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Great Zimbabwe

March 20, 2024

Great Zimbabwe is a medieval city in the south-eastern hills of the modern country of Zimbabwe, near Lake Mutirikwe and the town of Masvingo. It is thought to have been the capital of a kingdom during the Late Iron Age.[1] Construction on the city began in the 11th century and continued until it was abandoned in the 15th century.[2][3][4] The edifices were erected by ancestors of the Shona people, currently located in Zimbabwe and nearby countries.[5] The stone city spans an area of 7.22 square kilometres (2.79 sq mi) and could have housed up to 18,000 people at its peak, giving it a population density of approximately 2,500 inhabitants per square kilometre (6,500/sq mi). It is recognised as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO.

Great Zimbabwe
Tower in the Great Enclosure, Great Zimbabwe
Shown within Zimbabwe
Great Zimbabwe (Africa)
LocationMasvingo Province, Zimbabwe
Coordinates20°16′S 30°56′E / 20.267°S 30.933°E / -20.267; 30.933
TypeSettlement
Part ofKingdom of Zimbabwe
Area7.22 km2 (2.79 sq mi)
History
MaterialGranite
Founded11th century CE
Abandoned15th century CE
PeriodsLate Iron Age
CulturesKingdom of Zimbabwe
Official nameGreat Zimbabwe National Monument
CriteriaCultural: i, iii, vi
Reference364
Inscription1986 (10th Session)

Great Zimbabwe is believed to have served as a royal palace for the local monarch. As such, it would have been used as the seat of political power. Among the edifice's most prominent features were its walls, some of which are 11 metres (36 ft) high.[5] They were constructed of "dry stone" (that is, without mortar). Eventually, the city was abandoned and fell into ruin.

The earliest document mentioning the Great Zimbabwe ruins was in 1531 by Vicente Pegado, captain of the Portuguese garrison of Sofala on the coast of modern-day Mozambique, who recorded it as Symbaoe. The first confirmed visits by Europeans were in the late 19th century, with investigations of the site starting in 1871.[6] Some later studies of the monument were controversial, as the white government of Rhodesia pressured archeologists to deny its construction by black Africans.[7] Great Zimbabwe has since been adopted as a national monument by the Zimbabwean government, and the modern independent state was named after it.

The word great distinguishes the site from the many smaller ruins, now known as "zimbabwes", spread across the Zimbabwe Highveld.[8] There are 200 such sites in southern Africa, such as Bumbusi in Zimbabwe and Manyikeni in Mozambique, with monumental, mortarless walls.[9]

Name

Main article: Name of Zimbabwe
 
The conical tower inside the Great Enclosure at Great Zimbabwe

Zimbabwe is the Shona name of the ruins, first recorded in 1531 by Vicente Pegado, captain of the Portuguese garrison of Sofala. Pegado noted that "The natives of the country call these edifices Symbaoe, which according to their language signifies 'court'".[10]

The name contains dzimba, the Shona term for "houses". There are two theories for the etymology of the name. The first proposes that the word is derived from Dzimba-dza-mabwe, translated from Shona as "large houses of stone" (dzimba = plural of imba, "house"; mabwe = plural of bwe, "stone").[11] A second suggests that Zimbabwe is a contracted form of dzimba-hwe, which means "venerated houses" in the Zezuru dialect of Shona, as usually applied to the houses or graves of chiefs.[12]

Description

 
Overview of Great Zimbabwe. The large walled construction is the Great Enclosure. Some remains of the valley complex can be seen in front of it.
 
Plan of the complex

Settlement

The majority of scholars believe that it was built by members of the Gokomere culture, who were the ancestors of the modern Shona in Zimbabwe.[13]

The Great Zimbabwe area was settled by the 4th century AD. Between the 4th and the 7th centuries, communities of the Gokomere or Ziwa cultures farmed the valley, and mined and worked iron, but built no stone structures.[9][14] These are the earliest Iron Age settlements in the area identified from archaeological diggings.[15]

Construction and growth

Construction of the stone buildings started in the 11th century and continued for over 300 years.[4] The ruins at Great Zimbabwe are some of the oldest and largest structures located in Southern Africa, and are the second oldest after nearby Mapungubwe in South Africa. Its most formidable edifice, commonly referred to as the Great Enclosure, has walls as high as 11 m (36 ft) extending approximately 250 m (820 ft). David Beach believes that the city and its proposed state, the Kingdom of Zimbabwe, flourished from 1200 to 1500,[3] although a somewhat earlier date for its demise is implied by a description transmitted in the early 16th century to João de Barros.[16] Its growth has been linked to the decline of Mapungubwe from around 1300, due to climatic change[17] or the greater availability of gold in the hinterland of Great Zimbabwe.[18]

 
Aerial view of Great Enclosure and Valley Complex, looking west

Traditional estimates are that Great Zimbabwe had as many as 18,000 inhabitants at its peak.[19] However, a more recent survey concluded that the population likely never exceeded 10,000.[20] The ruins that survive are built entirely of stone; they span 730 ha (1,800 acres).

Features of the ruins

In 1531, Vicente Pegado, Captain of the Portuguese Garrison of Sofala, described Zimbabwe thus:[10]

Among the gold mines of the inland plains between the Limpopo and Zambezi rivers there is a fortress built of stones of marvelous size, and there appears to be no mortar joining them ... This edifice is almost surrounded by hills, upon which are others resembling it in the fashioning of stone and the absence of mortar, and one of them is a tower more than 12 fathoms [22 m] high. The natives of the country call these edifices Symbaoe, which according to their language signifies court.

— Vicente Pegado
 
View west from the Eastern Enclosure of the Hill Complex, showing the granite boulder that resembles the Zimbabwe Bird and the balcony.

The ruins form three distinct architectural groups. They are known as the Hill Complex, the Valley Complex and the Great Enclosure. The Hill Complex is the oldest, and was occupied from the 11th to 13th centuries. The Great Enclosure was occupied from the 13th to 15th centuries, and the Valley Complex from the 14th to 16th centuries.[9] Notable features of the Hill Complex include the Eastern Enclosure, in which it is thought the Zimbabwe Birds stood, a high balcony enclosure overlooking the Eastern Enclosure, and a huge boulder in a shape similar to that of the Zimbabwe Bird.[21] The Great Enclosure is composed of an inner wall, encircling a series of structures and a younger outer wall. The Conical Tower, 5.5 m (18 ft) in diameter and 9 m (30 ft) high, was constructed between the two walls.[22] The Valley Complex is divided into the Upper and Lower Valley Ruins, with different periods of occupation.[9]

 
Aerial view looking southeast, Hill Complex in foreground
 
Detail of the wall with lichen, 1975.

There are different archaeological interpretations of these groupings. It has been suggested that the complexes represent the work of successive kings: some of the new rulers founded a new residence.[3] The focus of power moved from the Hill Complex in the 12th century, to the Great Enclosure, the Upper Valley and finally the Lower Valley in the early 16th century.[9] The alternative "structuralist" interpretation holds that the different complexes had different functions: the Hill Complex as an area for rituals, perhaps related to rain making, the Valley complex was for the citizens, and the Great Enclosure was used by the king. Structures that were more elaborate were probably built for the kings, although it has been argued that the dating of finds in the complexes does not support this interpretation.[23]

Notable artefacts

 
Copy of Zimbabwe Bird soapstone sculpture

The most important artefacts recovered from the Monument are the eight Zimbabwe Birds. These were carved from a micaceous schist (soapstone) on the tops of monoliths the height of a person.[24] Slots in a platform in the Eastern Enclosure of the Hill Complex appear designed to hold the monoliths with the Zimbabwe birds, but as they were not found in situ, the original location of each monolith and bird within the enclosure cannot be determined .[25] Other artefacts include soapstone figurines (one of which is in the British Museum[26]), pottery, iron gongs, elaborately worked ivory, iron and copper wire, iron hoes, bronze spearheads, copper ingots and crucibles, and gold beads, bracelets, pendants and sheaths.[27][28] Glass beads and porcelain from China and Persia[29] among other foreign artefacts were also found, attesting the international trade linkages of the Kingdom. In the extensive stone ruins of the great city, which still remain today, include eight, monolithic birds carved in soapstone. It is thought that they represent the bateleur eagle – a good omen, protective spirit and messenger of the gods in Shona culture.[30]

Trade

Archaeological evidence suggests that Great Zimbabwe became a centre for trading, with artefacts[31] suggesting that the city formed part of a trade network linked to Kilwa[32] and extending as far as China. Copper coins found at Kilwa Kisiwani appear to be of the same pure ore found on the Swahili coast.[33] This international trade was mainly in gold and ivory; some estimates indicate that more than 20 million ounces of gold were extracted from the ground.[34] That international commerce was in addition to the local agricultural trade, in which cattle were especially important.[18] The large cattle herd that supplied the city moved seasonally and was managed by the court.[24] Chinese pottery shards, coins from Arabia, glass beads and other non-local items have been excavated at Zimbabwe. Despite these strong international trade links, there is no evidence to suggest exchange of architectural concepts between Great Zimbabwe and centres such as Kilwa.[35]

Decline

The causes for the decline and ultimate abandonment of the site around 1450 have been suggested as due to a decline in trade compared to sites further north, the exhaustion of the gold mines, political instability and famine and water shortages induced by climatic change.[18][36] The Mutapa state arose in the 15th century from the northward expansion of the Great Zimbabwe tradition,[37] having been founded by Nyatsimba Mutota from Great Zimbabwe after he was sent to find new sources of salt in the north;[38] (this supports the belief that Great Zimbabwe's decline was due to a shortage of resources). Great Zimbabwe also predates the Khami and Nyanga cultures.[39]

History of research and origins of the ruins

 
Great Zimbabwe appears on Abraham Ortelius' 1570 map Africae Tabula Nova, rendered "Simbaoe".

From Portuguese traders to Karl Mauch

The first European visit may have been made by the Portuguese traveler António Fernandes in 1513–1515, who crossed twice and reported in detail the region of present-day Zimbabwe (including the Shona kingdoms) and also fortified centers in stone without mortar. However, passing en route a few kilometres north and about 56 km (35 mi) south of the site, he did not make a reference to Great Zimbabwe.[40][41] Portuguese traders heard about the remains of the medieval city in the early 16th century, and records survive of interviews and notes made by some of them, linking Great Zimbabwe to gold production and long-distance trade.[42] Two of those accounts mention an inscription above the entrance to Great Zimbabwe, written in characters not known to the Arab merchants who had seen it.[16][43]

In 1506, the explorer Diogo de Alcáçova described the edifices in a letter to Manuel I of Portugal, writing that they were part of the larger kingdom of Ucalanga (presumably Karanga, a dialect of the Shona people spoken mainly in Masvingo and Midlands provinces of Zimbabwe).[44] João de Barros left another such description of Great Zimbabwe in 1538, as recounted to him by Moorish traders who had visited the area and possessed knowledge of the hinterland. He indicates that the edifices were locally known as Symbaoe, which meant "royal court" in the vernacular.[45] As to the actual identity of the builders of Great Zimbabwe, de Barros writes:[46]

When and by whom, these edifices were raised, as the people of the land are ignorant of the art of writing, there is no record, but they say they are the work of the devil,[47] for in comparison with their power and knowledge it does not seem possible to them that they should be the work of man.

— João de Barros

Additionally, with regard to the purpose of the Great Zimbabwe ruins, de Barros asserted that: "in the opinion of the Moors who saw it [Great Zimbabwe] it is very ancient and was built to keep possessions of the mines, which are very old, and no gold has been extracted from them for years, because of the wars ... it would seem that some prince who has possession of these mines ordered it to be built as a sign thereof, which he afterwards lost in the course of time and through their being so remote from his kingdom".[45]

De Barros further remarked that Symbaoe "is guarded by a nobleman, who has charge of it, after the manner of a chief alcaide, and they call this officer Symbacayo ... and there are always some of Benomotapa's wives therein of whom Symbacayo takes care." Thus, Great Zimbabwe appears to have still been inhabited as recently as the early 16th century.[45]

Karl Mauch and the Queen of Sheba

The ruins were rediscovered during a hunting trip in 1867 by Adam Render, a German-American hunter, prospector and trader in southern Africa,[48] who in 1871 showed the ruins to Karl Mauch, a German explorer and geographer of Africa. Karl Mauch recorded the ruins 3 September 1871, and immediately speculated about a possible Biblical association with King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba, an explanation which had been suggested by earlier writers such as the Portuguese João dos Santos. Mauch went so far as to favour a legend that the structures were built to replicate the palace of the Queen of Sheba in Jerusalem,[49] and claimed a wooden lintel at the site must be Lebanese cedar, brought by Phoenicians.[50] The Sheba legend, as promoted by Mauch, became so pervasive in the white settler community as to cause the later scholar James Theodore Bent to say,

The names of King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba were on everybody's lips, and have become so distasteful to us that we never expect to hear them again without an involuntary shudder.[51]

Carl Peters and Theodore Bent

 
The Valley Complex

Carl Peters collected a ceramic ushabti in 1905. Flinders Petrie examined it and identified a cartouche on its chest as belonging to the 18th Dynasty Egyptian Pharaoh Thutmose III and suggested that it was a statuette of the king and cited it as proof of commercial ties between rulers in the area and the ancient Egyptians during the New Kingdom (c. 1550–1077 BC), if not a relic of an old Egyptian station near the local gold mines.[52] Johann Heinrich Schäfer later appraised the statuette, and argued that it belonged to a well-known group of forgeries. After having received the ushabti, Felix von Luschan suggested that it was of more recent origin than the New Kingdom. He asserted that the figurine instead appeared to date to the subsequent Ptolemaic era (c. 323–30 BC), when Alexandria-based Greek merchants would export Egyptian antiquities and pseudo-antiquities to southern Africa.[53]

J. Theodore Bent undertook a season at Zimbabwe with Cecil Rhodes's patronage and funding from the Royal Geographical Society and the British Association for the Advancement of Science. This, and other excavations undertaken for Rhodes, resulted in a book publication that introduced the ruins to English readers. Bent had no formal archaeological training, but had travelled very widely in Arabia, Greece and Asia Minor. He was aided by the expert cartographer and surveyor Robert M. W. Swan (1858–1904), who also visited and surveyed a host of related stone ruins nearby. Bent stated in the first edition of his book The Ruined Cities of Mashonaland (1892) that the ruins revealed either the Phoenicians or the Arabs as builders, and he favoured the possibility of great antiquity for the fortress. By the third edition of his book (1902) he was more specific, with his primary theory being "a Semitic race and of Arabian origin" of "strongly commercial" traders living within a client African city.

 
Exterior wall of the Great Enclosure. Picture taken by David Randall-MacIver in 1906.

The Lemba

The construction of Great Zimbabwe is also claimed by the Lemba, as documented by William Bolts in 1777 (to the Austrian Habsburg authorities), and by an A.A. Anderson (writing about his travels north of the Limpopo River in the 19th century).[54] Lemba speak the Bantu languages spoken by their geographic neighbours and resemble them physically, but they have some religious practices and beliefs similar to those in Judaism and Islam, which they claim were transmitted by oral tradition.[54][55]

David Randall-MacIver and medieval origin

The first scientific archaeological excavations at the site were undertaken by David Randall-MacIver for the British Association in 1905–1906. In Medieval Rhodesia, he rejected the claims made by Adam Render, Carl Peters and Karl Mauch, and instead wrote of the existence in the site of objects that were of Bantu origin. Randall-MacIver concluded that all available evidence led him to believe that the Zimbabwe structures were constructed by the ancestors of the Shona people.[56][57][58] More importantly he suggested a wholly medieval date for the walled fortifications and temple. This claim was not immediately accepted, partly due to the relatively short and undermanned period of excavation he was able to undertake.

Gertrude Caton Thompson

 
The Hill Complex

In mid-1929 Gertrude Caton Thompson concluded, after a twelve-day visit of a three-person team and the digging of several trenches, that the site was indeed created by Bantu. She had first sunk three test pits into what had been refuse heaps on the upper terraces of the hill complex, producing a mix of unremarkable pottery and ironwork. She then moved to the Conical Tower and tried to dig under the tower, arguing that the ground there would be undisturbed, but nothing was revealed. Some further test trenches were then put down outside the lower Great Enclosure and in the Valley Ruins, which unearthed domestic ironwork, glass beads, and a gold bracelet. Caton Thompson immediately announced her Bantu origin theory to a meeting of the British Association in Johannesburg.[59]

Examination of all the existing evidence, gathered from every quarter, still can produce not one single item that is not in accordance with the claim of Bantu origin and medieval date[51]

Caton Thompson's claim was not immediately favoured, although it had strong support among some scientific archaeologists due to her modern methods. Her most important contribution was in helping to confirm the theory of a medieval origin for the masonry work of the 14th and 15th centuries. By 1931, she had modified her Bantu theory somewhat, allowing for a possible Arabian influence for the towers through the imitation of buildings or art seen at coastal Arabian trading cities.

Post-1945 research

Since the 1950s, there has been consensus among archaeologists as to the African origins of Great Zimbabwe.[60][61] Artefacts and radiocarbon dating indicate settlement in at least the 5th century, with continuous settlement of Great Zimbabwe between the 12th and 15th centuries[62] and the bulk of the finds from the 15th century.[63] The radiocarbon evidence is a suite of 28 measurements, for which all but the first four, from the early days of the use of that method and now viewed as inaccurate, support the 12th-to-15th-centuries chronology.[62][64] In the 1970s, a beam that produced some of the anomalous dates in 1952 was reanalysed and gave a 14th-century date.[65] Dated finds such as Chinese, Persian and Syrian artefacts also support the 12th- and 15th-century dates.[66]

Gokomere

Archaeologists generally agree that the builders probably spoke one of the Shona languages,[67][68] based upon evidence of pottery,[69][70] oral traditions[63][71] and anthropology[3] and recent scholarship supports the construction of Great Zimbabwe (and the origin of its culture) by Shona and Venda peoples,[72][73][74][75] who were probably descended from the Gokomere culture.[64] The Gokomere culture, an eastern Bantu subgroup, existed in the area from around 200 AD and flourished from 500 AD to about 800 AD. Archaeological evidence indicates that it constitutes an early phase of the Great Zimbabwe culture.[9][63][76][77] The Gokomere culture likely gave rise to both the modern Mashona people,[78] an ethnic cluster comprising distinct sub-ethnic groups such as the local Karanga clan[citation needed] and the Rozwi culture, which originated as several Shona states.[79] Gokomere peoples were probably also related to certain nearby early Bantu groups like the Mapungubwe civilisation of neighbouring North eastern South Africa, which is believed to have been an early Venda-speaking culture, and to the nearby Sotho.

Recent research

 
Passageway in the Great Enclosure

More recent archaeological work has been carried out by Peter Garlake, who has produced the comprehensive descriptions of the site,[80][81][82] David Beach[3][83][84] and Thomas Huffman,[63][85] who have worked on the chronology and development of Great Zimbabwe and Gilbert Pwiti, who has published extensively on trade links.[18][37][86] Today, the most recent consensus appears to attribute the construction of Great Zimbabwe to the Shona people.[87][88] Some evidence also suggests an early influence from the probably Venda-speaking peoples of the Mapungubwe civilization.[64]

Damage to the ruins

Damage to the ruins has taken place throughout the last century. The removal of gold and artefacts in amateurist diggings by early colonial antiquarians caused widespread damage,[42] notably diggings by Richard Nicklin Hall.[51] More extensive damage was caused by the mining of some of the ruins for gold.[42] Reconstruction attempts since 1980 caused further damage, leading to alienation of the local communities from the site.[89][90] Another source of damage to the ruins has been due to the site being open to visitors with many cases of people climbing the walls, walking over archaeological deposits, and the over-use of certain paths all have had major impacts on the structures at the site.[89] These are in conjunction with damages due to the natural weathering that occurs over time due to vegetation growth, the foundations settling, and erosion from the weather.[89]

Political implications

 
A closeup of Great Zimbabwe ruins, 2006

Martin Hall writes that the history of Iron Age research south of the Zambezi shows the prevalent influence of colonial ideologies, both in the earliest speculations about the nature of the African past and in the adaptations that have been made to contemporary archaeological methodologies.[91] Preben Kaarsholm writes that both colonial and black nationalist groups invoked Great Zimbabwe's past to support their vision of the country's present, through the media of popular history and of fiction. Examples of such popular history include Alexander Wilmot's Monomotapa (Rhodesia) and Ken Mufuka's Dzimbahwe: Life and Politics in the Golden Age; examples from fiction include Wilbur Smith's The Sunbird and Stanlake Samkange's Year of the Uprising.[42]

When white colonialists like Cecil Rhodes first saw the ruins, they saw them as a sign of the great riches that the area would yield to its new masters.[42] Pikirayi and Kaarsholm suggest that this presentation of Great Zimbabwe was partly intended to encourage settlement and investment in the area.[42][92] Gertrude Caton-Thompson recognised that the builders were indigenous Africans, but she characterised the site as the "product of an infantile mind" built by a subjugated society.[93][94][95] The official line in Rhodesia during the 1960s and 1970s was that the structures were built by non-blacks. Archaeologists who disputed the official statement were censored by the government.[96] According to Paul Sinclair, interviewed for None But Ourselves:[7]

I was the archaeologist stationed at Great Zimbabwe. I was told by the then-director of the Museums and Monuments organisation to be extremely careful about talking to the press about the origins of the [Great] Zimbabwe state. I was told that the museum service was in a difficult situation, that the government was pressurising them to withhold the correct information. Censorship of guidebooks, museum displays, school textbooks, radio programmes, newspapers and films was a daily occurrence. Once a member of the Museum Board of Trustees threatened me with losing my job if I said publicly that blacks had built Zimbabwe. He said it was okay to say the yellow people had built it, but I wasn't allowed to mention radio carbon dates ... It was the first time since Germany in the thirties that archaeology has been so directly censored.

This suppression of archaeology culminated in the departure from the country of prominent archaeologists of Great Zimbabwe, including Peter Garlake, Senior Inspector of Monuments for Rhodesia, and Roger Summers of the National Museum.[97]

 
The Zimbabwe Bird, depicted on Zimbabwe's flag
 
The Zimbabwe Bird, depicted on Rhodesia's coat of arms

To black nationalist groups, Great Zimbabwe became an important symbol of achievement by Africans: reclaiming its history was a major aim for those seeking majority rule. In 1980 the new internationally recognised independent country was renamed for the site, and its famous soapstone bird carvings were retained from the Rhodesian flag and Coat of Arms as a national symbol and depicted in the new Zimbabwean flag. After the creation of the modern state of Zimbabwe in 1980, Great Zimbabwe has been employed to mirror and legitimise shifting policies of the ruling regime. At first it was argued that it represented a form of pre-colonial "African socialism" and later the focus shifted to stressing the natural evolution of an accumulation of wealth and power within a ruling elite.[98] An example of the former is Ken Mufuka's booklet,[99] although the work has been heavily criticised.[42][100] A tower of the Great Zimbabwe is also depicted on the coat of arms of Zimbabwe.

Some of the carvings had been taken from Great Zimbabwe around 1890 and sold to Cecil Rhodes, who was intrigued and had copies made which he gave to friends. Most of the carvings have now been returned to Zimbabwe, but one remains at Rhodes' old home, Groote Schuur, in Cape Town.

The Great Zimbabwe University

Main article: Great Zimbabwe University

In the early 21st century, the government of Zimbabwe endorsed the creation of a university in the vicinity of the ruins. This university is an arts and culture based university which draws from the rich history of the monuments. The university main site is near the monuments with other campuses in the City centre and Mashava. The campuses include Herbet Chitepo Law School, Robert Mugabe School of Education, Gary Magadzire School of Agriculture and Natural Science, Simon Muzenda School of Arts, and Munhumutapa School of Commerce.

Gallery

  •  
    The Conical Tower
     
    Wood carving at the entrance of the Great Zimbabwe
  •  
    The Great Enclosure
  •  
    The Great Enclosure (close)
  •  
    The Great Enclosure (far)
  •  
    The Hill Complex from the Valley
  •  
    Wooden lintel in doorway

See also

Notes

  1. ^ Pikirayi, Innocent (2013). "Great Zimbabwe in Historical Archaeology: Reconceptualizing Decline, Abandonment, and Reoccupation of an Ancient Polity, A.D. 1450–1900". Historical Archaeology. 47: 26–37. doi:10.1007/BF03376887. hdl:2263/59176. S2CID 59380130.
  2. ^ Pikirayi, Innocent; Sulas, Federica; Chirikure, Shadreck; Chikumbirike, Joseph; Sagiya, Munyaradzi Elton (January 2023). "The Conundrum of Great Zimbabwe". Journal of Urban Archaeology. 7: 95–114. doi:10.1484/J.JUA.5.133452. ISSN 2736-2426. Retrieved 1 December 2023.
  3. ^ a b c d e Beach, David (1998). "Cognitive Archaeology and Imaginary History at Great Zimbabwe". Current Anthropology. 39: 47–72. doi:10.1086/204698. S2CID 143970768.
  4. ^ a b "Great Zimbabwe (11th–15th century) – Thematic Essay". The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Retrieved 12 January 2009.
  5. ^ a b "Great Zimbabwe: African City of Stone". Live Science. 10 March 2017.
  6. ^ Fleminger, David (2008). Mapungubwe Cultural Landscape. 30 Degrees South. p. 57. ISBN 978-0-9584891-5-7.
  7. ^ a b Frederikse, Julie (1990) [1982]. "(1) Before the war". None But Ourselves. Biddy Partridge (photographer). Harare: Oral Traditions Association of Zimbabwe with Anvil Press. pp. 10–11. ISBN 0-7974-0961-0.
  8. ^ M. Sibanda, H. Moyana et al. 1992. The African Heritage. History for Junior Secondary Schools. Book 1. Zimbabwe Publishing House. ISBN 978-0-908300-00-6
  9. ^ a b c d e f Shadreck Chirikure; Innocent Pikirayi (2008). "Inside and outside the dry stone walls: revisiting the material culture of Great Zimbabwe". Antiquity. 82 (318): 976–993. doi:10.1017/S0003598X00097726.
  10. ^ a b Newitt, M. D. D. (2002). East Africa. Vol. 2. Ashgate. p. 39. ISBN 0754601811.
  11. ^ Michel Lafon (1994). "Shona Class 5 revisited: a case against *ri as Class 5 nominal prefix" (PDF). Zambezia. 21: 51–80.. See also Lawrence J. Vale (1999). "Mediated monuments and national identity". Journal of Architecture. 4 (4): 391–408. doi:10.1080/136023699373774.
  12. ^ Garlake (1973) 13
  13. ^ batanai (12 April 2022). "ORIGIN OF SHONA AND THEIR ART | Batanai". batanai.co.za. Retrieved 16 January 2024.
  14. ^ Pikirayi (2001) p129
  15. ^ Summers (1970) p163
  16. ^ a b McCall-Theal, G. (1900). Records of South-eastern Africa. Vol. VI (book 10). Cape Town: Cape Colony Printers. pp. 264–273.
  17. ^ Huffman, Thomas N. (2008). "Climate change during the Iron Age in the Shashe-Limpopo Basin, southern Africa". Journal of Archaeological Science. 35 (7): 2032–2047. Bibcode:2008JArSc..35.2032H. doi:10.1016/j.jas.2008.01.005.
  18. ^ a b c d Gilbert Pwiti (1991). "Trade and economies in southern Africa: the archaeological evidence" (PDF). Zambezia. 18: 119–129.
  19. ^ Kuklick, Henrika (1991). "Contested monuments: the politics of archaeology in southern Africa". In George W. Stocking (ed.). Colonial situations: essays on the contextualization of ethnographic knowledge. Univ of Wisconsin Press. pp. 135–170. ISBN 978-0-299-13124-1.
  20. ^ Chirikure, S.; et al. (2017). "What was the population of Great Zimbabwe (CE1000 – 1800)". PLOS ONE. 12 (6): e0178335. Bibcode:2017PLoSO..1278335C. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0178335. PMC 5470674. PMID 28614397.
  21. ^ Garlake (1973) 27
  22. ^ Garlake (1973) 29
  23. ^ Collett, D. P.; A. E. Vines; E. G. Hughes (1992). "The chronology of the Valley Enclosures: implications for the interpretation of Great Zimbabwe". African Archaeological Review. 10: 139–161. doi:10.1007/BF01117699. S2CID 162352596.
  24. ^ a b Garlake (2002) 158
  25. ^ Garlake (1973) 119
  26. ^ "figure". British Museum.
  27. ^ Garlake (2002) 159–162
  28. ^ Summers (1970) p166
  29. ^ "Great Zimbabwe National Monument".
  30. ^ Nelson, Jo (2019). Historium. Big Picture Press. p. 10.
  31. ^ Sibanda, M. (1982). The African heritage : history for junior secondary schools. H. Moyana, S. D. Gumbo. Harare, Zimbabwe: Zimbabwe Educational Books. ISBN 0-908300-00-X. OCLC 10850697.
  32. ^ Garlake (2002) 184–185
  33. ^ Sutton, J. E. G. (PDF). artsrn.ualberta.ca. Archived from the original (PDF) on 24 September 2021. Retrieved 14 December 2012.
  34. ^ Gayre, R. (1972). The origin of the Zimbabwean Civilization. Galaxie Press, Rhodesia.
  35. ^ Garlake (2002) 185
  36. ^ Karin Holmgren; Helena Öberg (2006). "Climate Change in Southern and Eastern Africa during the past millennium and its implications for societal development". Environment, Development and Sustainability. 8: 1573–2975. doi:10.1007/s10668-005-5752-5. S2CID 153415627.
  37. ^ a b Gilbert Pwiti (2004). "Economic change, ideology and the development of cultural complexity in northern Zimbabwe". Azania: Archaeological Research in Africa. 39: 265–282. doi:10.1080/00672700409480403. S2CID 161890031.
  38. ^ Oliver, Roland; Anthony Atmore (1975). Medieval Africa 1250–1800. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 738. ISBN 0-521-20413-5.
  39. ^ Huffman, Thomas (1972). "The rise and fall of Zimbabwe". The Journal of African History. 13 (3): 353–366. doi:10.1017/S0021853700011683. S2CID 162369023.
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Sources

External links

 
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  • Great Zimbabwe Ruins
  • Great Zimbabwe entry on the UNESCO World Heritage site

March 20, 2024
great, zimbabwe, medieval, city, south, eastern, hills, modern, country, zimbabwe, near, lake, mutirikwe, town, masvingo, thought, have, been, capital, kingdom, during, late, iron, construction, city, began, 11th, century, continued, until, abandoned, 15th, ce. Great Zimbabwe is a medieval city in the south eastern hills of the modern country of Zimbabwe near Lake Mutirikwe and the town of Masvingo It is thought to have been the capital of a kingdom during the Late Iron Age 1 Construction on the city began in the 11th century and continued until it was abandoned in the 15th century 2 3 4 The edifices were erected by ancestors of the Shona people currently located in Zimbabwe and nearby countries 5 The stone city spans an area of 7 22 square kilometres 2 79 sq mi and could have housed up to 18 000 people at its peak giving it a population density of approximately 2 500 inhabitants per square kilometre 6 500 sq mi It is recognised as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO Great ZimbabweTower in the Great Enclosure Great ZimbabweShown within ZimbabweShow map of ZimbabweGreat Zimbabwe Africa Show map of AfricaLocationMasvingo Province ZimbabweCoordinates20 16 S 30 56 E 20 267 S 30 933 E 20 267 30 933TypeSettlementPart ofKingdom of ZimbabweArea7 22 km2 2 79 sq mi HistoryMaterialGraniteFounded11th century CEAbandoned15th century CEPeriodsLate Iron AgeCulturesKingdom of ZimbabweUNESCO World Heritage SiteOfficial nameGreat Zimbabwe National MonumentCriteriaCultural i iii viReference364Inscription1986 10th Session Great Zimbabwe is believed to have served as a royal palace for the local monarch As such it would have been used as the seat of political power Among the edifice s most prominent features were its walls some of which are 11 metres 36 ft high 5 They were constructed of dry stone that is without mortar Eventually the city was abandoned and fell into ruin The earliest document mentioning the Great Zimbabwe ruins was in 1531 by Vicente Pegado captain of the Portuguese garrison of Sofala on the coast of modern day Mozambique who recorded it as Symbaoe The first confirmed visits by Europeans were in the late 19th century with investigations of the site starting in 1871 6 Some later studies of the monument were controversial as the white government of Rhodesia pressured archeologists to deny its construction by black Africans 7 Great Zimbabwe has since been adopted as a national monument by the Zimbabwean government and the modern independent state was named after it The word great distinguishes the site from the many smaller ruins now known as zimbabwes spread across the Zimbabwe Highveld 8 There are 200 such sites in southern Africa such as Bumbusi in Zimbabwe and Manyikeni in Mozambique with monumental mortarless walls 9 Contents 1 Name 2 Description 2 1 Settlement 2 2 Construction and growth 2 3 Features of the ruins 2 4 Notable artefacts 2 5 Trade 2 6 Decline 3 History of research and origins of the ruins 3 1 From Portuguese traders to Karl Mauch 3 2 Karl Mauch and the Queen of Sheba 3 3 Carl Peters and Theodore Bent 3 4 The Lemba 3 5 David Randall MacIver and medieval origin 3 6 Gertrude Caton Thompson 3 7 Post 1945 research 3 8 Gokomere 3 9 Recent research 3 10 Damage to the ruins 4 Political implications 5 The Great Zimbabwe University 6 Gallery 7 See also 8 Notes 9 Sources 10 External linksNameMain article Name of Zimbabwe nbsp The conical tower inside the Great Enclosure at Great ZimbabweZimbabwe is the Shona name of the ruins first recorded in 1531 by Vicente Pegado captain of the Portuguese garrison of Sofala Pegado noted that The natives of the country call these edifices Symbaoe which according to their language signifies court 10 The name contains dzimba the Shona term for houses There are two theories for the etymology of the name The first proposes that the word is derived from Dzimba dza mabwe translated from Shona as large houses of stone dzimba plural of imba house mabwe plural of bwe stone 11 A second suggests that Zimbabwe is a contracted form of dzimba hwe which means venerated houses in the Zezuru dialect of Shona as usually applied to the houses or graves of chiefs 12 Description nbsp Overview of Great Zimbabwe The large walled construction is the Great Enclosure Some remains of the valley complex can be seen in front of it nbsp Plan of the complexSettlement The majority of scholars believe that it was built by members of the Gokomere culture who were the ancestors of the modern Shona in Zimbabwe 13 The Great Zimbabwe area was settled by the 4th century AD Between the 4th and the 7th centuries communities of the Gokomere or Ziwa cultures farmed the valley and mined and worked iron but built no stone structures 9 14 These are the earliest Iron Age settlements in the area identified from archaeological diggings 15 Construction and growth Construction of the stone buildings started in the 11th century and continued for over 300 years 4 The ruins at Great Zimbabwe are some of the oldest and largest structures located in Southern Africa and are the second oldest after nearby Mapungubwe in South Africa Its most formidable edifice commonly referred to as the Great Enclosure has walls as high as 11 m 36 ft extending approximately 250 m 820 ft David Beach believes that the city and its proposed state the Kingdom of Zimbabwe flourished from 1200 to 1500 3 although a somewhat earlier date for its demise is implied by a description transmitted in the early 16th century to Joao de Barros 16 Its growth has been linked to the decline of Mapungubwe from around 1300 due to climatic change 17 or the greater availability of gold in the hinterland of Great Zimbabwe 18 nbsp Aerial view of Great Enclosure and Valley Complex looking westTraditional estimates are that Great Zimbabwe had as many as 18 000 inhabitants at its peak 19 However a more recent survey concluded that the population likely never exceeded 10 000 20 The ruins that survive are built entirely of stone they span 730 ha 1 800 acres Features of the ruins In 1531 Vicente Pegado Captain of the Portuguese Garrison of Sofala described Zimbabwe thus 10 Among the gold mines of the inland plains between the Limpopo and Zambezi rivers there is a fortress built of stones of marvelous size and there appears to be no mortar joining them This edifice is almost surrounded by hills upon which are others resembling it in the fashioning of stone and the absence of mortar and one of them is a tower more than 12 fathoms 22 m high The natives of the country call these edifices Symbaoe which according to their language signifies court Vicente Pegado nbsp View west from the Eastern Enclosure of the Hill Complex showing the granite boulder that resembles the Zimbabwe Bird and the balcony The ruins form three distinct architectural groups They are known as the Hill Complex the Valley Complex and the Great Enclosure The Hill Complex is the oldest and was occupied from the 11th to 13th centuries The Great Enclosure was occupied from the 13th to 15th centuries and the Valley Complex from the 14th to 16th centuries 9 Notable features of the Hill Complex include the Eastern Enclosure in which it is thought the Zimbabwe Birds stood a high balcony enclosure overlooking the Eastern Enclosure and a huge boulder in a shape similar to that of the Zimbabwe Bird 21 The Great Enclosure is composed of an inner wall encircling a series of structures and a younger outer wall The Conical Tower 5 5 m 18 ft in diameter and 9 m 30 ft high was constructed between the two walls 22 The Valley Complex is divided into the Upper and Lower Valley Ruins with different periods of occupation 9 nbsp Aerial view looking southeast Hill Complex in foreground nbsp Detail of the wall with lichen 1975 There are different archaeological interpretations of these groupings It has been suggested that the complexes represent the work of successive kings some of the new rulers founded a new residence 3 The focus of power moved from the Hill Complex in the 12th century to the Great Enclosure the Upper Valley and finally the Lower Valley in the early 16th century 9 The alternative structuralist interpretation holds that the different complexes had different functions the Hill Complex as an area for rituals perhaps related to rain making the Valley complex was for the citizens and the Great Enclosure was used by the king Structures that were more elaborate were probably built for the kings although it has been argued that the dating of finds in the complexes does not support this interpretation 23 Notable artefacts nbsp Copy of Zimbabwe Bird soapstone sculptureThe most important artefacts recovered from the Monument are the eight Zimbabwe Birds These were carved from a micaceous schist soapstone on the tops of monoliths the height of a person 24 Slots in a platform in the Eastern Enclosure of the Hill Complex appear designed to hold the monoliths with the Zimbabwe birds but as they were not found in situ the original location of each monolith and bird within the enclosure cannot be determined 25 Other artefacts include soapstone figurines one of which is in the British Museum 26 pottery iron gongs elaborately worked ivory iron and copper wire iron hoes bronze spearheads copper ingots and crucibles and gold beads bracelets pendants and sheaths 27 28 Glass beads and porcelain from China and Persia 29 among other foreign artefacts were also found attesting the international trade linkages of the Kingdom In the extensive stone ruins of the great city which still remain today include eight monolithic birds carved in soapstone It is thought that they represent the bateleur eagle a good omen protective spirit and messenger of the gods in Shona culture 30 Trade Archaeological evidence suggests that Great Zimbabwe became a centre for trading with artefacts 31 suggesting that the city formed part of a trade network linked to Kilwa 32 and extending as far as China Copper coins found at Kilwa Kisiwani appear to be of the same pure ore found on the Swahili coast 33 This international trade was mainly in gold and ivory some estimates indicate that more than 20 million ounces of gold were extracted from the ground 34 That international commerce was in addition to the local agricultural trade in which cattle were especially important 18 The large cattle herd that supplied the city moved seasonally and was managed by the court 24 Chinese pottery shards coins from Arabia glass beads and other non local items have been excavated at Zimbabwe Despite these strong international trade links there is no evidence to suggest exchange of architectural concepts between Great Zimbabwe and centres such as Kilwa 35 Decline The causes for the decline and ultimate abandonment of the site around 1450 have been suggested as due to a decline in trade compared to sites further north the exhaustion of the gold mines political instability and famine and water shortages induced by climatic change 18 36 The Mutapa state arose in the 15th century from the northward expansion of the Great Zimbabwe tradition 37 having been founded by Nyatsimba Mutota from Great Zimbabwe after he was sent to find new sources of salt in the north 38 this supports the belief that Great Zimbabwe s decline was due to a shortage of resources Great Zimbabwe also predates the Khami and Nyanga cultures 39 History of research and origins of the ruins nbsp Great Zimbabwe appears on Abraham Ortelius 1570 map Africae Tabula Nova rendered Simbaoe From Portuguese traders to Karl Mauch The first European visit may have been made by the Portuguese traveler Antonio Fernandes in 1513 1515 who crossed twice and reported in detail the region of present day Zimbabwe including the Shona kingdoms and also fortified centers in stone without mortar However passing en route a few kilometres north and about 56 km 35 mi south of the site he did not make a reference to Great Zimbabwe 40 41 Portuguese traders heard about the remains of the medieval city in the early 16th century and records survive of interviews and notes made by some of them linking Great Zimbabwe to gold production and long distance trade 42 Two of those accounts mention an inscription above the entrance to Great Zimbabwe written in characters not known to the Arab merchants who had seen it 16 43 In 1506 the explorer Diogo de Alcacova described the edifices in a letter to Manuel I of Portugal writing that they were part of the larger kingdom of Ucalanga presumably Karanga a dialect of the Shona people spoken mainly in Masvingo and Midlands provinces of Zimbabwe 44 Joao de Barros left another such description of Great Zimbabwe in 1538 as recounted to him by Moorish traders who had visited the area and possessed knowledge of the hinterland He indicates that the edifices were locally known as Symbaoe which meant royal court in the vernacular 45 As to the actual identity of the builders of Great Zimbabwe de Barros writes 46 When and by whom these edifices were raised as the people of the land are ignorant of the art of writing there is no record but they say they are the work of the devil 47 for in comparison with their power and knowledge it does not seem possible to them that they should be the work of man Joao de Barros Additionally with regard to the purpose of the Great Zimbabwe ruins de Barros asserted that in the opinion of the Moors who saw it Great Zimbabwe it is very ancient and was built to keep possessions of the mines which are very old and no gold has been extracted from them for years because of the wars it would seem that some prince who has possession of these mines ordered it to be built as a sign thereof which he afterwards lost in the course of time and through their being so remote from his kingdom 45 De Barros further remarked that Symbaoe is guarded by a nobleman who has charge of it after the manner of a chief alcaide and they call this officer Symbacayo and there are always some of Benomotapa s wives therein of whom Symbacayo takes care Thus Great Zimbabwe appears to have still been inhabited as recently as the early 16th century 45 Karl Mauch and the Queen of ShebaThe ruins were rediscovered during a hunting trip in 1867 by Adam Render a German American hunter prospector and trader in southern Africa 48 who in 1871 showed the ruins to Karl Mauch a German explorer and geographer of Africa Karl Mauch recorded the ruins 3 September 1871 and immediately speculated about a possible Biblical association with King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba an explanation which had been suggested by earlier writers such as the Portuguese Joao dos Santos Mauch went so far as to favour a legend that the structures were built to replicate the palace of the Queen of Sheba in Jerusalem 49 and claimed a wooden lintel at the site must be Lebanese cedar brought by Phoenicians 50 The Sheba legend as promoted by Mauch became so pervasive in the white settler community as to cause the later scholar James Theodore Bent to say The names of King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba were on everybody s lips and have become so distasteful to us that we never expect to hear them again without an involuntary shudder 51 Carl Peters and Theodore Bent nbsp The Valley ComplexCarl Peters collected a ceramic ushabti in 1905 Flinders Petrie examined it and identified a cartouche on its chest as belonging to the 18th Dynasty Egyptian Pharaoh Thutmose III and suggested that it was a statuette of the king and cited it as proof of commercial ties between rulers in the area and the ancient Egyptians during the New Kingdom c 1550 1077 BC if not a relic of an old Egyptian station near the local gold mines 52 Johann Heinrich Schafer later appraised the statuette and argued that it belonged to a well known group of forgeries After having received the ushabti Felix von Luschan suggested that it was of more recent origin than the New Kingdom He asserted that the figurine instead appeared to date to the subsequent Ptolemaic era c 323 30 BC when Alexandria based Greek merchants would export Egyptian antiquities and pseudo antiquities to southern Africa 53 J Theodore Bent undertook a season at Zimbabwe with Cecil Rhodes s patronage and funding from the Royal Geographical Society and the British Association for the Advancement of Science This and other excavations undertaken for Rhodes resulted in a book publication that introduced the ruins to English readers Bent had no formal archaeological training but had travelled very widely in Arabia Greece and Asia Minor He was aided by the expert cartographer and surveyor Robert M W Swan 1858 1904 who also visited and surveyed a host of related stone ruins nearby Bent stated in the first edition of his book The Ruined Cities of Mashonaland 1892 that the ruins revealed either the Phoenicians or the Arabs as builders and he favoured the possibility of great antiquity for the fortress By the third edition of his book 1902 he was more specific with his primary theory being a Semitic race and of Arabian origin of strongly commercial traders living within a client African city nbsp Exterior wall of the Great Enclosure Picture taken by David Randall MacIver in 1906 The Lemba The construction of Great Zimbabwe is also claimed by the Lemba as documented by William Bolts in 1777 to the Austrian Habsburg authorities and by an A A Anderson writing about his travels north of the Limpopo River in the 19th century 54 Lemba speak the Bantu languages spoken by their geographic neighbours and resemble them physically but they have some religious practices and beliefs similar to those in Judaism and Islam which they claim were transmitted by oral tradition 54 55 David Randall MacIver and medieval origin The first scientific archaeological excavations at the site were undertaken by David Randall MacIver for the British Association in 1905 1906 In Medieval Rhodesia he rejected the claims made by Adam Render Carl Peters and Karl Mauch and instead wrote of the existence in the site of objects that were of Bantu origin Randall MacIver concluded that all available evidence led him to believe that the Zimbabwe structures were constructed by the ancestors of the Shona people 56 57 58 More importantly he suggested a wholly medieval date for the walled fortifications and temple This claim was not immediately accepted partly due to the relatively short and undermanned period of excavation he was able to undertake Gertrude Caton Thompson nbsp The Hill ComplexIn mid 1929 Gertrude Caton Thompson concluded after a twelve day visit of a three person team and the digging of several trenches that the site was indeed created by Bantu She had first sunk three test pits into what had been refuse heaps on the upper terraces of the hill complex producing a mix of unremarkable pottery and ironwork She then moved to the Conical Tower and tried to dig under the tower arguing that the ground there would be undisturbed but nothing was revealed Some further test trenches were then put down outside the lower Great Enclosure and in the Valley Ruins which unearthed domestic ironwork glass beads and a gold bracelet Caton Thompson immediately announced her Bantu origin theory to a meeting of the British Association in Johannesburg 59 Examination of all the existing evidence gathered from every quarter still can produce not one single item that is not in accordance with the claim of Bantu origin and medieval date 51 Caton Thompson s claim was not immediately favoured although it had strong support among some scientific archaeologists due to her modern methods Her most important contribution was in helping to confirm the theory of a medieval origin for the masonry work of the 14th and 15th centuries By 1931 she had modified her Bantu theory somewhat allowing for a possible Arabian influence for the towers through the imitation of buildings or art seen at coastal Arabian trading cities Post 1945 research Since the 1950s there has been consensus among archaeologists as to the African origins of Great Zimbabwe 60 61 Artefacts and radiocarbon dating indicate settlement in at least the 5th century with continuous settlement of Great Zimbabwe between the 12th and 15th centuries 62 and the bulk of the finds from the 15th century 63 The radiocarbon evidence is a suite of 28 measurements for which all but the first four from the early days of the use of that method and now viewed as inaccurate support the 12th to 15th centuries chronology 62 64 In the 1970s a beam that produced some of the anomalous dates in 1952 was reanalysed and gave a 14th century date 65 Dated finds such as Chinese Persian and Syrian artefacts also support the 12th and 15th century dates 66 Gokomere Archaeologists generally agree that the builders probably spoke one of the Shona languages 67 68 based upon evidence of pottery 69 70 oral traditions 63 71 and anthropology 3 and recent scholarship supports the construction of Great Zimbabwe and the origin of its culture by Shona and Venda peoples 72 73 74 75 who were probably descended from the Gokomere culture 64 The Gokomere culture an eastern Bantu subgroup existed in the area from around 200 AD and flourished from 500 AD to about 800 AD Archaeological evidence indicates that it constitutes an early phase of the Great Zimbabwe culture 9 63 76 77 The Gokomere culture likely gave rise to both the modern Mashona people 78 an ethnic cluster comprising distinct sub ethnic groups such as the local Karanga clan citation needed and the Rozwi culture which originated as several Shona states 79 Gokomere peoples were probably also related to certain nearby early Bantu groups like the Mapungubwe civilisation of neighbouring North eastern South Africa which is believed to have been an early Venda speaking culture and to the nearby Sotho Recent research nbsp Passageway in the Great EnclosureMore recent archaeological work has been carried out by Peter Garlake who has produced the comprehensive descriptions of the site 80 81 82 David Beach 3 83 84 and Thomas Huffman 63 85 who have worked on the chronology and development of Great Zimbabwe and Gilbert Pwiti who has published extensively on trade links 18 37 86 Today the most recent consensus appears to attribute the construction of Great Zimbabwe to the Shona people 87 88 Some evidence also suggests an early influence from the probably Venda speaking peoples of the Mapungubwe civilization 64 Damage to the ruins Damage to the ruins has taken place throughout the last century The removal of gold and artefacts in amateurist diggings by early colonial antiquarians caused widespread damage 42 notably diggings by Richard Nicklin Hall 51 More extensive damage was caused by the mining of some of the ruins for gold 42 Reconstruction attempts since 1980 caused further damage leading to alienation of the local communities from the site 89 90 Another source of damage to the ruins has been due to the site being open to visitors with many cases of people climbing the walls walking over archaeological deposits and the over use of certain paths all have had major impacts on the structures at the site 89 These are in conjunction with damages due to the natural weathering that occurs over time due to vegetation growth the foundations settling and erosion from the weather 89 Political implications nbsp A closeup of Great Zimbabwe ruins 2006Martin Hall writes that the history of Iron Age research south of the Zambezi shows the prevalent influence of colonial ideologies both in the earliest speculations about the nature of the African past and in the adaptations that have been made to contemporary archaeological methodologies 91 Preben Kaarsholm writes that both colonial and black nationalist groups invoked Great Zimbabwe s past to support their vision of the country s present through the media of popular history and of fiction Examples of such popular history include Alexander Wilmot s Monomotapa Rhodesia and Ken Mufuka s Dzimbahwe Life and Politics in the Golden Age examples from fiction include Wilbur Smith s The Sunbird and Stanlake Samkange s Year of the Uprising 42 When white colonialists like Cecil Rhodes first saw the ruins they saw them as a sign of the great riches that the area would yield to its new masters 42 Pikirayi and Kaarsholm suggest that this presentation of Great Zimbabwe was partly intended to encourage settlement and investment in the area 42 92 Gertrude Caton Thompson recognised that the builders were indigenous Africans but she characterised the site as the product of an infantile mind built by a subjugated society 93 94 95 The official line in Rhodesia during the 1960s and 1970s was that the structures were built by non blacks Archaeologists who disputed the official statement were censored by the government 96 According to Paul Sinclair interviewed for None But Ourselves 7 I was the archaeologist stationed at Great Zimbabwe I was told by the then director of the Museums and Monuments organisation to be extremely careful about talking to the press about the origins of the Great Zimbabwe state I was told that the museum service was in a difficult situation that the government was pressurising them to withhold the correct information Censorship of guidebooks museum displays school textbooks radio programmes newspapers and films was a daily occurrence Once a member of the Museum Board of Trustees threatened me with losing my job if I said publicly that blacks had built Zimbabwe He said it was okay to say the yellow people had built it but I wasn t allowed to mention radio carbon dates It was the first time since Germany in the thirties that archaeology has been so directly censored This suppression of archaeology culminated in the departure from the country of prominent archaeologists of Great Zimbabwe including Peter Garlake Senior Inspector of Monuments for Rhodesia and Roger Summers of the National Museum 97 nbsp The Zimbabwe Bird depicted on Zimbabwe s flag nbsp The Zimbabwe Bird depicted on Rhodesia s coat of armsTo black nationalist groups Great Zimbabwe became an important symbol of achievement by Africans reclaiming its history was a major aim for those seeking majority rule In 1980 the new internationally recognised independent country was renamed for the site and its famous soapstone bird carvings were retained from the Rhodesian flag and Coat of Arms as a national symbol and depicted in the new Zimbabwean flag After the creation of the modern state of Zimbabwe in 1980 Great Zimbabwe has been employed to mirror and legitimise shifting policies of the ruling regime At first it was argued that it represented a form of pre colonial African socialism and later the focus shifted to stressing the natural evolution of an accumulation of wealth and power within a ruling elite 98 An example of the former is Ken Mufuka s booklet 99 although the work has been heavily criticised 42 100 A tower of the Great Zimbabwe is also depicted on the coat of arms of Zimbabwe Some of the carvings had been taken from Great Zimbabwe around 1890 and sold to Cecil Rhodes who was intrigued and had copies made which he gave to friends Most of the carvings have now been returned to Zimbabwe but one remains at Rhodes old home Groote Schuur in Cape Town The Great Zimbabwe UniversityMain article Great Zimbabwe University In the early 21st century the government of Zimbabwe endorsed the creation of a university in the vicinity of the ruins This university is an arts and culture based university which draws from the rich history of the monuments The university main site is near the monuments with other campuses in the City centre and Mashava The campuses include Herbet Chitepo Law School Robert Mugabe School of Education Gary Magadzire School of Agriculture and Natural Science Simon Muzenda School of Arts and Munhumutapa School of Commerce Gallery nbsp The Conical Tower nbsp Wood carving at the entrance of the Great Zimbabwe nbsp The Great Enclosure nbsp The Great Enclosure close nbsp The Great Enclosure far nbsp The Hill Complex from the Valley nbsp Wooden lintel in doorwaySee alsoOther ruins in Zimbabwe Bumbusi Danangombe Naletale Khami Ziwa Leopard s Kopje Related ruins outside Zimbabwe Manyikeni a Mozambiquean archaeological site believed to be part of the Great Zimbabwe tradition of architecture Similar ruins outside Zimbabwe Blaauboschkraal stone ruins in Mpumalanga South Africa Machadodorp baKoni Ruins in Mpumalanga South Africa Engaruka in Arusha Region Tanzania Kweneng Ruins in Gauteng South Africa Mapungubwe in Limpopo South Africa Thimlich Ohinga stone ruins in Migori County Kenya MegalithsNotes Pikirayi Innocent 2013 Great Zimbabwe in Historical Archaeology Reconceptualizing Decline Abandonment and Reoccupation of an Ancient Polity A D 1450 1900 Historical Archaeology 47 26 37 doi 10 1007 BF03376887 hdl 2263 59176 S2CID 59380130 Pikirayi Innocent Sulas Federica Chirikure Shadreck Chikumbirike Joseph Sagiya Munyaradzi Elton January 2023 The Conundrum of Great Zimbabwe Journal of Urban Archaeology 7 95 114 doi 10 1484 J JUA 5 133452 ISSN 2736 2426 Retrieved 1 December 2023 a b c d e Beach David 1998 Cognitive Archaeology and Imaginary History at Great Zimbabwe Current Anthropology 39 47 72 doi 10 1086 204698 S2CID 143970768 a b Great Zimbabwe 11th 15th century Thematic Essay The Metropolitan Museum of Art Retrieved 12 January 2009 a b Great Zimbabwe African City of Stone Live Science 10 March 2017 Fleminger David 2008 Mapungubwe Cultural Landscape 30 Degrees South p 57 ISBN 978 0 9584891 5 7 a b Frederikse Julie 1990 1982 1 Before the war None But Ourselves Biddy Partridge photographer Harare Oral Traditions Association of Zimbabwe with Anvil Press pp 10 11 ISBN 0 7974 0961 0 M Sibanda H Moyana et al 1992 The African Heritage History for Junior Secondary Schools Book 1 Zimbabwe Publishing House ISBN 978 0 908300 00 6 a b c d e f Shadreck Chirikure Innocent Pikirayi 2008 Inside and outside the dry stone walls revisiting the material culture of Great Zimbabwe Antiquity 82 318 976 993 doi 10 1017 S0003598X00097726 a b Newitt M D D 2002 East Africa Vol 2 Ashgate p 39 ISBN 0754601811 Michel Lafon 1994 Shona Class 5 revisited a case against ri as Class 5 nominal prefix PDF Zambezia 21 51 80 See also Lawrence J Vale 1999 Mediated monuments and national identity Journal of Architecture 4 4 391 408 doi 10 1080 136023699373774 Garlake 1973 13 batanai 12 April 2022 ORIGIN OF SHONA AND THEIR ART Batanai batanai co za Retrieved 16 January 2024 Pikirayi 2001 p129 Summers 1970 p163 a b McCall Theal G 1900 Records of South eastern Africa Vol VI book 10 Cape Town Cape Colony Printers pp 264 273 Huffman Thomas N 2008 Climate change during the Iron Age in the Shashe Limpopo Basin southern Africa Journal of Archaeological Science 35 7 2032 2047 Bibcode 2008JArSc 35 2032H doi 10 1016 j jas 2008 01 005 a b c d Gilbert Pwiti 1991 Trade and economies in southern Africa the archaeological evidence PDF Zambezia 18 119 129 Kuklick Henrika 1991 Contested monuments the politics of archaeology in southern Africa In George W Stocking ed Colonial situations essays on the contextualization of ethnographic knowledge Univ of Wisconsin Press pp 135 170 ISBN 978 0 299 13124 1 Chirikure S et al 2017 What was the population of Great Zimbabwe CE1000 1800 PLOS ONE 12 6 e0178335 Bibcode 2017PLoSO 1278335C doi 10 1371 journal pone 0178335 PMC 5470674 PMID 28614397 Garlake 1973 27 Garlake 1973 29 Collett D P A E Vines E G Hughes 1992 The chronology of the Valley Enclosures implications for the interpretation of Great Zimbabwe African Archaeological Review 10 139 161 doi 10 1007 BF01117699 S2CID 162352596 a b Garlake 2002 158 Garlake 1973 119 figure British Museum Garlake 2002 159 162 Summers 1970 p166 Great Zimbabwe National Monument Nelson Jo 2019 Historium Big Picture Press p 10 Sibanda M 1982 The African heritage history for junior secondary schools H Moyana S D Gumbo Harare Zimbabwe Zimbabwe Educational Books ISBN 0 908300 00 X OCLC 10850697 Garlake 2002 184 185 Sutton J E G The southern Swahili harbour and town on Kilwa island 800 1800 AD a chronology of boom and slumps PDF artsrn ualberta ca Archived from the original PDF on 24 September 2021 Retrieved 14 December 2012 Gayre R 1972 The origin of the Zimbabwean Civilization Galaxie Press Rhodesia Garlake 2002 185 Karin Holmgren Helena Oberg 2006 Climate Change in Southern and Eastern Africa during the past millennium and its implications for societal development Environment Development and Sustainability 8 1573 2975 doi 10 1007 s10668 005 5752 5 S2CID 153415627 a b Gilbert Pwiti 2004 Economic change ideology and the development of cultural complexity in northern Zimbabwe Azania Archaeological Research in Africa 39 265 282 doi 10 1080 00672700409480403 S2CID 161890031 Oliver Roland Anthony Atmore 1975 Medieval Africa 1250 1800 Cambridge Cambridge University Press pp 738 ISBN 0 521 20413 5 Huffman Thomas 1972 The rise and fall of Zimbabwe The Journal of African History 13 3 353 366 doi 10 1017 S0021853700011683 S2CID 162369023 The Pioneer Head PDF Rhodesiana 19 December 1968 Oliver Roland amp Anthony Atmore 1975 Medieval Africa 1250 1800 Cambridge Cambridge University Press p 738 a b c d e f g Kaarsholm Preben 1992 The past as battlefield in Rhodesia and Zimbabwe PDF Collected Seminar Papers Institute of Commonwealth Studies 42 McCall Theal G 1900 Records of South eastern Africa Vol III Cape Town Cape Colony Printers pp 55 129 Randles W G L 1981 The Empire of Monomotapa From the Fifteenth to the Nineteenth Century Mambo Press p 5 Retrieved 16 July 2016 a b c Pikirayi Innocent The Demise of Great Zimbabwe ad 1420 1550 PDF Post Med Archaeology Archived from the original PDF on 9 August 2016 Retrieved 16 June 2016 Bohmer Bauer Kunigunde 2000 Great Zimbabwe eine ethnologische Untersuchung R Koppe p 221 ISBN 389645210X Retrieved 16 June 2016 Note double translations local language to Portuguese to English should be taken cautiously and not literally Rosenthal Eric 1966 Southern African Dictionary of National Biography London Frederick Warne p 308 OCLC 390499 Vast Ruins in South Africa The Ruined Cities of Mashonaland The New York Times 18 December 1892 p 19 Pikirayi 2001 p9 a b c Peter Tyson Mystery of Great Zimbabwe Nova Online Retrieved 12 January 2010 Peters Carl 1902 The Eldorado of the Ancients C Pearson pp 393 394 Griffith Francis Llewellyn 1903 Archaeological Report Egypt Exploration Fund p 42 Retrieved 3 May 2016 a b le Roux Magdel 2003 The Lemba A Lost Tribe of Israel in Southern Africa Pretoria University of South Africa pp 209 224 24 37 van Warmelo N J 1966 Zur Sprache und Herkunft der Lemba Hamburger Beitrage zur Afrika Kunde Deutsches Institut fur Afrika Forschung 5 273 278 281 282 David Randall MacIver 1873 1945 by David Ridgway 1984 Solomon s Mines The New York Times 14 April 1906 pp RB241 Randall MacIver David 1906 The Rhodesia Ruins their probable origins and significance The Geographical Journal 27 4 325 336 doi 10 2307 1776233 JSTOR 1776233 Ascribes Zimbabwe to African Bantus The New York Times 20 October 1929 p 2 Davidson Basil 1959 The Lost Cities of Africa Boston Little Brown pp 366 ISBN 978 0 316 17431 2 J Ki Zerbo D T Niane eds 1997 Africa from the twelfth to the sixteenth century London James Currey p 320 ISBN 978 0 85255 094 6 a b Garlake 2002 146 a b c d Huffman Thomas N J C Vogel 1991 The chronology of Great Zimbabwe The South African Archaeological Bulletin 46 154 61 70 doi 10 2307 3889086 JSTOR 3889086 a b c Huffman Thomas N 2009 Mapungubwe and Great Zimbabwe The origin and spread of social complexity in southern Africa Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 28 37 54 doi 10 1016 j jaa 2008 10 004 Garlake 1982 34 Garlake 1982 10 Garlake Peter 1978 Pastoralism and Zimbabwe The Journal of African History 19 4 479 493 doi 10 1017 S0021853700016431 S2CID 162491076 Loubser Jannie H N 1989 Archaeology and early Venda history Goodwin Series 6 54 61 doi 10 2307 3858132 JSTOR 3858132 Evers T M Thomas Huffman Simiyu Wandibba 1988 On why pots are decorated the way they are Current Anthropology 29 5 739 741 doi 10 1086 203694 JSTOR 2743612 S2CID 145283490 Summers 1970 p195 Summers 1970 p164 Ndoro W and Pwiti G 1997 Marketing the past The Shona village at Great Zimbabwe Conservation and Management of Archaeological Sites 2 3 3 8 Beach D N 1994 A Zimbabwean past Shona dynastic histories and oral traditions Huffman Thomas N 2009 Mapungubwe and Great Zimbabwe The origin and spread of social complexity in southern Africa Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 28 37 54 doi 10 1016 j jaa 2008 10 004 Nelson Jo 2019 Historium Big Picture Press p 10 Summers 1970 p35 Chikuhwa Jacob W October 2013 Zimbabwe The End of the First Republic Author House p 19 ISBN 978 1 4918 7967 2 Copson Raymond W 1 January 2006 Zimbabwe Background and Issues Nova Publishers p 43 ISBN 978 1 60021 176 8 Isichei Elizabeth Allo A History of African Societies to 1870 Cambridge University Press 1997 ISBN 978 0521455992 page 435 Garlake 2002 Garlake 1973 Garlake 1982 Beach David N 1990 Publishing the Past Progress in the Documents from the Portuguese Series Zambezia Vol 17 No 2 1990 pp 175 183 Beach David N 1999 Pre colonial History Demographic Disaster and the University Zambezia Vol 26 No 1 1999 pp 5 33 Huffman Thomas N 05 1985 The Soapstone Birds from Great Zimbabwe Archived 5 July 2012 at the Wayback Machine African Arts Vol 18 No 3 May 1985 pp 68 73 amp 99 100 Pwiti Gilbert 1996 Continuity and change an archaeological study of farming communities in northern Zimbabwe AD 500 1700 Studies in African Archaeology No 13 Department of Archaeology Uppsala University Uppsala Ndoro W and Pwiti G 1997 Marketing the past The Shona village at Great Zimbabwe Conservation and Management of Archaeological Sites 2 3 3 8 Beach D N 1994 A Zimbabwean past Shona dynastic histories and oral traditions a b c Webber Ndoro 1994 The preservation and presentation of Great Zimbabwe Antiquity 68 260 616 623 doi 10 1017 S0003598X00047128 S2CID 161099034 Joost Fontein 2006 Closure at Great Zimbabwe Local Narratives of Desecration and Alienation Journal of Southern African Studies 32 4 771 794 doi 10 1080 03057070600995723 S2CID 143105508 Hall Martin 1984 The Burden of Tribalism The Social Context of Southern African Iron Age Studies American Antiquity 49 3 455 467 doi 10 2307 280354 JSTOR 280354 S2CID 153807869 Pikirayi 2001 p11 Caton Thompson 1931 The Zimbabwe Culture ruins and reactions Clarendon Press Garlake 2002 23 Ucko 1995 37 Garlake 2002 24 De Baets Antoon 2002 Censorship of Historical Thought a World Guide 1945 2000 PDF London Greenwood Press pp 621 625 ISBN 0 313 31193 5 Archived from the original PDF on 27 March 2009 Garlake 2002 23 25 K Nyamayaro Mufuka K Muzvidzwa J Nemerai 1983 Dzimbahwe Life and Politics in the Golden Age 1100 1500 A D Harare Publishing House p 58 Garlake Peter 1984 Ken Mufuka and Great Zimbabwe Antiquity 58 121 23 SourcesGarlake Peter 1973 Great Zimbabwe New Aspects of Archaeology London Thames amp Hudson ISBN 978 0 8128 1599 3 Garlake Peter 1982 Great Zimbabwe Harare Zimbabwe Publishing House ISBN 978 0 949932 18 1 Garlake Peter 2002 Early Art and Architecture of Africa Oxford Oxford University Press ISBN 0 19 284261 7 Matenga Edward 2008 Soapstone Birds of Great Zimbabwe Symbols of a Nation Harare African Publishing Group ISBN 978 1 77901 135 0 Pikirayi Innocent 2001 The Zimbabwe culture origins and decline of southern Zambezian states Rowman Altamira ISBN 978 0 7591 0091 6 Summers Roger 1970 The Rhodesian Iron Age In J D Fage Roland Oliver eds Papers in African Prehistory Cambridge Cambridge University Press ISBN 978 0 521 09566 2 Ucko Peter J 1995 Theory in Archaeology A World Perspective Routledge ISBN 978 0 203 97328 8 External links nbsp Wikimedia Commons has media related to Great Zimbabwe nbsp Wikivoyage has a travel guide for Great Zimbabwe Great Zimbabwe Ruins Great Zimbabwe entry on the UNESCO World Heritage site Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Great Zimbabwe amp oldid 1199028989, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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