Heritage 2023, 6, 7366–7380. https://doi.org/10.3390/heritage6120386 www.mdpi.com/journal/heritage Article An Outport for Gedi?—Archaeological Survey in Mida Creek, Kenya Caesar Bita 1 and Wes Forsythe 2, * 1 Department of Coastal Archaeology, National Museums of Kenya, Mombasa 82412-80100, Kenya; mcbita@gmail.com 2 School of Geography and Environmental Science, Ulster University, Coleraine BT52 1SA, UK * Correspondence: w.forsythe@ulster.ac.uk Abstract: Communities of the East African coast have had a long history of international interaction. Swahili maritime networks linked African port towns across the Indian Ocean seaboard, thus ena- bling merchandise to reach the hinterlands of the continent. One of these Swahili towns is the an- cient city of Gedi, located on the central Kenyan coast near the medieval town of Malindi. Located inshore, 6 km from the main ocean to the southeast and 3 km from Mida Creek to the southwest, Gedi’s lack of seaward connectivity has perplexed scholars. To effectively function within the vibrant Indian Ocean maritime trade networks of the 10th to 16th centuries CE, Gedi needed access to the sea. Inevitably goods had to be transported overland from a port or landing place. The ‘MUCH to Discover in Mida Creek’ project carried out an archaeological survey around the Creek to form a broader under- standing of the region’s maritime past. The study identified a range of sites that evidence past coastal activity. In particular, a concentration of contemporary house sites at Chafisi near the closest point on the Creek to Gedi would suggest it may have acted as an outport for the stone town. Keywords: Chafisi; Gedi; Mida; maritime; Swahili 1. Introduction The east coast of Africa from Somalia to Mozambique and parts of Madagascar saw the emergence of a vibrant, culturally coherent society at the beginning of the second mil- lennium CE. The Swahili peoples as they became known shared a range of linguistic, re- ligious, material, and architectural expressions [1,2]. This important pre-colonial culture on the African seaboard enjoyed extensive connections around the Indian Ocean as well as its hinterland. Early historiographies of the Swahili characterized them as Arab, urban, and mercantile based on their religion and supposed origins, the remains of their notable stone towns, and the extent of their trading links e.g., [3,4]. Over the past 40 years, the indigenous African origins and contributions to Swahili culture have entirely eclipsed the previous colonial interpretative frameworks [5,6]. This has been accompanied by an in- terest in the less ‘elite’ expressions of urban setlements, to include firstly, the houses of earth and watle that existed alongside the more prestigious stone towns; and secondly, an atempt to move beyond the setlements located within town walls to recognize broader landscapes of setlement and activity on a variety of scales fulfilling a variety of purposes [7–9]. This welcome development has produced a much more subtle under- standing of the differing strata within Swahili society. The characterization of the Swahili as a maritime culture, relying primarily on long-distance trade for their wealth and exist- ence is one that has been reiterated and developed over the years e.g., [10]. Equally, a concern to acknowledge the contribution and resources of the continental hinterland has counterpoised such views e.g., [11–13]. To some degree, this debate is further evidence of a growing understanding of the Swahili as a society which is more diverse in material and Citation: Bita, C.; Forsythe, W. An Outport for Gedi?—Archaeological Survey in Mida Creek, Kenya. Heritage 2023, 6, 7366–7380. htps:// doi.org/10.3390/heritage6120386 Academic Editor: Arlen F. Chase Received: 28 September 2023 Revised: 11 November 2023 Accepted: 22 November 2023 Published: 24 November 2023 Copyright: © 2023 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Atribution (CC BY) license (htps://creativecommons.org/license s/by/4.0/).