Read this article today and thought I would share. http://www.theage.com.au/national/a...ewrite-australian-history-20130519-2juck.html Simon
That is an interesting article. It shouldn't be terribly surprising that coins of the Kilwa Sultanate were found in Australia though. They had extensive trade routes between India, and possibly further East. Now if you found their coins in Alaska, that would be surprising!
There are a few major flaws with this article, all originating from a general misunderstanding of the coinage of Kilwa. For starters, the dates of the rulers are completely unknown and, when you do see them listed, they are entirely speculative. Mitchiner assigns coins to rulers of the fourteenth and fifteenth century. But hoard studies and archaeological evidence suggests that they may have been struck as late as the 18th century. To make matters worse, I have evidence that suggests these coins could occasionally be found in circulation as late as the 1960's.
Not to mention the "provenance" of some guy who claims to have found them at a beach, kept them in a tin for years, and then rediscovered them. If a few more hoards were found it might supply some corroborating evidence.
