Matola

Early Iron Age shell midden site near Maputo on the coast of southern Mozambique. Its pottery is used to define the Matola section of the first Iron Age farmers in the area. The pottery recovered is remarkably similar to that from Kwale near the Kenya coast far to the north. There may have been an extremely rapid southward spread of Early Iron Age cultural traits along the eastern coast of Africa between the 3rd-5th centuries AD.

An Early Iron Age site near Maputo on the coast of southern Mozambique. The pottery recovered there is remarkably similar to that from Kwale near the Kenya coast far to the north. Despite the great geographical separation of the two areas, it seems plausible to suggest that there may have been an extremely rapid southward spread of Early Iron Age cultural traits along the eastern coast of Africa between the 2nd and the 4th centuries ad.