Great Zimbabwe
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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 in present-day Zimbabwe which was once the centre of a vast empire known as the Munhumutapa Empire (also called Monomotapa Empire). This empire ruled territory now falling within the modern states of Zimbabwe (which took its name from this city) and Mozambique.
Great Zimbabwe is modern Zimbabwe's national shrine, where the Zimbabwe Bird (a national symbol of Zimbabwe) was found. It is currently an archeological site.
Name
Great Zimbabwe 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 two schools of thought. It could be short form for "ziimba remabwe", a Shona (dialect: chiKaranga) term, which means "the great or big house built of stones". A second theory is that Zimbabwe is a contracted form of "dzimba woye" which means "venerated houses," a term usually reserved for chiefs' houses or graves. Most of the original architecture has been destroyed by age and to a large extent by excavations done in the belief that the complex had some hidden mineral wealth.Description
Built consistently throughout the period from the 11th century to the 15th century[link], 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. Built entirely of stone (those parts that survive), 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:
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.
not present -->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.
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.
European interpretations
Portuguese traders were the first Europeans to visit the remains of the ancient city in the early 16th century. In the 19th century, the ruins were found by Adam Renders in 1868 and reported on by Karl Mauch in 1871. They became well known to English readers from J. Theodore Bent's season at Zimbabwe, under Rhodes' patronage.
Bent, whose archaeological experience had all been in Greece and Asia Minor, stated in The Ruined Cities of Mashonaland (1892) that the ruins revealed the Phoenicians as builders. Mauch favoured a legend that the structures were built by the Queen of Sheba. 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-Sarahan-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. During the late 1920s, Gertrude Caton-Thompson proved conclusively the site was indeed of African origin. Since then artifacts and radiocarbon dating have proved that the oldest remains date back to the 1200s. Nowadays most archaeologists accept that the builders were probably one of the Shona-speaking peoples; the Lemba, a Shona-speaking tribe living along the border between Zimbabwe and South Africa, claim Great Zimbabwe and other stone cities in east Africa as part of their legacy.
Effect on the political climate
Despite this evidence, the official line in colonial Rhodesia was that the structures were built by non-blacks. Paul Sinclair wrote in None But Ourselves [1]:
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.
Image gallery
See also
Footnotes
1
References
Further reading
External links
- Great Zimbabwe entry on the [UNESCO World Heritage site]
- Ampim, Manu. ["Great Zimbabwe: A History Almost Forgotten"]. Retrieved 18 April 2006.
- Tyson, Peter. ["Mystery of Great Zimbabwe"]. Retrieved 18 April 2006.
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