Salweyn, also known as Salwine, is a
proto-Somali archaeological site
An archaeological site is a place (or group of physical sites) in which evidence of past activity is preserved (either prehistoric or historic or contemporary), and which has been, or may be, investigated using the discipline of archaeology an ...
located in the
Sanaag region of
Somaliland.
Overview
Salweyn is situated to the east of the old coastal town of
Heis.
A small eponymous creek is located in the area.
The site contains a very large field of
cairns, which stretches for a distance of around 8 km.
An excavation of one of these
tumuli
A tumulus (plural tumuli) is a mound of earth and stones raised over a grave or graves. Tumuli are also known as barrows, burial mounds or '' kurgans'', and may be found throughout much of the world. A cairn, which is a mound of stones b ...
by Georges Révoil in 1881 uncovered a tomb, beside which were artefacts pointing to an ancient, advanced civilization. The interred objects included pottery
sherds from
Samos
Samos (, also ; el, Σάμος ) is a Greek island in the eastern Aegean Sea, south of Chios, north of Patmos and the Dodecanese, and off the coast of western Turkey, from which it is separated by the -wide Mycale Strait. It is also a sepa ...
, some well-crafted
enamels, and a mask of
Ancient Greek
Ancient Greek includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Dark Ages (), the Archaic p ...
design.
Additionally, close to the cairns are a number of rows of standing stones. These
menhir
A menhir (from Brittonic languages: ''maen'' or ''men'', "stone" and ''hir'' or ''hîr'', "long"), standing stone, orthostat, or lith is a large human-made upright stone, typically dating from the European middle Bronze Age. They can be fou ...
s are similar to those at
Heis and
Botiala.
Along with
Macajilayn
Macajilayn, also spelled Mecajilayn, is a proto-Somali archaeological site located in the Sanaag region of Somaliland
Somaliland,; ar, صوماليلاند ', ' officially the Republic of Somaliland,, ar, جمهورية صومالي ...
, Salweyn is also the only local site where specialized ancient disc-like monuments have been found.
References
{{reflist
Archaeological sites in Somaliland
Sanaag