and chickens are represented at the site which attests to an association with southern African sites. Despite the availability of domesticated animals, it appeared that shellfish consisted of the bulk of the protein utilized by the inhabitants of Chibuene. The introduction of domesticated chicken illustrates the site’s importance for trade between the Indian Ocean and the southern interior as a possible route of entry for the black-feathered variety of chicken resembling those of India. Thus, the inhabitants of the site made extensive use of their location along the southern Mozambican coast. The poor soil composition and inadequate rainfall only allowed variable agricultural output, causing the inhabitants to procure other means of sustenance. Chibuene inhabitants made use of domesticated animals from southern Africa and successful shark and turtle hunting practices from neighbors from the north in order to adequately exploit the resources of the particular region they inhabited with easy access to the coast and variable land for pasturage in addition to invaluable trade resources procured from the Indian Ocean trade network. Adaptive strategies and agriculture In the initial years of occupation between 400 and 700 AD clearing of land for agriculture remained relatively small. The years following saw a degree of agricultural intensification between 600 and 1000 AD, but there is no evidence for clearing on a massive scale. Trade played an important role in this period for procuring valuable commodities such as glass and additional food stuffs. Faunal assemblages revealed much more of an emphasis on cattle herding in these early years, although not on a large-scale due to the low availability of pastoral lands. Cattle were possibly traded with the interior to procure extra grain stuffs in times of need. In these years, the landscape was covered in riverine forests and savannah. The inhabitants of the site practiced agriculture since the early first millennium AD, but a notable increased occurred in roughly 1200 AD. This appeared to be accompanied by a decrease in foreign trade goods from the Indian Ocean trade network, particularly glass and ceramics from this network. For much of the period between 700-1000 AD, Chibuene was an important site that linked trade with the southern African interior and the trade networks on the coast. At the end of the first millennium trade networks on the Indian Ocean shifted north, causing a marked decline in the site’s significance in this network. This marked a transition period