Stephanie Wynne-Jones
Head of Department, Professor of African Archaeology

Profile

Biography

Departmental roles

Head, Department of Archaeology

University roles

Faculty member, University Senate

Research

Overview

Stephanie has conducted fieldwork in several regions of the East African coast, including her PhD research at Kilwa Kisiwani, Tanzania, survey on Mafia Island (with Dr Paul Lane and Dr Bertram Mapunda), excavations at Vumba Kuu, Kenya (with the National Museums of Kenya) and along caravan routes through Tanzania, with work near Lake Tanganyika. She has recently completed a major campaign of excavation back in the Kilwa archipelago, at Songo Mnara (with Dr Jeffrey Fleisher). Excavations at this 14th – 16th century stonetown are aimed towards providing a richer understanding of the uses of urban space among the Swahili, and the ways that objects were bound up in spatial practices inside and outside the structures. The fieldwork is now complete, and the project monograph is in process.

This work at Songo Mnara builds on a broader interest in material culture and spatial practice as a route through which to approach issues of society, identity and interaction.

In addition, Stephanie has research interests in urbanism, and in the precolonial African past more generally. She is a core group member of the Centre for Urban Network Evolutions at Aarhus University, Denmark. Urbnet is funded as a Centre of Excellence by the Danish National Research Foundation, and seeks to explore the nature of urban formations in many parts of the ancient world. With colleagues at Urbnet, particularly Dr Federica Sulas, Stephanie is exploring Urban Transitions on Zanzibar, with a programme of excavation, sampling and off-site testing aimed at recovering the relationship between past towns and their environment.

Projects

ZAMBEZI: Zambezian Entanglements in the South Central African Iron Age

This ERC Advanced grant-funded project will be conducting excavations at the iconic site of Ingombe Ilede, Zambia, combined with survey and excavation in the broader Middle Zambezi region. It combines traditional archaeological techniques with innovative survey techniques, bioarchaeological approaches to identity, mobility and diet, and aDNA study of kinship and ancestry.

MAEASAM: Mapping Africa’s Endangered Archaeological Sites and Monuments

The MAEASaM project is a collaborative project funded by Arcadia, which is working to identify and document endangered archaeological heritage sites across eight African countries, dated from the Palaeolithic/Early Stone Age to the 20th century, then share this information to help protect them.

Stephanie is leading on the Tanzanian workgroup, in collaboration with the National Museum of Tanzania and the Department of Museums and Antiquities, Zanzibar.

UETZAP: Urban ecology and transitions in the Zanzibar archipelago

This project, funded by the Leverhulme Trust (2019-2022) was an exploration of the ways that early urban centres on Zanzibar drew on and affected their resource landscapes during two major periods of urban growth. Fieldwork at Unguja Ukuu (7th - 15th centuries) and Tumbatu (11th - 15th centuries) on Zanzibar explored domestic contexts in detail, analysing the ways that local resources were used and built into the spaces of the towns. It is currently being written up for publication.

Storytelling about the Swahili past

This research project produced materials disseminating the results of archaeological research in Kilwa region, Tanzania in ways that resonate with local communities. It builds on focus group work during the AHRC-funded CoNCH project, during which all participants requested a book in Swahili that told the story of the site. 'Storytelling' produced a children's book about Kilwa Kisiwani and Songo Mnara, launched in Kilwa region and used in Kilwa’s schools. The book is available online here.

Songo Mnara Urban Landscape Project

Large scale excavations at Songo Mnara (2009-2017) were part of a collaboration with Dr Jeffrey Fleisher, Rice University, and were funded by the National Science Foundation (US) and the Arts and Humanities Research Council (UK). They explored practices of daily life at Songo Mnara, a 14th - 15th century stone town on the southern coast of Tanzania. Excavations included large-scale testing of open spaces and household structures, exploring the distribution of artefacts, faunal and botanical data as well as more ephemeral aspects such as soil chemistry and phytoliths. The result has been an unprecedented picture of the uses of space at a Swahili site. The project is currently in production as a British Institute in Eastern Africa monograph.

Research group(s)

Material culture research group

Medieval archaeology research group

African Archaeology research group

Available PhD research projects

Stephanie is happy to chat about PhD projects on any aspect of the archaeology of Africa, particularly eastern Africa. She is also happy to discuss projects exploring material culture and community archaeology.

Please just get in touch for more details.

Supervision

Leslie Amoyal – Exploring mobility among Nubian A-Group communities through analysis of portable material culture

Nura Hassan - Exploring mobility, religion and the subsistence economy of coastal Somali communities, 4th-19th century CE

Elizabeth Hicks - Communities of Consumption: an integrated approach to ceramic function and foodways along the Swahili coast during the first millennium AD

Teaching

Undergraduate

• World Archaeology
• African Archaeology
• Medieval Islam
• Artefacts/Ceramics Analysis practical skills

Postgraduate

• Thinking through Material Culture, core module
• Global Middle Ages module  (Centre for Medieval Studies)

External activities

Overview

• President, Society of Africanist Archaeologists (since 2025)
• Chair, ERC Starting Grant panel, SH6 (2025 call)
• Core group member, Centre for Urban Network Evolutions, Aarhus University
• Honorary Research Fellow, University of South Africa (UNISA)

Memberships

• Member, Society of Africanist Archaeologists

• Fellow, Society of Antiquaries of London

Editorial duties

• General Editor, British Institute in Eastern Africa Memoir series
• Editorial Advisory Board member, African archaeology and cultural heritage series, Routledge
• Editorial Advisory Committee member, Internet Archaeology
• Editorial board, Azania