British Institute in Eastern Africa Image Archive

The British Institute in Eastern Africa promotes research into the archaeology, history, linguistics, and anthropology of eastern Africa, broadly defined. It is based in Nairobi where it maintains a library and research facilities. The Institute undertakes and supports research in countries throughout the region, from Zimbabwe to the Sudan. It is supported by the British Academy, and is governed by a Council, elected by its members, which is based in London. The images in this archive comprise the image archives held at the BIEA's Nairobi base. They relate to archaeological excavations and reconnaissance at key locations in the region, including some of the BIEA's flagship projects at sites like Aksum, Ethiopia, and Kilwa Kisiwani, Tanzania. The images are scanned from slides and photographs held in Nairobi; they were digitized as part of a collaboration with Aluka (now part of JStor) and are also available online to paid subscribers. Together the images, and accompanying documents, form a record of decades of research at important sites in the eastern African region. This includes some parts of eastern Africa - notably the Somali coast - which are now effectively closed to research, and where the sites and monuments from these pictures are almost certainly now destroyed. This archive seeks to preserve this information for future researchers, and to make it available beyond Nairobi.