Coins of the Kilwa Sultanate in East Africa were found in Australia.

1300 · 1944 · apart: 644 years

In 1944 a soldier picked up Kilwa copper coins on a beach on Marchinbar Island; how they got there is a mystery.

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The event

• Golden age of Kilwa and the Swahili coastc. 1300 · Kilwa Kisiwani, Tanzania. The Muslim trading towns of the East African coast, among them Kilwa, Mombasa, Malindi and Zanzibar, shipped Zimbabwean gold and ivory to Arabia, India and China. Kilwa minted its own coins and built stone mosques and palaces such as Husuni Kubwa.

13th century · 20th century

More amazing facts

• 1299 · 1903 The Ottoman state, founded around 1299, still existed when the Wright brothers made the first airplane flight: the sultanate was abolished only in 1922.
• 1300 · 1303 Dante booked a place in Hell for a living pope.
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• 1300 Medieval people did drink water; beer was not a forced substitute for 'unsafe' water.
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• 1300 Medieval cooks did not use spices to hide rotten meat.

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