At the turn of the first millennium AD, an unknown group of people lived in the inland Isalo massif of southern Madagascar. Here, they built vast terraces and carved large stone chambers and small hollow rock niches. The architecture is unlike anything else found in Madagascar or the adjacent East African coast. Who built these structures, when they arrived, and why was unknown.

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

Today, Teniky is located in the Isalo National Park. The site's existence has been known for over 100 years; however, no detailed excavations have been undertaken there until now. The site was visited by French naturalists Alfred and Guillaume Grandidier in the 1940s, who hypothesized that the site had been constructed by passing shipwrecked Portuguese sailors as they traversed the island in hopes of coming across a port. Two decades later, a trench excavation during the 1960s uncovered a Chinese jar sherd dating to the 16th century.

Schreurs explains why the site was not investigated in greater detail until now, "Arriving at the site requires a strenuous walk of nearly 20 km across a rugged terrain. All the equipment and food has to be carried to the site. It also has to be mentioned that archaeological research in Madagascar always requires collaboration with local institutions and authorizations from different ministries (which is sometimes challenging).

"Our project is a collaborative project between the Institut de Civilizations/Musée d'Art et d'Archeologie (ICMAA) of the University of Antananarivo, the University of Bern and the University of Fribourg."

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