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ART on view
Madagascar’s history did not begin
in 1500, the year the Portuguese fi rst arrived there.
The island’s name had been on world maps since
1459 and several centuries before that Arab and Persian
traders had established commercial outposts on
its northern part. Archaeological research has uncovered
material evidence demonstrating that cultures
during what corresponds to the Medieval Period in
Europe had made Madagascar a vital locus for trade
in the Indian Ocean. Ceramic plates and dishes imported
from China; glass fl asks and vases from Persia;
and beads, mirrors, and other objects that had
traveled from Southeast Asia have all been found in
Madagascan graves, clearly indicating that funerary
practices were infl uenced by Islam. Objects sculpted
in green schist, various kinds of wood and miner-
MADAGASCAR:
Arts of
the Great
Red Island
By Aurélien Gaborit
als, and spices that were exported from Madagascar
were also part of the trade network and help trace
the migratory routes that connected the African continent
with Austronesia. How the Great Red Island
was populated prior to the tenth century remains
diffi cult to ascertain, but it is likely that cultures had
been established there by the fi fth century or even
earlier, though no trace of them has yet been found.
Beginning in the tenth century, communities from
Southeast Asia and the Arabian Peninsula established
themselves along the northern and northwestern
coasts, creating city-states based on a Swahili model
that were enriched by trade. In truth, Madagascar
was the isolated “Mysterious Island” only in the perceptions
of Europeans.
Étienne de Flacourt (1607–1661) wrote the fi rst
literary account of Madagascar. While serving as
the administrator at Fort Dauphin, a small French
colony established on the southern portion of the