Enigmatic archaeological site in Madagascar may have been built by people of Zoroastrian origin, research suggests

At the turn of the first millennium AD, an unknown group of people lived in the Isalo Massif in southern Madagascar. They built extensive terraces and dug large stone chambers and small hollow niches into the rock. The architecture of these structures is unlike anything found in Madagascar or on the adjacent East African coast. It is unknown who built these structures, when they arrived, and why.

However, research by archaeologists Prof. Dr. Schreurs and his colleagues published in Azania: Archaeological research in Africa suggest that a Zoroastrian community from Madagascar built the archaeological site of Teniky around 1,000 years ago.

Today, Teniky is located within the Isalo National Park. The site has been known to exist for over 100 years, but no detailed excavation has been undertaken until now. The site was visited by French naturalists Alfred and Guillaume Grandidier in the 1940s, who speculated that the site had been built by shipwrecked Portuguese sailors passing through the island in the hope of finding a port. Two decades later, a trench excavation in the 1960s uncovered a shard of a 16th-century Chinese jar.

Schreurs explains why the site has not been studied in more detail until now: “To get to the site, you have to walk almost 20 km through rough terrain. All the equipment and food have to be transported to the site. It should also be mentioned that archaeological research in Madagascar always requires the collaboration of local institutions and authorizations from different ministries (which is sometimes difficult).

“Our project is a collaborative project between the Institute of Civilizations/Museum of Art and Archaeology (ICMAA) of the University of Antananarivo, the University of Bern and the University of Fribourg.”

In 2019, high-resolution satellite images revealed the true extent of Teniky, motivating Schreurs and his colleagues to undertake a detailed archaeological excavation.

Field surveys and excavations were carried out on both the known structures at Teniky and those identified on satellite imagery. Among the known structures were the Great Cave and its smaller sister, the Little Cave, two chambers cut into the rock supported by massive stone pillars with carved benches along the walls. The sandstone wall described by French naturalists was still present at the Great Cave, although partially collapsed.

In the rest of Teniky, they discovered dozens of circular and rectangular stone niches cut into the cliff faces, some of which had circular recesses suggesting that they could have been closed with a wooden or stone slab. They also discovered more than 30 hectares of artificial terraces, conglomerate blocks cut into the rock, stone basins, circular and rectangular stone structures, and ceramic shards.

Based on charcoal recovered during excavations and ceramic shards, it has been suggested that the site was occupied in the 10th and 12th centuries. The shards were not of local origin, suggesting that the individuals who lived there had some form of connection with the Indian Ocean trade network.

The sherds included Southeast Asian ceramics dated to the 11th and 13th centuries, Chinese celadon, and Southeast Asian stoneware, both dating to around the 11th and 14th centuries.

This means that it is unlikely that the site was built by the Portuguese, as the first Portuguese ships did not sail in the Indian Ocean until 1498, a few centuries after the proposed construction of Teniky.

Since the Portuguese probably did not build these structures, and no similar structures have been found in Madagascar or on the East African coast, researchers had to look elsewhere. Since the local Malagasy population has genetic, cultural and linguistic ties to Austronesia, India, Arabia and Persia, these locations were studied for similar structures.

According to Schreurs, “In reviewing the literature, I was struck by the mention of rock-cut niches of various shapes and sizes in many parts of Iran, including the Fars region. I found photographs of these niches in several publications, and there were niches with recesses – just like at Teniky – indicating that they were originally probably closed by a wooden or stone slab; these niches most likely served as bone ossuaries.”

This led them to hypothesize that Tenkiy was potentially of Zoroastrian origin.

“Most archaeologists associate the niches in Iran with Zoroastrian burial rites. This is how the initial potential connection with Zoroastrian practices emerged. At the same time, from primary historical sources, we know that the coastal region of Iran (e.g. the port city of Siraf) was involved in maritime trade since the Sassanid era and that ships from Siraf plied the oceans as far as China and East Africa,” Schreurs said.

“This trade continued when the Arabs conquered Persia in the 7th century and imposed Islam. However, it is also known from primary historical sources that for a time, probably until the 10th century, different religions (such as Zoroastrians, Muslims, Jews and Christians) coexisted in these Iranian port cities.

“Although I would like to emphasize that our interpretation linking rock-cut architecture to Zoroastrian practices is tentative, the stylistic similarities of the stone basins and tables found at Teniky and those used in Zoroastrian ritual ceremonies seem to point in the same direction.”

Zoroastrians believe that one should not bury a body directly in the ground, as the body is considered polluting. Instead, during burial practices, bodies were left in display areas above ground, in niches called “dakhmas” in Pahlavi. Natural decomposition and consumption by scavengers reduced the body to bones. These bones were then transported to smaller, circular niches that could be closed, called “astodans.”

However, none of the niches at Teniky contained bones; Schreurs explains why this may have been the case: “If the smaller holes in the cliffs represent thousand-year-old bone ossuaries, it is possible that the human skeletal remains have undergone considerable deterioration, but even then one would expect some remains, such as teeth and denser bones, to be present.

“Steve Goodman, an American field biologist at the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago who has been conducting research in Madagascar for nearly 30 years, told me, and I quote from his email: ‘It is certainly possible that the human remains were removed by people who came from the area later, perhaps with the intention of using the material for various types of black magic, which are still practiced today at some Bara burial sites.’ The Bara people are an ethnic group living in the Isalo National Park area.”

It is therefore likely that from a historical, archaeological and architectural point of view, the structures of Teniky were built at the turn of the first millennium by a Zoroastrian community. However, it is not known exactly when this community arrived in Madagascar, nor why and for what reason it abandoned the site.

Further research will be needed to elucidate these questions and prove or disprove initial hypotheses about the Zoroastrian origins of the site.

“We will return to Teniky in 2025 for further archaeological excavations. We are planning a Lidar survey to visualize the structures and terraces in great detail, which will help us detect structures that we might have otherwise missed. One area that could be investigated in more detail is a site of about 80 x 80 m, in the Sahanafo Valley, demarcated by stone walls,” Schreurs said.

“During our surface surveys we found imported Chinese and Middle Eastern pottery just outside this area. It might be interesting to excavate here and see if we find other cultural elements that could tell us about the origin/culture/religion of those who settled in Teniky and tell us more about their way of life.”

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