Great Zimbabwe

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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

Great Zimbabwe is the name given to the remains, sometimes referred to as the Great Zimbabwe Ruins, of an ancient Southern African city, located at 20°16′S 30°54′E in present-day Zimbabwe which was once the centre of a vast empire known as the Munhumutapa Empire (also called Monomotapa or Mwene Mutapa Empire). This empire ruled territory now falling within the modern states of Zimbabwe (which took its name from this city) and Mozambique. They traded with the world via ports such as Sofala south of the Zambezi Delta.

Great Zimbabwe is modern Zimbabwe's national shrine, where the Zimbabwe Bird (a national symbol of Zimbabwe) was found. It is currently an archaeological site.

[edit] Name

Great Zimbabwe, or "houses of stone", is the name given to hundreds of great stone ruins spread out over a 200 square mile area within the modern day country of Zimbabwe, which itself is named after the ruins. The origin of the word Zimbabwe is not known, but there are three schools of thought.

In the first theory, the word "Zimbabwe" could be a short form for "ziimba remabwe" or "ziimba rebwe", a Shona (dialect: chi Karanga) term, which means "the great or big house built of stone boulders". In the Karanga dialect of the Shona language, "imba" means "a house" or "a building" and "ziimba", or "zimba", mean "a huge/big building or house". The word "bwe" or "ibwe" (singular, plural being "mabwe") in the Karanga dialect means "a stone boulder". Thus, a linguistic analysis of the word "Zimbabwe" clearly indicates that the origin of the word refers to the ancient city of Great Zimbabwe whose huge buildings were built of stone boulders. It should be noted that the Karanga-speaking Shona people are found around Great Zimbabwe in the modern-day province of Masvingo and have been known to have inhabited the region since the building of this ancient city

A second theory is that Zimbabwe is a contracted form of "dzimba woye" which means "venerated houses" in the Zezuru dialect of the Shona language. This term is usually reserved for chiefs' houses or graves. It should also be noted that the Zezuru-speaking Shona people are found to the North-East of Great Zimbabwe, some 500 Km away.

A third theory is that Zimbabwe comes from the Shona "dzimba dza mabwe" meaning houses of stone, refering to the ruins of Great Zimbabwe

The first theory could be said to have the advantage of a linguistic analysis that produces an outcome that ties in with the physical nature of the Ancient City of Great Zimbabwe and that is based on the language in use today among the people who are known to have inhabited the ancient city and are found in the surrounding area today. The second theory of the origin of the name "Zimbabwe" brings in the concept of veneration of the ancient city which is known to be associated with Great Zimbabwe as a religious centre and a national shrine. However, a linguistice analysis would seem not to be as sound as that of the first theory. The lack of proximity of the Zezuru-speaking Shona people to the Great Zimbabwe seems to further weaken the second theory. Further to this, the veneration of Great Zimbabwe as a shrine or religious centre seems to have started sometime after its inhabitants deserted the ancient city for reasons historians have found difficult to determine with speculation associating it with over-population and disease. Hence, the attribute of "veneration" could not be said to be as permanent and all-time as the attribute of the city's buildings being built from "mabwe" or "huge stone boulders". The Zezuru theory of "dzimba woye" could be said to be close in sound to a 16th century Portuguese explorer's rendering in "Symbaoe". However, reliance on a linguistic analysis of the language that is closely associated in space and time to the original builders of Great Zimbabwe would appear more reasonable and sound than a reliance on a foreign rendering of an indigenous language. The Portuguese explorer figured out that the name was given to the buildings and that its meaning in the local language was "court", which could be considered to be close to the second Zezuru theory. However, the first theory does not exclude veneration, "court" or "chief's house", since in Shona culture "stone boulders" around Great Zimbabwe and elsewhere in Zimbabwe were/are associated with the chief's courts, veneration and religious shrines, for instance, there is today a "venerated" stone boulder "Dombo raMwari" (Stone of God). "Dombo" is the Zezuru word for "bwe" or "ibwe". There is also a place called "Chibwedziva", which also indicate a culture of venerating stone structures. Also, the veteran politician, the late Joshua Nkomo, was given the name "Chibwechitedza", which means "the slippery stone or rock". Hence, the word "Zimbabwe" could still have the meaning "huge house of stone" and yet still be attributed with veneration, the chief's court or grave.

[edit] Description

Built consistently throughout the period from the 11th century to the 15th century[1], the ruins at Great Zimbabwe are some of the oldest and largest structures located in Sub-Saharan Africa. At its peak, estimates are that the ruins of Great Zimbabwe had as many as 18,000 inhabitants. The ruins that survive are built entirely of stone. The ruins span 1,800 acres (7 km²) and cover a radius of 100 to 200 miles (160 to 320 km).

In 1531, Viçente Pegado, Captain of the Portuguese Garrison of Sofala, described Zimbabwe thus:

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.

The ruins can be broken down into three distinct architectural groups. They are known as the Hill Complex, the Valley Complex and the famous Great Enclosure. Over 300 structures have been located so far in the Great Enclosure. The type of stone structures found on the site give an indication of the status of the citizenry. Structures that were more elaborate were built for the kings and situated further away from the center of the city. It is thought that this was done in order to escape sleeping sickness.

What little evidence exists suggests that Great Zimbabwe also became a centre for trading, with artifacts suggesting that the city formed part of a trade network extending as far as China. Chinese pottery shards, coins from Arabia, glass beads and other non-local items have been excavated at Zimbabwe.

Nobody knows for sure why the site was eventually abandoned. Perhaps it was due to drought, perhaps due to disease or it simply could be that the decline in the gold trade forced the people who inhabited Great Zimbabwe to look for greener pastures. It is fairly easy to navigate these ruins as there are two paths going up it, the ancient path which is more difficult and the modern path which was made to make it easier to go up. In the middle of the main ruins there is a wishing hut erected there.

[edit] European interpretations

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

Portuguese traders were the first Europeans to visit the remains of the ancient city in the early 16th century. The ruins were rediscovered during a hunting trip by Adam Renders in 1867, who then showed the ruins to Karl Mauch in 1871. They became well known to English readers from J. Theodore Bent's season at Zimbabwe, under Cecil Rhodes' patronage.

Bent, whose archaeological experience had all been in Greece and Asia Minor, stated in The Ruined Cities of Mashonaland (1891) that the ruins revealed either the Phoenicians or the Arabs as builders. Mauch favoured a legend that the structures were built to replicate the palace of the Queen of Sheba in Jerusalem.^[1] Other theories as to their origin abounded among white settlers and academics, with one element in common: they could not have been built by black people; they must have had some Mediterranean or other non-sub-Saharan-African connection. This can be explained by prominent sociopolitical views at the time. African cultures were viewed as devoid of civilization by the European colonizers; the idea of Great Zimbabwe originating from a primarily black African culture went against this racist view.

The first scientific archaeological excavations at the site were undertaken in by David Randall-MacIver in 1905-1906. He wrote in Medieval Rhodesia of the existence in the site of objects that were of African origin.^[2] In 1929, Gertrude Caton-Thompson was the first to conclusively state that the site was indeed created by Africans.^[3] Since then artifacts and radiocarbon dating have proved that the oldest remains date back to the 1200s. Nowadays archaeologists agree that the builders were probably one of the Shona-speaking peoples; the Lemba, a Shona-speaking tribe (who claim ancient Jewish descent) living along the border between Zimbabwe and South Africa, claim Great Zimbabwe and other stone cities in east Africa as part of their legacy. Some have postulated that Zimbabwe was the work of the Gokomere people, who gave rise to both the waRozwi tribe, whose modern descendants are called baRotse, and the maShona people. Certain features of Swahili architecture on the East Coast resemble those at Zimbabwe, in particular the great tower.

[edit] Effect on the political climate

Despite this evidence, the official line in colonial Rhodesia was that the structures were built by non-blacks. According to Paul Sinclair, interviewed for None But Ourselves:^[4]

I was the archaeologist stationed at Great Zimbabwe. I was told by the then-director of the Museums and Monuments organization 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 pressurizing 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.

The Zimbabwe Bird, depicted in Zimbabwe's flag

To black anti-colonialist groups, Great Zimbabwe became an important symbol of achievement by black Africans. Reclaiming its history was a major aim for those wanting independence. In 1980 the newly independent country was renamed for the site, and its famous soapstone bird carvings became a national symbol, depicted in the country's flag.

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 has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1986.

[edit] Image gallery

The conical tower inside the Great Enclosure.

The Hill Complex.

[edit] See also

• History of Zimbabwe
• Nyanga, Zimbabwe
• Ziwa
• Dhlo-Dhlo
• Khami
• List of World Heritage Sites in Africa

[edit] Footnotes

[edit] References

• Ndoro, Webber (November 1997). ""Great Zimbabwe"". Scientific American: –.

[edit] Further reading

• Garlake, Peter S (1972). Great Zimbabwe. London: Thames & Hudson.

[edit] External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Great Zimbabwe

• Great Zimbabwe entry on the UNESCO World Heritage site
• Pictures of Great Zimbabwe
• Ampim, Manu. "Great Zimbabwe: A History Almost Forgotten". Retrieved 18 April 2006.
• Tyson, Peter. "Mystery of Great Zimbabwe". Retrieved 18 April 2006.