Notes on Jumba la mtwana.

The ruined settlement of Jumba la mtwana is situated about three quarters of a mile from the entrance to Mtwapa Creek and two miles from the Mombasa-Malindi road , and extends along the shore for a distance of about 300m and inland about 250m. Within this area four mosques, a tomb and four houses have survived in recognizable condition.
The settlement is unknown to history, and the area is considered a part of Mtwapa by its present inhabitants. It is probable that Jumba la Mtwana was an offshoot of old Mtwapa and that its inhabitants finally abandoned it to return to their home town. The clearance and excavation of the Great Mosque and the houses was carried out in the months of January to April, 1972, primarily with a view to the consolidation of the buildings, which were in danger of collapse.
This necessitated the removal of fallen rubble so that the walls could be restored. In the course of the operation, the opportunity was taken to carry out limited excavations, in order to date the buildings and the period of occupation. The ceramic evidence showed that the town had been built in the fourteenth century and abandoned early in the fifteenth. The dating is based on the presence of a few sherds of early blue-and-white porcelain with the Lung-ch’uan celadon, and the absence of any later Chinese wares.
There was no difference between the finds from the various levels. The houses should perhaps be described as ‘buildings’, because in their last phase at least they may not have been used primarily as dwellings. The three that have been excavated have been called the House Cylinders, the House of the Kitchen, and the House of many Doors, after their most prominent features.
The building nearest to the entrance of the site is the HOUSE OF THE CYLINDERS. It consists of a group of five rooms, a court, and a washroom, and is entered by a door in the east wall leading into a small court. On the right is a room with filled-in sump, and straight ahead a group of four rooms.
Beyond the room of the sump is a large room at a lower level, with a double is a large room at a lower level, with a double kidaka, or cupboard, in the west wall. This was the principal room of the house. On the north side of these two rooms is a large court, 0.91 m below the floors of the rooms. Under the door way in the north-east corner is a drain running into the court. This surprising feature may be an irrigation channel for the growing of tambu, a leaf chewed with betel nut. This plant is grown in the courtyards of houses at Lamu today. The court slopes upwards to a cistern and latrine pit. The two cylinders set against the cistern, after which the house has been named, are probably seats for people wishing to wash their feet. Doorways in the room of the sump and the principal room are evidence of intended communication between the house and the court, but there is no evidence of the steps which would have been necessary to provide access to it. The house appears to have been abandoned before it was completed.

Excavations below the floors uncovered two earlier floors, of which the upper was at the same level as the court. The lower floor was beneath the foundation line of the walls and 0.23m above the leveled coral surface, probably belonging to a house built of red earth which was demolished when the present building was erected. The house of the Kitchen lies to the south of the House of the cylinders, separated from it by a double court entered by a door in the north-east corner. The inner court is remarkable by reason of a platform running along the south side, with a latrine pit set in an alcove in the south-west corner, which was originally enclosed by a screen wall. Below the alcove are the remains of washing facilities and two sumps for water