North of Engaruka, foothills cairn with ant hill

Somailia – Mogadishu – General view of the Jama

The BIEA archive contains data collected since the beginning of the twentieth century onwards. The archive has data for projects that were conducted in Ethiopia, Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, Somalia, Egypt, South Sudan, Madagascar, Seychelles, Comoros and Sudan. The collection is primarily historical, anthropological, and archaeological in nature, in form of field notes, slides, site plans, photographs, cassette tapes, diskettes, films, tapes, maps, and Compact Disks (CDs).

The physical archive is housed in Laikipia Road, Kileleshwa, Nairobi. The institute is in the process of cataloguing, with an intention of digitizing the entire collection in the future. The collection has materials from Kenya including Mombasa, Manda, Pate, Thimlich Ohinga, Usenge, Usare, Gogo Falls, Wath Lango, and Pondo; Ethiopia materials are from Aksum, Konso; Tanzania collection includes Kilwa and Engaruka among others. Some of the sites have been digitized and are housed by the Archaeological Data Service (ADS) and can be accessed via the following link: https://biea.ac.uk/archive 

We are in the process of digitizing other sites, albeit slowly, with emphasize being on maps and specific sites. In addition to materials from archaeological sites, the archive contains a wealth of historical and anthropological data. This includes data gathered during the Bantu Project, one of the institute’s early initiatives, which began in 1965. Our collection also holds anthropological data on the Samburu, Maasai, Gabra, and Borana communities, documenting various aspects of their social life, including ceremonies. The archive further includes conference papers from the 1960s, originating from the University of East Africa, as well as a collection of historical newspapers. For more inquiries, kindly contact us through: [email protected]

We are currently in the process of digitizing other parts of our archive, and these will be made available online in due course.