From cairns to graves: funerary transformations in medieval sedentary communities in the Islamic Horn of Africa

The funerary practices of a human group often tell us more about the living than about the dead. Analysing the funerary practices of a society is therefore key to understanding what dynamics marked not only death but also the life of a human group. The arrival of Islam in the Horn of Africa planted the seeds for a series of changes that would alter the social, religious and cultural dynamics of the region, especially during the period of its two main sultanates: Ifat and Barr Sa’ad ad-din or Adal (thirteenth to sixteenth centuries AD). These changes were reflected in material culture, introducing transformations and innovations, especially in architecture. This paper focuses on analysing medieval funerary structures and practices, describing their main modifications relative to previous periods and relating them to the process of Islamisation that the region underwent in medieval times. In addition, it proposes a typology for the new burial forms that appeared in the region during this period. This typology will be used by the StateHorn Project to study and document the necropolises associated with medieval urban sites in Somaliland, Djibouti and Ethiopia.