Great Zimbabwe

World Prehistory: Class 14

Great Zimbabwe

The first European to visit Great Zimbabwe was a German geologist, Carl Mauch, in 1871. He said:

"I do not think that I am far wrong if I suppose that the ruin on the hill is a copy of Solomon's Temple on Mount Moriah and the building in the plain of copy of the palace where the Queen of Sheba lived during her visit to Solomon."

Setting of Zimbabwe Plateau

physical setting

high plateau, mostly over 1000 m elevation (3,250 feet)
on eastern edge of Kalahari desert, bounded to east by a scarp dropping to the coastal plain and the Indian Ocean
rolling plains with granite outcrops
some deeply incised river valleys

ecology/agriculture

very variable soil, from rich to poor
in general, trees scattered in grassy savanna
cool, plenty of rain; an attractive environment
good pasturage for cattle and sheep
good conditions for sorghum, millet, beans, and squash
relatively frequent "bad" years, maybe one in five, call for risk-minimizing strategies like keeping large herds, or...?

the eastern portion, where the Zimbabwe-type sites are, is for climatic regions an "island" free of tsetse flies, which in surrounding areas kill both livestock and people

Their bite transmits trypanosomes, a category of protozoan blood parasites, which cause "sleeping sickness" and other diseases
sleeping sickness causes fever, protracted lethargy, tremors, loss of weight, and death

other resources

gold, both alluvial and hard-rock "quartz reefs"

lots of "ancient" mines found in the European gold rush of 1894
1267 pre-European workings known, mostly destroyed by recent mining
vertical, sloping, and horizontal shafts, up to 25 m (81 feet) deep!

also iron, copper, and tin (essential for making bronze, and highly valued)
granite with a characteristic way of fracturing into flat slabs (exfoliation caused by humidity and freezing, as at Yosemite)

exfoliation could also be caused artificially by lighting a fire on the surface, then dousing it with water

clay called "daga" suited to building; dries to a cement-like hardness
soapstone for carvings
elephants for ivory

Dating

Much more recent than anything we have looked at so far
Portuguese merchants had trading posts along the Zambezi river to the north; they got second-hand information in the early 1500s clearly describing Great Zimbabwe and indicating that it was already abandoned and the locals did not know who built it

i.e. gone by 1500.

people built these stone structures from about 1250 AD to 1450 AD.

300's AD: First farmers settled in the area

grinding equipment suggests grain farming, probably sorghum and millet
sheep and goats
still some hunting and foraging, as expectable
permanent villages in non-defensible locations
already making iron tools locally in many villages

arrow points, knives, beads, rings
note that subsaharan African technology had gone straight from neolithic to iron age, without intervening period using copper and bronze

plus limited use of copper for beads and ornaments
occasional glass beads, marine shell suggest broad exchange networks that already moved goods from the east coast and elsewhere to the interior

1000 -1250 AD: Leopard's Kopje culture

this culture was apparently that of cattle pastoralists who moved in from the south

cattle are good stores of wealth

easily counted, evaluated, bought, and sold
easy to move around

pastoralists commonly develop considerable variations in wealth

farming continued

with addition of bananas, introduced from Indonesia via Arab sea traders

the Leopard's Kopje culture seems to have been directly ancestral to that of the inhabitants of the Great Enclosure

1250 - 1450 AD Great Zimbabwe

Some authors call the builders of Great Zimbabwe "Karanga", after the later, historical group in the region

the builders of Great Zimbabwe were clearly their ancestors, but not everyone agrees with considering them the same culture and polity

Zimbabwe building style

dry stone walls (that is, stones are stacked without mortar)
relatively wide and low
sites may have one to several enclosures
may be carefully coursed dressed stone, or poorly coursed raw rock

"courses" are the horizontal rows of stones or bricks in masonry

sometimes has decorative chevron, herringbone, etc. patterns, or bands of darker colored stone
often with pillars or stelae (tall, standing stones)
elaborate doorways extended by "bastions" on inside, with curved steps to a raised threshold
the stone enclosures usually had daga structures with thatch roofs inside

daga was molded into decorative patterns and finished to a hard, almost polished surface
many of the stone walls may have been daga-plastered up to about 2 m high

often the smaller stone walls connected circular daga huts, forming courtyards

so to understand the plan, you have to add the now-melted huts back into the gaps between the standing stone wall segments

Great Zimbabwe

by far the largest of the Zimbabwe-type sites
hilltop "Hill Ruin" or "Acropolis"

clustered around boulders atop the precipitous hill
mostly small enclosures separated by narrow, twisting passages
also the "Western Enclosure" at one end, with walls 9 m (29 feet) high, with turrets and monoliths

contained a long sequence of daga structures
4 m deep of accumulated deposits
room for estimated 14 houses (i.e. a small group of high-status people or families)

the smaller "Eastern Enclosure"

decorative wall enclosing a steep slope that had been terraced
on the terraces were stood many soapstone bird stelae and other monoliths
presumably for ritual purposes

Great Enclosure

maximum diameter 89 m (290 feet) (almost a football field)
outer wall up to 5 m thick and 10 m high (16 feet thick X 32 feet high)
some inner walls may be earlier, indicating expansion work
contains the solid conical tower, 5.5 m diameter, 9 m high (18 feet D X 29 feet high)
also contained daga structures

extensive area of densely packed huts outside the Great Enclosure
numerous smaller enclosures scattered around
population estimated around 5,000 adults, or 10,000 to 18,000 people!
image of packed huts with smooth clay walls and thatched roofs, hanging smoke, landscape trampled bare and dusty, lots of cattle and flies...

other sites

Great Zimbabwe is NOT a unique site, although it is the biggest of its type; there are many others

estimated 150 ruins in Zimbabwe and following Khami style still exist
estimated up to 50 more were destroyed since 1890s.
still more have been found outside the Zimbabwe Plateau

stone enclosures around daga houses, probably for ten to thirty people maximum

probably these were upper class, with common people living around and partially supporting them

in one case (few have been excavated), one daga structure seemed to be an audience hall, with a place for an important person to sit, backed by symbols of authority in an attached, secluded room
pottery tended to be fancy, with a high proportion of imports
pottery was mostly liquid serving vessels, not cooking or food serving
that is, these "houses" inside the stone walls were apparently used for a lot of drinking from showy, expensive vessels, not domestic activities
the outlying daga houses have been noted but not excavated
except in one case (Manekweni)

the bones in garbage from inside the enclosure were dominated by cattle bones

remember, in a cattle pastoralist society, beef = wealth

while the bones in garbage from outside were dominated by sheep, goat, and game

also suggestions now of smaller sites without any stone architecture

indicates a settlement hierarchy, from capital to secondary center to agricultural village
i.e. a state!

subsistence

cattle, sheep, goat pastoralism

livestock may have been more for storage (risk management) and accumulation of negotiable wealth

bone from the slopes below the "Acropolis" was overwhelmingly cattle, with a little sheep or goat

over 75% killed while still immature: i.e. veal

at several other sites, similar patterns: mostly cattle, a little sheep or goat and occasional game

but note, these are always the people living in stone enclosures: the elite
may also have to do with rituals by the elite

carbonized seeds show use of

grains: sorghum, millet
various beans, peas ("cowpeas" = black-eye peas)

livestock may have been more for storage (risk management) and accumulation of negotiable wealth

craft production

mining (see above)
metalwork at Great Zimbabwe: gold, copper, bronze, iron

iron most developed

hoes, axes, spear and arrow points, knives, etc.
iron gongs

copper, bronze, and gold used for decorative items

coiled wire bracelets, beads, etc.

done in certain enclosures only, suggesting specialized production, maybe under some form of control

pottery
soapstone carving (bowls, stelae, figurines, molds, etc.)
spindle whorls suggest spinning (cotton) and weaving
i.e. probably some occupational specialization

trade

imports

glass beads (at least one cache of tens of thousands!)
glass vessels from Southwest Asia
Persian and Chinese ceramics, 13th-14th century
brass wire (brass was not made locally; it requires zinc)
a coin from Kilwa (an Arab town on the coast)

i.e. trade via east coast
also extensive trade network within Africa

large amounts of iron (one cache of 30 kg of iron wire, 100 kg of hoes, axes, and chisels)
copper ingots from the northern part of the plateau
cowrie shells from the coast
styles and techniques from remote areas

social stratification

housing differences
density of houses outside the enclosures 3 times that of houses inside
diet differences at Manekweni (cattle inside, sheep/goat outside)
diet of young cattle at Acropolis of Great Zimbabwe
ability to control labor to build stone walls
elite goods found within enclosures

imported ceramics, glass, brass (see above)

some in huge caches, as in 10s of thousands of glass beads

gold
copper, bronze
soapstone
lack of cooking vessels and grinding stones (i.e. few domestic activities inside)
almost total emphasis on liquid storage and drinking vessels

total estimated population of all known stone enclosures: 750, vs. tens of thousands living outside

Explanations for the rise of Great Zimbabwe

Suggestion that it was based on gold trade with the outside, world market. According to this view:

hard-rock gold mining developed around 1000 AD
as a response to the large demand for gold and goods traded for it by the outside world, which was already organized on a state and market scheme

through Arab traders on the east coast

This trade could be controlled by existing leaders, who became wealthier and more powerful, creating the Zimbabwe state.
Evidence for this view:

Great Zimbabwe appeared just when Arab trading was picking up on the East Coast
and it was abandoned just when the East Coast trading centers and the Arab trade declined

suggests a close economic relationship

i.e. "The Zimbabwe Culture can be described as an indigenous reaction to an external stimulus--the East Coast gold trade" (Huffman 1977 in Connah 1987)
lots of evidence of trade
huge amount of gold extracted from the region

"conservative" estimates of 7 to 9 million ounces of gold before 1890
at current price ($382/oz), that is 2.6 to 3.4 BILLION dollars
most of this probably dates to the time of Great Zimbabwe, and much of it would have passed through there.
Imagine the impact of this much wealth on a pastoral economy!
And this says nothing of the parallel trades in ivory, textiles, and probably other goods.

undoubtedly trade is not the entire explanation, but it must have played a big role

quite possibly an essential one
external trade may have allowed a flourishing of an already existing internal trade network

suggestion that Great Zimbabwe was based as much on transhumant cattle pastoralism (using the coastal plain, then retreating in the tsetse fly season) as on gold

cattle were easy to trade and count

ritual/religion probably played a role, although difficult to say it was causal

stelae
"Acropolis"

Note that despite the walls, warfare is NOT suggested as important

most sites are not in particularly defensible positions
simple entrances have no specifically defensive features
no preponderance of weapons
no evidence of barracks, etc.
This is in contrast to many, if not most, other states around the world, including other African ones

1450 - 1700s

Great Zimbabwe was abandoned
the kingdom continued as the historical Mwene Mutapa, a division of the Karanga

centered to the north, along the Zambezi river
known because they traded with the Portuguese starting in the 1500s.
the ancestors of the modern Shona

stonework continued in the south-western part of the plateau
extensive terracing, decorative retaining walls, drains, etc.

Explaining the decline of Great Zimbabwe

probably due to overuse of the landscape

increasing distance to firewood
exhaustion of soil
depletion of wildlife

and shifting trade circumstances

the decline of the gold trade due to falling world prices and depletion of easily exploited sources
possibly the shift to more demand for copper, available to the north