ZimbabweGreat

BRIAN FAGANGeneral Editor

GreatZimbabweMartin Hall and Rebecca Stefoff

OXFORDUNIVERSITY PRESS

OXFORDUNIVERSITY PRESS

Cover; In 1978, archaeolo-gists excavated a sunkenpassage that connects theGreat Enclosure to othernearby ruins on the Valleyfloor of the site.

Frontispiece: A team ofarchaelogists excavate theremains of a hut inside theGreat Enclosure, the largestAfrican stone ruin south ofthe Sahara Desert.

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Hall, MartinGreat Zimbabwe : digging for the past / Martin Hall and Rebecca Stefoff. 1 st ed.

p. cm. (Digging for the past)Includes bibliographical references and index.ISBN-13: 978-0-19-515773-4ISBN-10: 0-19-515773-71. Great Zimbabwe (Extinct city)Juvenile literature. 2. Shona (African people)

ZimbabweGreat Zimbabwe (Extinct city)HistoryJuvenile literature. I. Stefoff,Rebecca, 1951- II. Title. III. Series.

DT3025.G84H35 2005968.91'01 dc22

2005014607

Printing number: 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1Printed in Chinaon acid-free paper

Picture Credits: Archiv des Justus Perthes Verlages Gotha: 20; Bildarchiv PreuBischerKulturbesitz: 13; British Academy: 21; By Permission of the British Library Add. 5415 A:12; TheTrustees of the British Museum: 32; C/Z HARRIS LTD.: 41 (bottom); Photo-graph courtesy of Sian Tiley, the Mapungubwe Museum, University of Pretoria: 2 , 3 5 ;Martin Hall: Cover (background), 1, 10, 22 (left), 41 (top), 44, 45; HauptstaatsarchivStuttgart, All Rights Reserved: 14 (right); Eugenia Herbert: 8, 22 (right), 26; IzikoMuseums of Cape Town, photographer: Cecil Kortjie: 27 (left), 29 (bottom); Library ofCongress, LC-USZ62-9783 1: 34; National Archives of Zimbabwe: 16, 19, 23, 27 (right),31, 40 (bottom); H. Hall / National Geographic Image Collection: 39; Walter MeayersEdwards / National Geographic Image Collection: 33; Courtesy of the National Museumsand Monuments of Zimbabwe: Cover (inset), 2 , 1 4 (left),24, 28 (top and bottom),29 (top), 30; Map Division, The New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox and TildenFoundations: 9; Department of Special Collections, Stanford University Libraries: 37;Photo courtesy of The University of Arizona: 25; Zimbabwe Tourist Office: 17, 18.

Contents

Where and When

C H A P T E R 1

Encounters

C H A P T E R 2

Houses of Stone

C H A P T E R 3

Reading the Evidence

C H A P T E R 4

A Shona Empire

Interview with Martin Hall

Glossary

Great Zimbabwe and Related Sites

Further Reading

Index

27

34

41

43

44

46

47

6

8

18

Where and When

Early History

1250Mapungubwe is well established as a regional

state in southeastern Africa

1350Great Zimbabwe, leading Shona power, is part

of widespread trade network

1500s >Inhabitants slowly abandon Great Zimbabwe;

successor states Torwa and Rozwi rise to power

1512 *Portuguese search for gold in southeastern

Africa, disrupting African trade network

1300Construction of stone walls begins at GreatZimbabwe

1450Construction ends at Great Zimbabwe

1505Portuguese seize port of Kilwa on Indian Oceancoast

Archaeological History

1609

1871

1899

1901-1904

1905

1931

1958

1960s

1980

1986

Joao de Santos links the African stone buildings toKing Solomon and the Queen of Sheba

Karl Mauch locates ruins of Great Zimbabwe

Mashonaland (later Rhodesia) comes undercontrol of the financier Cecil Rhodes

Richard N. Hall digs at Great Zimbabwe

David Randall-Maclver declares Great ZimbabweAfrican in origin

Gertrude Caton-Thompson confirms Africanorigins of Great Zimbabwe

Radiocarbon dating of Great Zimbabwe begins

White government of Rhodesia denies GreatZimbabwe's African origin

Black majority rule begins in former Rhodesia,renamed Zimbabwe

UNESCO names Great Zimbabwe a WorldHeritage Site

EncountersStone walls crown the Hill,a section of GreatZimbabwe that loomssteeply above the rest ofthe site.

In the 14th and 15th centuries, the city of Kilwa on the EastAfrican coast was a thriving trade center with as many as20,000 inhabitants. The people of Kilwa traded cloth from thelocal weaving industry for gold from the African interior, glassbeads from India, and fine pottery from China. Dhows, triangular-sailed ships that crossed the Indian Ocean, crowded Kilwa's harbor.But one day in 1505, a different sort of fleet arrived. Its 22European ships carried 1,500 soldiers commanded by ViceroyFrancisco de Almeida of Portugal, under orders from his king toseize Kilwa.

East Africans had seen such ships before. Just six years earlierthe Portuguese navigator Vasco da Gama, the first European to sailaround the tip of Africa, had landed at several East African ports onhis way to India. Returning to Portugal, he had told the king aboutthe prosperity and safe harbors of these trading ports. Portugalwanted some of those ports to expand its trading empire.

1

9 / encounters.

After Almeida's fleet arrived, the sheikh who ruled Kilwa fled.The Portuguese replaced him with a sheikh they could control, thenset about tightening their grip on Kilwa and other ports, especiallySofala to the south, in what is now Mozambique. Their arrivallaunched an era of European conquest and colonization in the region.It also began the Europeans' long and frustrating quest for themythical civilizations they thought lay hidden in the African interior.The Europeans never found the places they sought, but in time theycame upon the lasting monument of a former African civilization:the massive city of Great Zimbabwe. With masterfully built stonewalls snaking across a rocky ridge and walls and towers dotting theplain below, Great Zimbabwe would become a source of mysteries

On this detail from aGerman world map of1507, the African coast islined with place-names,but the interior remainsmysteriously blank exceptfor some fanciful imagesand geographic features.For centuries, Europeanmaps of Africa's interiorwere based on rumors,ancient geographies, andplain old imagination.

great zimbabwe /1O

This narrow passage issandwiched between theinner and outer walls ofone of Great Zimbabwe'smost important ruins, theGreat Enclosure. At theend of the passage liesthe Conical Tower.

and controversies for those who heardabout it and explored it in years to come.

The Portuguese took a keen interest inthe gold from the African interior thatreached the coastal markets. They were eagerto discoverand, if possible, controlthesources of that gold. In 1512, AntonioFernandes led an expedition from Sofala insearch of a rumored gold-producing regioncalled Monomotapa. A few other expedi-tions followed during the 16th and early17th centuries. Portuguese soldiers andadventurers, sometimes burdened withheavy armor, toiled inland through theAfrican heat, battling disease as well as thelocal warriors who tried to defend theirhomelands from the intruders.

These explorers and native traderspassed on tales suggesting that somewherein the interior was a kingdom rich in gold,

where kings lived in stone houses. In 1552, a Portuguese historiannamed Joao de Barros described a "square fortress, of masonrywithin and without, built of stones of marvelous size" and a nearbystone tower, both built without mortar. The entire place, accordingto Barros, was "royal property" and "guarded by a nobleman."Writing around the same time, another historian named Damiao deGoes claimed that the king of Monomotapa "keeps great state, andis served on bended knees with reverence." A century later, anEnglish geographer named John Ogilvie wrote that the palace of

11 / encounters.

Monomotapa was "covered over with plates of gold." These storieswere inspired by the myth of Prester John, whom Europeans imag-ined to be a rich and powerful Christian emperor living on thefringe of the known world. Whenever European explorers heard ofa mighty kingdom beyond the horizon, they thought they were onthe verge of finding him at last.

The Portuguese in Sofala never found the wealthy realms theyimagined. A few adventurers, however, di'd come into brief contactwith Mutapa and Torwa, interior states thatmined and traded gold and built impressivestone structures. Writing of these encoun-ters, Portuguese historians speculated thatthe large stone buildings and cities in theinterior of southeastern Africa had beenbuilt long ago as outposts of ancient cul-tures mentioned in the Bible. In 1609, Joaode Santos, who had been a missionary inMutapa, wrote a book linking the Africanstone buildings with old biblical storiesabout King Solomon and the Queen ofSheba. Santos's idea proved long-lived.

Mutapa and Torwa were the most recentin a series of states that had risen to poweron the Zimbabwe Plateau, a rolling highlandplain between the Zambezi and LimpopoRivers. The population centers of Mutapaand Torwa ranged from settlements of just afew families to good-sized regional cities.The largest and most impressive was the

Set in a lost African citylinked to the biblical kingSolomon, the 1885 adven-ture novel King Solomon'sMines captured one ofthe myths about GreatZimbabwe's origins. Thisposter is for the 1937movie, one of severalfilm versions.

great zimbabwe / 12

In 1558, the Portuguese cartographer Diogo Homem made this map of theIndian Ocean and East Africa. Depicted on a throne facing the African coast isPrester john, the imaginary ruler for whom European explorers would still besearching more than a century later.

city that the Portuguesereferred to as Symbaoe and thatwe now call Great Zimbabwe.

The few Portuguese whoreached Great Zimbabwearrived after its 300-year his-tory as Africa's largest citysouth of the Sahara Desert hadcome to a close. By that time,Great Zimbabwe no longeroccupied a central place in theaffairs of the African peoplesof the Zimbabwe Plateau, andto the outside world it wasonly a fading rumor. As thecenturies passed, Europeanmapmakers who rememberedold tales sometimes drewcities or castles on their mapsof southeastern Africa, butthese were as fanciful as theimages of sea monsters andwhirlpools that also adornedtheir work.

By the 19th century,European missionaries and set-tlers were moving north ontothe Zimbabwe Plateau fromwhat is now South Africa.

13 /encounters.

A German missionary named Alexander Merensky gatheredand passed on stories about a vast, ruined stone city in theinteriora ruin that he thought must be Ophir, a citymentioned in the biblical accounts of Solomon andSheba. Karl Mauch, a German geologist seeking fortuneand fame in Africa, listened eagerly to Merensky's theo-ries. In 1871, Mauch went looking for the ruins of"old Monomotapa or Ophir," as he wrote in his diary.

Tall, heavily bearded, clad in a suit of antelope hidethat he made himself, and carrying a large umbrella, sev-eral guns, and more than 50 pounds of gear (includingbooks and painting equipment), Mauch trudged into a terri-tory called Mashonaland. There he met another German, an ivorydealer named Adam Renders, who said he knew of the ruins. Withthe help of Renders and a local guide, Mauch found GreatZimbabwe. To Mauch's disappointment, he found no gold or jewels.Nor did he find written inscriptions that might offer clues aboutthe city's builders or its history. Still, Mauch had no doubt that theruins were those of the biblical city Ophir. He cut a sliver of woodfrom a beam in one ruin. Thinking that the wood was cedar, hedecided that the beam must have come from Lebanon, mentionedin the Bible as Solomon's source of cedar. From this shaky startingpoint, Mauch's imagination made another bold leap, and he identi-fied the ruin as the Queen of Sheba's palace.

Mauch returned to Germany, where his announcement revivedthe old idea that far-ranging Near Eastern people had been activein southern Africa centuries earlier. This idea appealed to late 19th-century Europeans for several reasons. They were familiar withthe monumental stone architecture of the Near East, such as the

Karl Mauch, known as themodern "discoverer" ofGreat Zimbabwe, was nota trained archaeologist, buthe was certain that he hadfound the city of Ophirmentioned in the Bible.

The iron double gongthat Karl Mauch foundand sketched at GreatZimbabwe has been datedto the 14th or 15th century.In these pages from hisnotebook (right) Mauchillustrated patterns ofstonework and decorativecarvings, as well as acracked bowl and this gong.

Egyptians' Great Pyramid, and to many it seemed logical to linkthe only stone ruins south of the Sahara Desert with these well-

known ancient builders. The primary reason, though,stemmed from racial prejudice. Europeans were colonizing

southern Africa, seizing land from native peoples such asthe Shona and Zulu. To justify their actions, white politi-cians, soldiers, and settlers needed to believe that they

were superior to the black Africans. They could not acceptthat black Africans, whom they were accustomed to regarding as"savages," had built the large, well-made stone structures. As wordof Mauch's find spread, treasure hunters descended on the ruins todig for gold. They destroyed archaeological evidence, littered the

great zimbabwe / 14

15 / encounters.

area with broken liquor bottles and old boots, and were rewardedwith small amounts of gold.

In 1890, Mashonaland came under the control of Cecil Rhodes,a British financier who organized the British South Africa Companyto establish a colony there. Fascinated with Great Zimbabwe,Rhodes sponsored new excavations of the site, aimed at unearthingboth treasure and knowledge. Theodore Bentwho had thesupport of two leading British scientific organizations, the RoyalGeographic Society and the British Association for the Advancementof Scienceled the first "scientific" study. Bent had specialized inthe study of the Phoenicians, an ancient Mediterranean and NearEastern people. He thought at first that the African interior hadlittle to offer an archaeologist. The ruins of Great Zimbabwe, heclaimed, were African and not very ancient. Then he came uponsome of the most striking artifacts ever found at the site: large birdscarved from stone, sitting atop stone pillars. These reminded Bentof ancient Mediterranean and Near Eastern artifacts. Soon he haddecided that the ruins were not African after all. Arabs, he claimed,had built thembut he also detected, perhaps not surprisingly,a Phoenician influence.

A journalist named Richard N. Hall, whom Rhodes's companyplaced in charge of the ruins, wrote the next chapter in themythology of Great Zimbabwe. Hall worked there from 1901 to1904to the lasting regret of later experts. His methods wereforceful and destructive. In the course of "restoring" the ruins towhat he thought had been their former appearance, Hall clearedaway layer upon layer of deposits that would have given much valu-able information to careful scientific researchers. In his report toRhodes, Hall echoed Bent's verdict, saying that one of "the more

great zimbabwe /16

The Eastern Enclosureof the Hill as it appearedin the late 19th century,around the time ofTheodore Bent's "scientific"study. Much of the wallingfrom this part of the siteno longer survives.

civilized races of theancient world,"Arabs or NearEasterners, had builtGreat Zimbabwe.

Thanks to peoplesuch as Bent andHall, the non-Africanorigin of the ruinsbecame establishedas their officialhistory. As early as1905, however, anarchaeologist namedDavid Randall-Maclver lifted theveils of myth andracism. After closeexamination of theruins, Randall-Maclver announced

that Great Zimbabwe was "unquestionably African in every detail."Randall-Maclver was right, but the white colonial establishmentrejected his views. Most people were simply not ready to accept theidea that a skilled and powerful civilization had arisen in blackAfrica. They found other theories more attractiveand there wereplenty of them. Various theories gave credit for Great Zimbabwe toancient Egyptians, ship wrecked Vikings, and even the mythical "lostcivilization" of Atlantis.

17 / encounters.

Gertrude Caton-Thompson, a skilled archaeologist whom theBritish Association for the Advancement of Science sent to GreatZimbabwe in 1929 to examine the site anew, filed letters about themost absurd crackpot theories under "insane." Caton-Thompson'scareful study employed stratigraphy, one of the cornerstones ofmodern archaeology. Stratigraphy is the study of layers of soil. Deeperlayers are older than the layers above them. By meticulously measur-ing the depth of everything found at a site, archaeologists can devel-op a chronology, or sequence of events across time, for the site.

Caton-Thompson concluded in Zimbabwe Culture, her report onher investigation, that Great Zimbabwe was the relic of "a nativecivilization" of "originality and amazing industry." Although shesuggested that Arab or Near Eastern traders who visited the coastalcities of East Africa might have influenced the site's Africanbuilders, her main finding was clear: Great Zimbabwe was African,and it was much more recent than the ancient cultures of biblicallegend. Still, the old colonialmyths about Great Zimbabwe'snon-African origins have lin-gered for years. All experts,however, now accept the scien-tific evidence that Africansbuilt and occupied the sitesthat gave the modern nation ofZimbabwe its name, whichcomes from the Shona phrasedzimba woye, meaning "honoredhouses," or dzimba dza mabwe,"houses of stone."

Great Zimbabwe's massive,well-constructed stone wallsand towers made a power-ful impression on the firstEuropeans to see them. TheConical Tower, seen here, isone of the most distinctivefeatures of the site.

Seen from atop the Hill, theValley ruins spread acrossthe landscape. No one iscertain how many peoplelived at Great Zimbabwe,but one archaeologist hasestimated its peak popula-tion at 18,000.

Housesof Stone

Great Zimbabwe's name refers to houses of stone, but thesite contains no houses in the ordinary sense of the word.Instead, massive stone walls snake across the landscape,enclosing areas both large and small. Piles of tumbled stones markthe places where other walls once stood. These enclosures andwalls are the remains of the city that once dominated theZimbabwe Plateau.

Great Zimbabwe is in south-central Zimbabwe, 17 miles south-east of the town of Masvingo, in an area where climate andresources were favorable to settlers. The site is more than 3,000 feetabove sea level, cooler than the hot coastal plain. It is free of thetsetse fly, which in many other parts of Africa infects both humansand livestock with disease-causing parasites. The plateau's grassy

2

19 /Houses of stone.

plains were ideal for cattle grazing, and its scattered trees andforests provided the builders of Great Zimbabwe with timber forfuel and construction. Granite hills and rock outcroppings yieldedgold, iron, copper, and tin.

Equally important was the granite itself, which cracks in a pro-cess that geologists call exfoliation. The change in temperaturebetween the warm days and chilly nights causes the rock to splitinto natural building blocks, flat-sided slabs between three andseven inches thick. The people of the plateau learned to speed upthe production of these slabs by heating the surface of the granitewith fire and then cooling it suddenly with water.

Many thousands of stones went into the building of GreatZimbabwe. The sprawling site covers about 1,800 acres, whicharchaeologists have divided into three general areas: the Hill, theValley, and the Outer City.

The first sight that greets visitors is the Hill. Its steep sides rise260 feet above the surround-ing landscape, and its summitis crowned with many rockformations. Walls run betweennatural outcrops and boulders,creating a network of smallpassageways and enclosures.Like all structures at GreatZimbabwe, these are open tothe sky. Archaeologists havefound no evidence that thesite's stone structures hadroofs. Instead, the enclosures

This round house built ofmud-plastered poles with acone-shaped thatched roofis typical of the traditionalShona homes that mostlikely filled the stone enclo-sures of Great Zimbabwe.

great Zimbabwe / 2O

Kar/ Mouch painted thiswatercolor of the Hill atGreat Zimbabwe, which hecalled an "acropolis."At onetime archaeologists usedthis term for any steep hillbearing ancient ruins; thebest-known acropolis islocated in Athens, Greece.

are thought to have contained small thatched-roof structures madeof dhaka, a type of soil containing clay and gravel that is a commonAfrican building material. Large pits near Great Zimbabwe provideddhaka for the site.

At one end of the Hill is a walled area called the EasternEnclosure that once held many monoliths, or standing stones andpillars. The tops of some of these pillars were carved as birds, whichmay have represented individual rulers of Great Zimbabwe. Fromthe Eastern Enclosure a narrow passage climbs between boulders upto the Balcony, the highest enclosure on the Hill. It offers a viewdown over the Eastern Enclosure and, below it, the spreading Valley.

About 200 feet away is the larger Western Enclosure, ringed bytwo curving stone walls that are 26 feet at their highest point and

21 /houses of Stone.

16 feet at their widest. These walls, like many at GreatZimbabwe, are really two walls in onean inner andan outer wall made of slabs laid in courses, or layers,with loose stone, dirt, and gravel filling the spacebetween them. The slabs fit snugly together, withoutthe use of mortar. Monoliths and turrets once stood atintervals along the top of the Western Enclosure'swalls. Within the enclosure, excavators have found lay-ers of dhaka floors, broken pottery, and other signs thatthe site was continuously occupied for many years.Most archaeologists today believe that the Hill was theseat of royal power in Great Zimbabwe. The WesternEnclosure probably housed kings or chiefs. The EasternEnclosure may have been a religious or ritual placewhere sacred emblemssymbolic objects such as themonoliths and carved birdswere displayed. South of the Hill liesthe Valley. It contains about a dozen enclosures ringed or partlyringed by stone walls. Several major archaeological projects at GreatZimbabwe have focused on these ruins. In 1929, Gertrude Caton-Thompson methodically excavated one of them and correctlyconcluded that it was African in origin and that it dated from themedieval, not the ancient, period. In another enclosure, which Hallexcavated in 1903, was a great hoard of artifacts.

The Valley enclosures tell a story in stonework of GreatZimbabwe's rise and decline. The architect Anthony Whitty studiedthese enclosures in the 1950s and identified three main constructionstyles, each from a different phase of Great Zimbabwe's history. Theoldest phase features crude stonework, untrimmed stones laid inirregular or uneven courses. This phase probably began around

Gertrude Gaton-Thompsonhad done significantresearch at several sites inEgypt before the BritishAssociation for theAdvancement of Sciencesent her to GreatZimbabwe in I 929. Sheproved beyond a doubtthat Great Zimbabwe wasof African origin.

great Zimbabwe / 22

The early builders of GreatZimbabwe laid stones ofvarious sizes together toform irregular walls (left). Abit later, in the mid-14thcentury, more accom-plished builders trimmedand matched stones toform even rows and builtdecorative bands into thewalls (right).

1300. During the second phase, in the 14th century, GreatZimbabwe's builders produced their finest walls, using stones thathad been carefully trimmed to fit neatly together and laying themin even courses, sometimes setting them in decorative patterns suchas zigzags or chevrons, a V-shaped design. During the third phase,in the 15th century, the quality of stonework declined for unknownreasons. Walls were made of irregularly sized stones, sometimespiled crudely together or forcefully wedged into place.

The focal point of the Valley is the largest African stone ruin southof the Sahara Desert. Known as the Great Enclosure, this oval space issurrounded by an 800-foot-long wall, 32 feet high and 17 feet thickin places. The massive wall is thicker at the bottom than at the top,making it very stable. Along part of the enclosure, an inner wall runsparallel to the main wall, with a deep, narrow passageway betweenthe two. This passageway leads to the Great Enclosure's most strikingfeature: the Conical Tower. This solid, cone-shaped structure is 30 feethigh and 18 feet across at the base. The Great Enclosure also containsa number of smaller enclosures and dhoka platforms.

23 /houses of stone.

The purpose of the Great Enclosure, like much else about GreatZimbabwe, has been widely debated. Various investigators haveidentified it as a temple, the residence of the king's wives, or a pri-vate community set aside for members of the royal court or otherelite citizens. The archaeologist Thomas Huffman has suggested thatthe Great Enclosure may have been a school where young womenunderwent training and rituals to prepare them for initiation intoadult society. He bases this suggestion on the fact that some Africancultures in the region maintain such schools today, and have doneso for generations.

Beyond the Valley enclosures is the Outer City, the least-knownpart of the site. Once thedensely crowded home ofmost of Great Zimbabwe'sinhabitants, today it consistsmostly of the remains ofdhaka huts, with occasionalstone enclosures scatteredabout the surrounding coun-tryside. Based on his exami-nation of the site, Huffmanhas estimated that GreatZimbabwe could have housedas many as 18,000 people atits peak, making it a trueurban center in the midst ofmedieval southern Africa.

When Europeans encoun-tered Great Zimbabwe in the

This travel poster from1938, featuring the ConicalTower and a stone bird,promotes the myth thatGreat Zimbabwe hadsome connection with thebiblical Queen of Sheba.AnAfrican man kneels beforethe queen's ghostly figure,reflecting the racist view ofGreat Zimbabwe's non-African origins.

great Zimbabwe

Radiocarbon datingcan be applied to anyorganic material,including humanremains, such as thispartial skeleton exca-vated at GreatZimbabwe in 1991, *The body had been :buried between two .stone walls of a ruinnorthwest of the mainsite's Hill complex.

Radiodarbon Reality

Some of the most heated debates about Great Zimbabwe con-cerned the age of the ruins. Those who insisted that ancientEgyptians, Phoenicians, or other non-Africans had built the siteclaimed that Great Zimbabwe was thousands of years old. In themid-20th century, a new archaeological tool helped end thesespeculations and opened the way to a more accurate understandingof Great Zimbabwe's history.

That tool was radiocarbon dating. Ml organic, or living, mattercontains small quantities of radioactive carbon, or radiocarbon. Whena living organism dies, the radiocarbon in its tissue begins to decay ata fixed rate. By measuring the amount of radiocarbon remaining in asample of ancient organic matter, tlien comparing that figure with theamount found in a sample of comparable living matter, scientists candetermine how much radiocarbon has decayed in the sarnple^-in

other words, how long ago the sample died.Archaeologists use radiocarbon dating to discoverthe ages of human and animal remains and ofwooden structures.

A team of sciensts at the University ofChicago developed radiocarbon datng in theyears afterWorld War II. They tested it first onsamples of wood from an ancient Egypan tomb the age of which A laboratory workerwas already known from other sources. After the method had been uses a microscope

measure a smallshown to be reliabie, arcnaeologists began usmg it to measure the age sample of organicof all kinds of materials, induding hair, leather, wall paintings, blood, matterwh/ch cantextiles, pottery, wood, bone, and the dried remans of insects, grain, incude bone, wood,and wine. They also broadened their investigations beyond Egypt to charcoal, or cloth

from an ancient ari-ther Mediterranean sites and then to archaeological sites around0 fact Using coffaonthe world.

Beginning in 1958, the archaeologist Keith Robinson applied determine the age ofradiocarbon dang to Great Zimbabwe, testing tmber poles he found such sampfes.while excavang a trench in the Western Enclosure. He obtained a dateof 1065 CE (plus or minus 150 years).This means that the trees fromwhich the poles were made grew between 915 and 1215 CE, althoughthe poles may have been used in construction at a later date.Robinson's work was important because it set the building of themajor ruins within the past thousand or so years, much more recentthan the misty depths of anquity. More recendy, Great Zimbabwe hasbeen firmly dated from a series of radiocarbon samples that have beencarefully matched with one another and cross-checked for accuracy. Asa result of this applicaon of modern scientifc techniques, the age ofGreat Zimbabwe is no longer in doubt. The city was built between1300and 1450 CE.

dating, scientists can

great zimbabwe /26

The wall surrounding theGreat Enclosure is 800 feetlong. It displays severalcharacteristic features ofGreat Zimbabwe's architec-ture, including rounded cor-ners and curved steps.

late 19th century, they felt an awe, inspired by their mistaken ideasabout the "mysterious" and "exotic" origins of the ruins. Modernarchaeology has given us a more accurate view of Great Zimbabwe'sorigins and history, but the site remains as impressive and as ever,a massive memorial to an African past that is still being uncovered.The Zimbabwean government administers Great Zimbabwe as anational monument, and in 1986 the United Nations Educational,Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) named GreatZimbabwe a World Heritage Site in recognition of its unique andvaluable place in cultural and archaeological history.

Reading theEvidence

What was life like for the people ofGreat Zimbabwe? How did theywork, worship, and organize theirsociety? The Great Zimbabwe people left no writtenrecords, so archaeologists look to other sources forinformation about their lives. Two of the most importantsources are the physical objects that the Great Zimbabweans leftbehind and the stories that their modern descendants tell.

Some physical objects found at Great Zimbabwe are rare andspecial artifacts that probably had great importance during the city'sheyday. Many are the ordinary relics of everyday life, such asgarbage, pottery, and tools. Animal bones, for example, have drawnthe attention of archaeozoologists, specialists in the animal lifeassociated with archaeological sites. They study the kinds of animalsfound at a site, the number of each kind, and when possible, thedate and condition of the remains. The remains at Great Zimbabweand nearby sites reveal that cattle were the basis of the economy.Cattle were more than foodthey also served as a form of wealthand a sign of status. People in outlying, low-status settlementssuch as villages and farms hunted for wild game to supplement

The parade of animalsbaboons, a dog, a bird, andzebrason this fragmentof a soapstone bowl (left)is one of the most elabo-rate decorative carvingsyet found among the arti-facts of Great Zimbabwe.A wooden bowl (right)bears a carved crocodile.Both bowls were found inthe 1890s.

3

great zimbabwe /28

Artifacts such as an ironhoe blade (top) and abronze spearhead (bottom)indicate that the peopleof Great Zimbabwe wereskilled metalworkers. Bothobjects date from the14th or 15th century.

their diet of grain. They also kept cattle and other livestock, butthe bones from the best cuts of meat have only been found withinthe larger madzimbabwe, or stone enclosures. It appears that the ordi-nary folk did not consume the prime cattle but rather turned themover to the elitesthe powerful and privileged classeswho livedin the madzimbabwe.

Archaeologists also learn much from artifacts, humanmadeobjects such as utensils and artworks. Pots are an

important and useful kind of arti-factnot only do they offer insight

into how they might have been used ineveryday life, but they can often be dated by

stylistic features such as shape, decoration, ormaterial. In spite of the reckless and destructive methods

of early excavators, Great Zimbabwe has yielded many exam-ples of pottery, both whole pots and the broken pieces known as

potsherds. Great Zimbabwe pots are round and fall into two generaltypes. Most are between 9 and \2 inches across, with short, slightlynarrow necks, some with lids. The others are much larger, withthree or four times the capacity of the smaller pots. The archaeolo-gist Peter S. Garlake points out in his book Great Zimbabwe that thesmaller vessels are similar to those the Shona people, descendantsof the Great Zimbabweans, use today for drinking. The larger onesresemble pots that the Shona use for brewing beer or storing food.All the Great Zimbabwe pots were formed from lengths of localclay, wound and coiled into shape and then baked in a wood fire.

Among the other everyday objects found at the site are hun-dreds of disks between one and two inches across, with small holesthrough their centers. Some are made of pottery, others of the

29 /reading the evidence.

smooth, shiny, grayish-green rock known as soapstone, which isfairly soft and easy to carve. Archaeologists do not know for certainwhat purpose these disks served. Some believe that they werespindle whorls, weights placed on the ends of spindle rods used tospin cotton fiber into thread; the Shona have been known to usesimilar disks for that purpose. Others have suggested that the GreatZimbabwean disks may have been game pieces or dice used in for-

tune telling. The site also contained many metalworkers'tools, pieces of iron ore, and objects such

as arrowheads, ax heads, and hoe bladesmade of local iron, as well as iron,copper, gold, and bronze wire andbeads. These finds show that the people

of Great Zimbabwe practiced metalwork-ing on a large scale.

Archaeologists on aI 987 expedition to GreatZimbabwe excavate anearthen floor, the lastremains of a hut, or house,inside the Great Enclosure.Many areas of the siteremain unexcavated, leav-ing open the possibility offuture discoveries that willexpand our knowledge oflife at Great Zimbabwe.

Many stone disks havebeen found at GreatZimbabwe, and their pur-pose is a mystery. Somearchaeologists think theymay have been parts ofdevices used to spin thread;others have suggested thatthey were game pieces.

great zimbabwe /3O

The unique birds of carvedsoapstone ore GreatZimbabwe's best-knownartifacts. In all, seven birdsculptures and part of aneighth have been foundat the site.

Many archaeologists think that Great Zimbabwe contributedgold and other metals to the Indian Ocean tradenot just metalbut luxury items, such as gold and copper wire and beads, madeby Great Zimbabwean artisans. Objects found at Great Zimbabweshow that the city was part of a far-reaching trade network. In1903, Richard N. Hall found a varied collection of objects, someof whichsuch as painted glass from Syria and a small bowl fromIranhad originated far from the Zimbabwe Plateau. Hall's findalso included many pieces of Chinese celadon ware, a type of pale-green pottery. Later, Gertrude Caton-Thompson found many smallglass beads in a rubbish heap below the Western Enclosure.

Among Great Zimbabwe's best-known and most distinctiveartifacts are the "Zimbabwe birds." Early investigators found seven

31 /reading the evidence.

soapstone sculptures of birds, and part of an eighth, at various partsof the site. Each bird is about 14 inches tall and sits atop a 3-footcolumn. Each has a unique design. Some are decorated with circleson their wings, others with zigzag patterns on their columns, orsome other distinct feature. Nothing closely resembling these sculp-tures has been found at any other archaeological site, and theirmeaning cannot be known for certain. Thomas Huffman, however,thinks that the birds may have represented the spirits ofZimbabwe's kings, who were both political and religious figures.Huffman's interpretation of Great Zimbabwe draws upon the sto-ries, legends, myths, and traditionswhatresearchers call the ethnographyof theShona people. This approach views anancient site through the lens of the modernculture that is most closely linked to it.Ethnography is a valuable tool that can offermany clues about how ancient people mighthave viewed the world and organized theirlives. It has limitations, however. The storiesthat people tell change over time and do notalways accurately report events.Archaeologists use the ethnographicapproach cautiously, trying to draw on asmany sources as possible for balance.

In the case of Great Zimbabwe, Huffmanhas proposed an interpretation of the sitebased on the beliefs and rituals of the pre-sent-day Venda people, who now live southof the Limpopo River. Huffman believes the

A Shona warrior pho-tographed in the 1920swears his hair in the samestyle described in 1560 bya European traveler to theregion. Recognizing theShona as the closest livingrelatives of the GreatZimbabwe people, somearchaeologists have usedtheir culture and legends tohelp them interpret GreatZimbabwe.

In addition to birds, theartists of Great Zimbabwecarved other figures fromsoapstone. This 16-inch-tallstatue of a humanlikefigure, unearthed at thesite in 1923, was probablyused in a religious ritual.

Venda people are closely related to the Shona builders of GreatZimbabwe. He also draws on the worldview revealed in Shona oral

tradition. In the Shona religion, male and femalesymbols and spaces are kept separate. He alsopoints out that paired male and female architec-tural sites and symbols are part of Venda culture.Huffman sees evidence of this division in the

architecture of Great Zimbabwe, where doors,pathways, and towers often occur in pairs. ToHuffman, certain structuresnotably theWestern Enclosure on the Hill and the ConicalTower in the Great Enclosuredisplay malesymbols, such as monoliths and spears. Otherstructures, such as part of the Great Enclosure'swall and the Cleft Rock Enclosure on the Hill,display female symbols, including snakes andV-shaped stone patterns.

Not all agree with this interpretation.Zimbabwean scholar David Beach, for example,has argued that Huffman relies too much onrecent Shona myths and that the Venda culture isnot as similar to Great Zimbabwean culture asHuffman claims. Although ethnographic interpre-tations of Great Zimbabwe and the other stoneenclosures of the Zimbabwe Plateau may never beas matter-of-fact as bones and potsherds, they openup new possibilities for envisioning the way thebuilders and inhabitants of these sites saw their

world and their roles in it.

great zimbabwe / 32

New Work at Great Zimbabwe

Great Zimbabwe is a living site. It continues to capture theattention of archaeologists and historians worldwide. Its well-deserved status as a United Nations Educational, Scientifc and CulturalOrganizaon (UNESCO) World Heritage Site ensures that measuresto conserve and preserve its architecture receive constant attention.

One of the challenges that archaeologists face is that excavationsin and of themselves destroy important aspects of evidence rom thepast. This is because the context in which things are fbund is all-irnportant. Because Great Zimbabwe was seriously damaged by theplundering of early diggers, who shoveled away tonsof deposits looking for evidence to support theirfavorite theories, archaeologists today are acutelyaware of the need to preserve what is left. There havebeen no major excavations in recent years, and noneare likly in the near future.

This does not mean that there has been no newwork. Recent scholarship has focused on interpretingthe existing evidence in light of the oral histories andtradions of Zimbabwe. Innocent Pikirayi, an archae-ologist and professor of history at the University ofZimbabwe, has studied the evidence to learn aboutthe origins and dedine of early Zimbabwe.

Work such as this ensures that Great Zimbabwewill stay in the limelight. This attenon poses achallenge for conservaonists. How can the site bemade accessible to more and more visitors while atthe same time be preserved? In common with other A zimbabweab villages uses troditonal mus-

cal instruments simttar to those bat mayWorld Hentage Sites, Great Zimbabwe needs botnhave been useo by the people of Great

public supp0rt and professional care if it is to be Zimbabwe: ponpipes. a ceremoniol drum

preserved for future generatons. rattles, and a mibra or thumb piano.

33 / reading the evidence

A ShonaEmpire

Richard N. Hall's teamexcavates the area in frontof the Conical Tower in1902. The raised platformaround the tree shows thelevel of the ground beforeHall began his "restora-tion"revealing how muchmaterial he carted awayand dumped, to the regretof later scientists.

Great Zimbabwe's massive stonework is a sign that the citywas an important place with a sophisticated political andsocial system. Now that myths about the city's exotic originshave been swept away archaeologists and historians have begun todraw its true story forth from the physical evidence found at thesite and from the careful study of additional sources, such as oldPortuguese accounts of trade and exploration and African oral tradi-tions. As a result, a picture has emerged of Great Zimbabwe's placein the flow of history in southern Africa.

Before Great Zimbabwe, there was Mapungubwe. Like GreatZimbabwe, Mapungubwe was a city, the center of a vibrant culture.

4

35 /a shona empire.

Mapungubwe was strategically located in the valley of the LimpopoRiver south of Great Zimbabwe, commanding access to grazing landsand trade routes. The people of Mapungubwe built enclosures onhilltops, made pottery, herded cattle, and traded ivory and gold withthe coastal ports 400 miles away. By the end of the 13th century,Mapungubwe had become an important center of political andeconomic power, one of a number of such regional centers in theinterior of southeastern Africa.

Mapungubwe's influence expanded northward, across theLimpopo and onto the Zimbabwe Plateau. Here, people began build-ing stone enclosures at new sites. After 1300, the center of politicaland economic power shifted from Mapungubwe to Zimbabwe. Somescholars think changes in the Indian Ocean trade may have causedthe shift. Ivory had been Mapungubwe's main export and source ofwealth, but evidence recovered from burials and trade ports suggeststhat the demand for gold began to grow. Ivory remained valuable,but gold was increasingly prized. The best sources of gold lay inthe hills of the Zimbabwe Plateau, and Great Zimbabwe was closerto them than Mapungubwe.Mapungubwe began to decline asGreat Zimbabwe's fortunes rose.

Great Zimbabwe was notan isolated urban center. Itwas the largest of 3 0 or 40regional centers scatteredacross the plateau from theKalahari Desert in the westand to the Indian Ocean lowlandsin the east. Most of these centers shared Great

Found in the ruins ofMapungubwe, the kingdomthat dominated theLimpopo River valley beforeGreat Zimbabwe, thisgolden rhinoceros was mostlikely an emblem of royalpower. To the Shona ofmodern Zimbabwe therhinoceros is still a symbolof leadership.

great zimbabwe /36

Zimbabwe's distinctive architectural style, although none was aslarge, and they shared the same culture and economy. They wereprobably ruled from Great Zimbabwe by regional governors whocollected tribute or taxes, in the form of gold and other goods,from the local people. In addition to these regional centers, theZimbabwe civilization included many smaller settlements, fromvillages to single farmsteads.

In the 14th century, Great Zimbabwe controlled gold produc-tion on the Zimbabwe Plateau. The Zimbabweans had severalmethods of extracting gold. They panned for gold, sifting water andgravel from streambeds to obtain loose flakes and nuggets of goldthat had been washed out of deposits of ore. The Zimbabweans alsomined gold ore out of hard rock by digging horizontal, slanted,and vertical mineshafts, some reaching depths of more than 80feet. Broken skeleton bones found in some of these shafts offermute evidence that mining was a hazardous occupation.

Great Zimbabwe dominated the gold trade between the interiorand Swahili ports such as Sofala on the eastern coast. The Swahilitraders then shipped Zimbabwean gold to ports farther north alongthe coast. Among these was the great emporium, or trade center, atKilwa. Arab traders from the Red Sea visited Kilwa, linking it toEgypt, the Mediterranean, Arabia, and the Near East, while IndianOcean traders brought goods from as far away as China. TheSwahili traders exchanged these imported goods for gold mined onthe Zimbabwe Plateau.

The archaeological evidence shows that wealth was accumulated atGreat Zimbabwe and that it was not evenly distributed among thepopulation. Highly valued items such as gold and imported goods arefound almost entirely inside the stone enclosures, rarely in the ruins

37 /a shona empire.

of outlying residences. The uneven distribution of wealth echoes othersigns that society was divided into different classes. Houses outsidethe enclosures were smaller, less substantial, and more closely crowdedtogether than those inside them. Cattle, especially young cattle, wereeaten (or used in sacrificial rituals) inside the enclosures. In contrast,the diet of people living outside the enclosures consisted largely ofsheep, goats, and game. In addition, Great Zimbabwe's long-distancetrade and its large-scale building programs show that it was anorganized state, not simply a large village.

Major construction at Great Zimbabwe seems to have endedaround 1450. By that time, the quality of stonework had declinedfrom its earlier high standard, and the city itself had begun to loseits importance as a center of trade and government. Archaeologists

This I 781 map shows theempire of the powerfulEast African king MonoMotapa (or MweneMutapa), which includedthe states of Mapungubwe,Zimbabwe, and Mutapa.The Miniere d'Oro, or goldmines, were the foundationof the region's trade.

and historians have suggested several reasons for this decline. GreatZimbabwe was losing its importance in the trade network. Goldproduction was downmuch of the easily obtainable gold hadbeen stripped from the region, and areas to the north and westwere becoming important as new sources of both copper and gold.But Great Zimbabwe's economy had been based on cattle before therise of the gold trade. Why couldn't the city continue to thrive on acattle-based economy? Some investigators think that the landscapecould no longer support the city's large population. Huge herds ofcattle had overgrazed the grasslands. Most nearby timber had beencut down. A series of droughts may have struck the area, increasingthe stress on an already overburdened environment.

Whatever the reason, Great Zimbabwe declined in importance,probably slowly and over a century or longer. The Shona peopleof the region formed two new states, the successors to GreatZimbabwe. In the west was Torwa, whose capital city, Khami, hadstone walls much like those of Great Zimbabwe. Some scholarsthink that the "square fortress, of masonry within and without,built of stones of marvelous size" that Portuguese historian Joaode Barros described in 1552 was Khami, not Great Zimbabwe. Theother successor state, Rozwi, existed for many decades in andaround the area of Great Zimbabwe.

The arrival of the Portuguese in East Africa in the 16th centurybrought instability to the Swahili coast and the Zimbabwe Plateau.After taking control of Kilwa in 1505, the Portuguese tried to takeover the gold-trading routes to the interior. They never fully suc-ceeded, but their efforts sparked resistance and war. Constant fight-ing and the rise of local warlords disrupted trade along routes thathad been used for centuries. Ironically, the Portuguese search for

great zimbabwe / 38

39 /a shona empire.

Symbol of a Nation

imbabwe is the only country in the world Whose name is takenfrom an archaeological site. The stone birds of (Great Zimbabwe

appear on the national flag, the Official seal, and the country'scurrency. Yet Great Zimbabwe's road to recognition as anational symbol has been a rocky one.

The careful work of archaeologists David Randall-Maclver and Gertrude Caton-Thompson should have doneaway with myths about Great Zimbabwe's origins early inthe 20th century. For years, however, the white rulers of thecountry refused to accept the scientific evidence that black Africanshad built Great Zimbabwe, the center of a powerful state. Since the late19th century, the country that is now Zimbabwe had been known asRhodesia, after the British industrialist CecilRhodes who had pioneeredthe white settlement and exploitation of the Shona homeland.

Land in Rhodesia was divided on a racial basis, with the coun-try's white population controlling the best land and resources.Witha strong interest in crushing any African liberation movementsthat arose in the country, Rhodesia's white government resistedthe notion that black Africans had built Great Zimbabwe,

In the late 1960s, fighting broke out between the whitegovernment and groups such as the Zimbabwe AfricanNational Union (ZANU), which sought greater rights andpowers for black Africans, The government responded bycensoring books and articles about Great Zimbabwe andpunishing scholars who published information and opin-ions about the site's African origins. A new governmentdominated by Rhodesia's black majority took control in1980, however, and the country's name was changed toZimbabwe In honor of the archaeological site that repre-sents national and racial pride,

The glory of GreatZimbabwe is a proudsymbol for the modernnation, which featuresthe chevron bird onits flag. The carved

soapstone bird also appears on

the country'sofficial sea/ and on

its currency,

A late-20th-century artistpainted this imaginedscene of traders at GreatZimbabwe based onevidence from the site.The people wear Shonahairstyles, and the stonewalls and the Conical Towerare in the background.

gold broke the links between the gold-producing interior and thecoastal ports. The flow of wealth to the interior stopped. In thecenturies that followed, the Shona people of the Zimbabwe Plateausuffered slave raids from the coast and invasions by African peoplesfrom the south. Even before the arrival of the Portuguese, GreatZimbabwe's economic and political importance had faded. Butduring the centuries of turmoil the city was never entirely forgotten.The local people knew that the site had been the residence ofpowerful kings and chiefs in earlier times, and they continued touse it for religious rites, even after they turned some of its enclosuresinto cattle pens in the 19th century. Today, recognized as a majorarchaeological site and an emblem of African civilization, GreatZimbabwe has reclaimed its place in history.

great zimbabwe / 40

41 /interview.

Interview withMartinHall

Rebecca Stefoff: David Randall-Maclver andGertrude Caton-Thompson both con-cluded, based on good evidence, thatGreat Zimbabwe was built by Africans.How could so many people reject theirevidence and their conclusions?

Martin Hall: Prejudice. People were so con-vinced that Africans were incapable ofcivilization that they weren't able to seethe evidence in front of them. EvenGertrude Caton-Thompson was not freeof prejudice. She argued that GreatZimbabwe must be African because thewalls were circularshe believed thatonly "advanced" people built in straightlines. This prejudice continues in somequarters todayevery now and again,someone suggests that Great Zimbabwewas built by early visitors from anothercontinent, or that its origins are still a"mystery."

RS: What were some of the competing theo-ries, both early in the 20th century andmore recently?

MH: Earlier theories tended to be erratic orromantic. Some believed that GreatZimbabwe was built by wandering Arab

Archaeologist Martin Hall (top) and writerRebecca Stefoff (bottom).

greatzimbabwe /42

tribes. Others saw the hand of the Queenof Sheba, or the mythical Prester Johnafabulously wealthy Christian king livingdeep in Africa, or perhaps in Asia. Morerecent debates have been far more sober,and have focused on the origins of thepeople who lived at Great Zimbabwe, andon what the buildings were used for.Some archaeologists believe that therewas cultural continuity between thefarming communities who settled theZimbabwe Plateau early in the present eraand the Great Zimbabweans. Others haveargued that Great Zimbabwe's culturallinks were to the south, as communitiescrossed the Limpopo River in search ofnew economic opportunities. There hasalso been a good deal of discussion aboutwhat the buildings were used for, partic-ularly the Great Enclosure. What is certain,though, is that this was a place of greatcultural and political significance in amajor precolonial society.

RS: What effects have this controversy had onpolitical life in Rhodesia, now Zimbabwe?

MH: When the country was Rhodesia, thewhite minority regime hated the ideathat Great Zimbabwe was built by blackpeople, and tried hard to suppress thissuggestion. One leading archaeologistwas hounded from the country, and theregime supported crackpot interpretationsthat would support the idea of inherentwhite superiority. Not surprisingly, Great

Zimbabwe became an important culturalsymbol for the liberation movement, anda rallying point for the nation's new iden-tity. Others have put forward bizarretheories of an idyllic, precolonial blacksociety, in which everyone lived in a stateof nature, free from exploitationa sortof black Eldorado. This is improbable.Great Zimbabwe was the center of a statein which there was clearly inequality andexploitation. Overall, though, it's hardlysurprising that there should be such con-troversies. Important archaeological sitessuch as these are important cultural andpolitical symbols, and we should expectthem to generate controversy.

RS: If a new round of active excavation wereto begin at Great Zimbabwe, what wouldyou like to investigate? Where would youdig, and what would you look for?

MH: We still know so little about everyday lifeat Great Zimbabweabout how ordinarypeople lived, what they ate, the crafts inwhich they specialized, how householdswere made up. Modern archaeology hasmade great advances in deducing thenature of the everyday economy, genderrelations, and how people marked theiridentities through clothes and orna-ments. There is still the potential to inves-tigate aspects such as these at GreatZimbabwea wonderful challenge forarchaeologists in the future.

43.

Glossary

archaeozoology The study ofanimal life found at or neararchaeological sites, focusing onthe role animals played in thelife of the site's inhabitants.

artifact An object made byhumans such as a tool, weapon,utensil, or artwork.

celadon Pale-green potterymade in China.

chevron V-shaped pattern.

courses In stonework, the rowsor layers of stones making up awall.

dhaka Mixture of clay and gravelused for building.

dhow Ship with triangular sails,used for hundreds of years inthe Indian Ocean.

drought Prolonged period ofreduced rainfall; if severe, adrought can destroy crops, lead-ing to famine.

ethnography The recording andstudy of the ways in whichhuman cultures express them-selves, such as rituals, music,and mythology; comparativeethnography examines the waysin which cultures are differentor similar.

exfoliation Process in whichtemperature changes cause layersof rock to split and separate.inscription Wording or sym-bols on an artifact or structure.

madzimbabwe Stone enclosures.masonry Stonework or brick-work.

monolith Standing pillar, tower,or rock.

mortar Material such as cementor plaster used to holdstonework in place in construc-tion.

oral tradition Elements of cul-ture passed from generation togeneration through the spokenword rather than in writing; aculture's oral tradition mayinclude folk tales, sayings, songs,and more.

organic matter A mass of living(or once-living) material,including hair, leather,blood, cloth, pottery,wood, and bone.potsherd Fragmentof broken pottery.

sheikh Title of a chieftain orleader in an Arab or Arab-influ-enced community, such as atribe or city.

soapstone Soft, easily carvedstone, usually gray-green andslick to the touch, containingtalc, chlorite and, magnetite.

stratigraphy Method of study-ing and dating archaeologicalsites according to the depth ofvarious layers, or strata, of soiland buried relics and debris. Thegeneral rule of stratigraphy is:the deeper the stratum, the olderthe material.

thatch Roofing made of plantmaterial, such as straw.

tribute Payment in money orgoods made, sometimes underthreat of force, by a populationto a ruler or by a less powerfulnation to a more powerful one.

44.

Great Zimbabwe and Related Sites

G R E A T Z I M B A B W EN A T I O N A L M O N U M E N Twww.zimheritage.co.zw/site/

sr_gzim.htmThe Great Zimbabwe NationalMonument was designated aUNESCO World Heritage siteand the Zimbabwean govern-ment made it a national monu-ment. Located approximately18 miles from the town ofMasvingo, and 180 miles south

of Harare, the site covers anarea of nearly 1,800 acres.Great Zimbabwe is one of themost extensive and best-pre-served ruins anywhere in Africasouth of the Sahara Desert.

K 2 ( B A M B A N D Y A N A L O )

A small village situated at thefoot of Bambandyanalo Hill inSouth Africa, K2 is .60 milessouthwest of Mapungubwe Hillin a valley surrounded by cliffs.G. A. Gardner, who excavatedthere during the 1930s, namedit K2. Between about 1030 and1220 CE, many generations offarmers lived at K2. The mainsite includes the remains of acentral homestead area, a cattlekraal (central space for cattle),and a central midden (refuseheap) surrounded by smallerhomesteads.

K H A M I R U I N S N A T I O N A LM O N U M E N Twww.worldheritagesite.org/sites/

khamiruins.htmlRecognized as a World HeritageSite, the Khami Ruins NationalMonument is located in thewestern region of Zimbabwe.

On the banks of a river withthe same name, Khami was thecapital of the Torwa state. Builtin the 15th century, the build-ings of Khami have their owndistinctive stone architecture, acombination of house plat-forms and low, freestandingwalls that are often intricatelydecorated with checkered andherringbone patterns.

K l L W A

Kilwa, a town on the east coastof Africa, was an importanttrading partner with GreatZimbabwe beginning in the12th century. From the 10th tothe late 15th centuries, Kilwawas a prosperous Islamiccoastal city, dominated by amosque and houses built fromblocks of coral, with a popula-tion estimated at between4,000 and 12,000 people.Today, visitors can see the rem-nants of a palace, prison, twomosques, and other buildingsoverlooking the Kilwa port.

M A N Y I K E N IManyikeni is a good exampleof an outlying Zimbabwe set-

4 5 /great zimbabwe and related Sites.

tlement. It is located about 250miles east of the highZimbabwe Plateau and 31miles away from Vilankulos Bayon the Indian Ocean. Here,despite the lack of materials tobuild in the style of GreatZimbabwe, there are the famil-iar architectural features.

M A P U N G U B W EC U L T U R A L L A N D S C A P Ewww.mapungubwe.comMapungubwe, on the LimpopoRiver, preceded GreatZimbabwe as a center of poweron the Zimbabwe Plateau.Occupied primarily in the12th century, Mapungubwe iswidely known for the richgoods found in its graves, par-ticularly for a small, goldrhinoceros found in a graveexcavated in 1932. A symbol ofthe Mapungubwe king's power,the golden rhino is consideredone of South Africa's mostimportant national treasures.Located about 283 miles northof the city of Pretoria in South

Africa, the MapungubweCultural Landscape is recog-nized as a UNESCO WorldHeritage Site.

N E N G A A N D P A M U U Y ANenga and PaMuuya are goodexamples of smaller madzimbab-we, or stone houses. These twosites are on the southwestern

margins of the ZimbabwePlateau, where the Lundi Riverflows toward its junction withthe Sabi River. With only oneand two stone enclosuresrespectively, these were smallregional power centers. Theirarchitecture is similar to that ofGreat Zimbabwe.

.46

Further Reading

Bessire, Mark. Great Zimbabwe.New York: Franklin Watts,1998.

Editors of Time-Life Books.Africa's Glorious Legacy.Alexandria, Va.: Time-LifeBooks, 1994.

Garlake, Peter S. Great Zimbabwe.London: Thames andHudson, 1973.

Life at Great Zimbabwe.Gweru, Zimbabwe: MamboPress, 1982.

Garner, David. "The Heart ofan Empire." GeographicalMagazine, August 1996,40-41.

Huffman, Thomas N. Symbols inStone: Unravelling the Mystery ofGreat Zimbabwe. Johannes-burg, South Africa: Univer-sity of Witwatersrand Press,1987.

Mapungubwe: AncientAfrican Civilisations of theLimpopo. Johannesburg,South Africa: WitsUniversity Press, 2005.

Martin, David. Great Zimbabwe:Houses of Stone. Harare,Zimbabwe: AfricanPublishing Group, 1998.

Mclntosh, Roderick J. "Riddleof Great Zimbabwe."Archaeology, July/August1998,44-49.

Ndoro, Webber. "GreatZimbabwe." ScientificAmerican, November 1997,94-99.

Tyson, Peter. "Mystery ofGreat Zimbabwe," NOVAOnline (November 2000).www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/israel/ Zimbabwe. html.

47.

Index

Pictures and captions are indicated by pagenumbers in bold.

African origins, 7, 14-17, 21, 40,41,42

Almeida, Francisco de, 8Artifacts, 21, 27-31, 35. See also Birds,

Disks, Pottery, Soapstone carvings

Balcony, 6, 20Barros, Joao de, 10, 38Beach, David, 32Bent, Theodore, 15, 16Birds, 15, 20, 21, 23, 30-31, 39

Caton-Thompson, Gertrude, 7 , 1 7 ,21,30,40,41

Cattle, 28, 37, 38Cleft Rock Enclosure, 32Conical Tower, 6, 10, 22, 23, 32,

34,40Conservation, 33Construction styles, 21-22

Daily life, 27-32Dhaka, 20, 2 1 , 2 2 , 2 3Disks, 29

Eastern Enclosure, 6,16, 20, 21Ethnography, 3132Exfoliation, 19

Fernandes, Antonio, 10

Gama, Vasco da, 8Garlake, Peter S., 28Goes, Damiao de, 10Gold, 6, 10-11, 14-15, 29-30,

35, 36, 38,40

Great Enclosure, 6, 10, 2223, 26,29,42

Hall, Martin, 41-42Hall, Richard N., 7, 15-16, 30, 34Hill complex, 6, 19-21Huffman, Thomas, 23, 31-32

Khami, 38Kilwa, 6, 8-9, 36King Solomon's Mines, 11

Madzimbabwe, 28. See also Stoneenclosures and walls

Maps, 6,9, 12, 37Mapungubwe, 6, 3435Mashonaland, 7, 15Mauch, Karl, 7, 13, 14, 20Merensky, Alexander, 13Metalworking, 28, 29Monoliths, 20, 21, 32Monomotapa, 10-11, 13Mutapa, 11

Ogilvie, John, 10Ophir, 13Outer City, 19, 23

Pikirayi, Innocent, 33Portugal and Portuguese, 6, 8-9,

10-11,38-39Pottery, 27-29Prester John, 11, 12, 42

Racial issues, 14, 16, 17, 39, 41. Seealso African origins

Radiocarbon dating, 7, 24-25Randall-Maclver, David, 7, 16, 40, 41Renders, Adam, 13

Rhodes, Cecil, 7, 15,40Rhodesia, 7, 40, 42Robinson, Keith, 25Rozwi, 6, 38

Santos, Joao de, 7 , 1 1Sheba, Queen of, 7, 11, 13, 23, 42Shona people, 14, 19, 29, 31-32,

38,39,40,Soapstone carvings, 29, 30-31, 32.

See also BirdsSofala, 9, 10,36Solomon, King, 7, 11, 13Stone enclosures and walls, 6, 9, 10,

17, 18-23, 26, 35, 37, 38, 39Stratigraphy, 17Symbaoe, 12

Timelines, 6-7Torwa, 6, 11, 38Trade networks, 6, 8, 30, 35, 36, 37,

38,40

UNESCO, 7, 26, 33

Valley complex, 6,18, 19, 21-23Venda people, 3132

Western Enclosure, 6, 20, 21, 25, 32Whitty, Anthony, 21

Zimbabwe, 7, 17, 39Zimbabwe African National Union

(ZANU), 39Zimbabwe Plateau, 11, 12, 35, 36, 38

Martin Hall is a historical archaeologist who has researched and written aboutthe first farming communities of southern Africa, the origins of complex societies, andthe archaeology of colonial settlement. He worked in Kwa-Zulu Natal, South Africa,before joining the University of Cape Town as professor of historical archaeology. Hehas published more than one hundred papers and several books, and served as thepresident of the World Archaeological Congress. He is now deputy vice chancellor ofthe University of Cape Town.

Rebecca Stefoff is the author of many books for young readers. History andscience are among her favorite subjects. She has previously written about archaeologyin Finding the Lost Cities and The Palace of Minos at Knossos, another book in this series.

Brian Fagan is professor of anthropology at the University of California, SantaBarbara. He is internationally known for his books on archaeology, among themThe Adventure of Archaeology, The Rape of the Nile, Archaeologists: Explorers of the Human Past, andThe Oxford Companion to Archaeology.