construct and legitimize power and authority; city residents are thought to either accept these political machinations, or reject them and the space itself. Alternately, studies of public space that emphasize more practical uses, such as for production or other domestic activities tend to focus on those spaces directly associated with houses, emphasizing the everyday life of city residents. This paper works to set aside this dichotomy by exploring the multi-faceted open spaces at Songo Mnara, a medieval Swahili town on the southern Tanzanian coast. Songo Mnara is particularly well-suited to a study of Swahili public space because of its short occupation and clear town plan understood through standing architecture; it is likely the best example of how the southern Swahili understood a planned town should be organized in the fifteenth century AD. Archaeological research directed at the site’s open spaces has revealed a variety of public spaces which include a mix of deliberately-maintained areas reflecting some element of control and planning, and other less formal public spaces that seem to have been organized and maintained by non-elite residents of the town. This essay reviews literature on the archaeology of open and public space and explores how the case of Songo Mnara contributes to it, by walking the reader through what has been learned about the complex and variable public spaces of the town. The public spaces of Songo Mnara serve to broaden previous dichotomous approaches to urban open space.