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The Zimbabwe Tradition and Nyanga Archaeological Complex: Sources

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DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.1.3032.1044

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 Archaeological, historical and anthropological sources

on

GREAT ZIMBABWE

and

THE NYANGA
ARCHAEOLOGICAL COMPLEX

A research project in partial fulfillment of the requirements of “Aluka”, a

new initiative by Ithaka (www.ithaka.org) to create an online archive of
international scholarly resources on African Cultural Sites and Landscapes

© Innocent Pikirayi, PhD

Senior Lecturer in Archaeology
University of Pretoria
 Archaeological, historical and anthropological sources
on
GREAT ZIMBABWE
and
THE NYANGA ARCHAEOLOGICAL COMPLEX
Innocent Pikirayi
Senior Lecturer in Archaeology
University Pretoria

Table of contents

Section Page

1. Introduction to Great Zimbabwe………………………………………………………………..3

2. Guide to the literature on Great Zimbabwe…………………………………………………….6
3. Sources on Great Zimbabwe……………………………………………………..……………17
4. Introduction to the Nyanga archaeological complex……………………………………….…35
5. Guide to literature on the Nyanga archaeological complex………………………………...…38
6. Sources on the Nyanga archaeological complex……………………………………………...41

Annex

1. About the author………………………………………………………………………………53

2
 SECTION 1: Introduction to Great Zimbabwe

Description of the site

The Zimbabwe plateau lies between the Zambezi and Limpopo rivers, the Kalahari grassland
savannah to the west and the Nyanga and Chimanimani mountains to the east. These mountains
interrupt the plateau, which ranges 1200-1500 m above sea level, and continues further
eastwards into the Mozambican Costal Plains. The Zambezi, Limpopo and Save rivers carve
major lowland areas, and define adjacent low lying regions, generally less than 500 m above sea
level. The geology, dominated by grano-diorites, gives rise to batholiths, whaleback and conical
hills. The weathering of their rock has been exploited since the early second millennium AD, as
stone could easily be shaped into building materials and used in the construction of residences.
These dzimba dzemabwe or zimbabwe or houses of stone became the centres of political power
and by the 16th century, such centres, whether constructed out of stone or not, had become
synonymous with royalty. The vegetation is primarily miombo woodland, with Julbernardia and
Brachystegia occupying moist higher altitudes, while Colophosphermum mopane grows in the
lower and drier basins. These environments provided cattle grazing and teemed with wild
animals such as elephant and a variety of antelopes. The soils, ranging from iron rich ferric
luvisols to sandy loams, were cultivated for sorghum, finger millet, cowpeas and groundnuts.
The plateau also had iron, copper and gold deposits, whose minerals were exploited and used to
great advantage by traders, chiefs and kings. Together with ivory, gold opened the Zimbabwe
plateau to the commercial world of the Indian Ocean, and from the early 16th century onwards,
Portuguese attempts to wrestle control of this gold trade eventually saw early European
settlement in southern Africa.
Despite these advantages, a major constraining factor is the uneven rainfall distribution,
with lower altitude regions receiving less than 400 mm per annum, compared with over 1500
mm for the higher altitudes. Even so, this pattern is not consistent, as droughts and aridity is a
recurring feature. Significant periods of aridity have been noted during the last 1000 years,
which triggered large-scale abandonment of drought prone regions. Social formations such as
chiefdoms and states arose as a collective response towards these constraints, and this was
largely achieved through the control of the key resources such as salt, cattle, ivory, gold and
grain. Cattle played a significant role in Iron Age ideology and economy and by about 1000 AD,
those with the capacity to rear large herds attained social advantage, exercising control over
other peoples. Some of their wealth, generated by trade was invested in monumental
architecture. These public buildings reflected communal participation in projects initiated at the
level above the homestead and the village, artistic skill and innovation. Religion and ritual may
not have been prime movers in state formation, but played an important part in the development
of socio-political systems. Leaders may have exercised the role of mediators, embodying the
hopes and aspirations of their followers. Religion became an effective instrument for binding
people into an interdependent political union.

The rise and development of Great Zimbabwe and its culture

The story of Great Zimbabwe begins some 300 km to the south, in the middle Shashe-Limpopo
valley, following the demise of the state based at Mapungubwe (1220-1280). Mapungubwe,
whose wealth was enhanced by trade in gold, ivory, animal skins, cloth and glass beads with the
Swahili coast, declined following the abandonment of the region due to climate change. Iron Age
farmers akin to early Karanga speakers developed chiefdom-level of social organization as seen
at Chivowa and Gumanye hills in south-central Zimbabwe. They transformed themselves from
simple kin-warranted domestic corporations relying mainly on land and cattle, to long distance
traders. With this newly acquired wealth, they financed the building of stonewalling. By about
3
1270, a wealthy elite emerged at Great Zimbabwe, which laid the foundations of an elaborate
urban complex and the centre of a state. From about 1300 stone buildings of a scale and
magnitude unparalleled on the entire Zimbabwe plateau were constructed.
With the demise of Mapungubwe during the late 13th century, Great Zimbabwe became
the most dominant political authority south of the Zambezi. It presided over a state covering the
southern half of the Zimbabwe plateau, but its influence was felt over much of the region
including the Indian Ocean Swahili coast.
Great Zimbabwe reached its peak during the 14th and 15th centuries when elaborate
stonewalling was extended towards outlying areas. Stonewalls symbolized wealth, prestige and
status. With population of about 18000, Great Zimbabwe was more than an oversized African
village. At its fluorescence it was one of the largest cities in sub-Saharan Africa. It was a city, a
southern African one, but a metropolis nonetheless. Composed of elite residences, ritual centres,
public forums, markets, houses of commoners and artisans, it covered more than 700 hectares.
The earliest settlement linked with the first stonewalls was the complex built on a
whaleback hill (The Hill Complex). Here, two large enclosures and intervening intermediate
enclosures built as an extension to the natural granite boulders, define the living spaces for
royalty. A ritual spearhead, iron gongs and soapstone bird effigies point attests to the existence
of a ruling elite. Commoner settlements are found at the base of the hill, enclosed within a
perimeter wall, but soon the population became too large to be retained inside it. With the
expansion of the settlement, royalty shifted to the more elaborately built elliptical enclosure (The
Great Enclosure), the largest single stone-built structure in southern Africa, with a girdle wall
244 m long, 5 m wide and 10 m high. It enclosed a number of smaller enclosures inside. The
destructive activities of antiquarian investigators makes it difficult to determine how this massive
structure was utilized, but it is evident that that it represents the peak of development of Great
Zimbabwe both as a town and as a centre of a powerful state. Five enclosure complexes to the
northeast and east were built in a nearby valley this time (The Valley), but seem to have arisen to
prominence towards the terminal phases of the settlement. A second perimeter wall attests to the
continuously growing city. Stone enclosures on the periphery of the main area of settlement
probably housed members of the ruling family, or catered for the increased administrative
functions of the metropolis. Historical process based on Karanga political succession and
territorial control may explain the development of Great Zimbabwe as a city and centre of a
state. It was organized around a principal lineage, associated with the city itself and sites beyond.
A sacred leadership presided over a well-defined political and settlement hierarchy. Each
zimbabwe had impressive stone-built monumental architecture, specialized in domestic crafts,
trade in gold, ivory, cloth and glass beads with the Indian Ocean coast, and attached importance
to cattle and grain farming.
Great Zimbabwe rulers appear to have exercised political control as far as the Save River
to the east and the Shashe-Tuli rivers in present-day eastern Botswana to the west. The state was
sustained by subsistence agriculture, livestock management, and through the domination of trade
networks over a large portion of the plateau as an adjunct to its connection with the Swahili
towns on the Indian Ocean coast.
The zimbabwe beyond the borders of the state in non-Karanga territory such as those
located at the eastern edge of the Suwa Pan in eastern Botswana and Manyikeni on the
Mozambican Coastal Plains probably represent further royal expansion to take advantage of the
lucrative trade networks, ostensibly at the expense of Great Zimbabwe itself. This trade involved
gold, copper, iron, salt, wild game cattle and grain. Expansion into non-Karanga territory
overshadowed the centre, and 16th century historical sources indicate that rival chiefdoms arose
in the peripheral areas of the state following this development.

Decline, 1450-1550

4
The decline of Great Zimbabwe as a centre of a powerful prehistoric state remains an unresolved
archaeological problem. This is largely due to the unsystematic investigations of late 19th/early
20th century European antiquarians and prospectors, who destroyed its stratigraphy and looted it
in search of Near Eastern artifacts and gold. Systematic research from the 1950s onwards has
resolved the chronology of the site and identity of the builders, but circumstances leading to the
decline of the site remain obscure.
Great Zimbabwe was abandoned by the middle of the 15th century. The shift in the gold
trade from the south-central regions towards the northern Zimbabwe plateau is one possibility.
The development of Ingombe Ilede, a trading emporium on the Zambezi, posed serious
challenges to Great Zimbabwe, which until then controlled the hinterland gold trade channelled
into the interior through Sofala. Since then, the Zambezi River became the preferred inland
route. Great Zimbabwe's expansionary thrusts to control the gold trade undermined it’s political
control over the plateau as this spawned new states. Environmental degradation is another
possibility as it impacted negatively on the site.
With the demise of Great Zimbabwe, two competing polities emerged in the northern and
western areas of the plateau. Khami, Danangombe, Zinjanja and Naletale are elaborately
decorated zimbabwe of the Torwa-Changamire states (1450-1830) which dominated the south-
western acacia and mopane woodlands. The Changamire dynasty, which successfully managed
to stem Portuguese advance on the plateau during the 18th century, was subdued by the Nguni in
the early 19th century. The Mutapa state dominated the fertile and auriferous northern plateau
margins near Mt Fura, as indicated by stonewalled zimbabwe at Zvongombe, Ngome,
Chomagora, and Ruanga, and non-stone walled centres such as Baranda. It lost the plateau to
Portuguese conquistadores during the 17th century, but continued the stone building canon
further north on the Zambezi Escarpment and adjacent basin. It was finally defeated by
Portuguese prazo (estate) holders in the late 19th century.

5
 SECTION 2: Guide to the literature on Great Zimbabwe

Few places in Africa have been subjected to as much investigation and speculation as Great
Zimbabwe and the cultures associated with it. The site and the cultures that developed from its
decline have been subjected to a variety of interpretations, some based on systematic fieldwork
and solid theory, but still much on wishful thinking.

Early Arabic/Muslim sources

A number of Arabic sources relating to the Zimbabwe interior are available but brief in terms of
content (see for example Randles 1975, pp. 9-10, Brullau 1989). The three sailing manuals of Ibn
Madjid (retired in 1495, died in 1501) written possibly between 1475 and 1489 with a few
additions by his successors give some indications on the extent of knowledge regarding the
hinterland of the Sofala region during the second half of the 15th century and possibly earlier. It
has been suggested that the sources might be referring to the land of "Butua" (?south-central
Zimbabwe) and the territory around Khami, one of the successors of Great Zimbabwe to the
west. This is the time when Great Zimbabwe was in decline, and apparently losing control of the
Indian Ocean trade to the Mutapa state in the northern part of the Zimbabwe plateau.

Early Portuguese and Swahili references to Great Zimbabwe

Great Zimbabwe and its contemporary settlements are known from archaeological evidence, for
the most part. The Portuguese knowledge of the urban complex at Great Zimbabwe, however,
came through relations with the successor Mutapa state and for the most part consisted of
secondhand accounts of the place that were narrated to them by Swahili traders.

"There are other mines in a district called Toroa, which by another name is known as the
kingdom of Butua, which is ruled by a princes called Burrom, a vassal of Benomotapa,
which land adjoins the aforesaid consisting of vast plains, and these mines are the most
ancient known in the country, and they are all in the plain, in the midst of which there is a
square fortress, of masonry within and without, built of stones of marvellous size, and there
appears to be no mortar joining them. The wall is more than twenty-five spans in width, and
height is not so great considering the width. Above the door of this edifice is an inscription,
which some Moorish merchants, learned men, who went thither, could not read, neither
could they tell what the character might be. This edifice is almost surrounded by hills, upon
which are others resembling it in the fashioning of the stone and the absence of mortar, and
one of them is a tower more than twelve fathoms high.
"The natives of the country call these edifices Symbaoe, which according to their
language signifies court, for every place where Benomatapa may be is so called; and they
say that being royal property all the king's other dwellings have the same name....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, for in comparison
with their power and knowledge it does not seem possible to them that they should be the
work of man....The distance of this edifice from Sofala in a direct line to the west is a
hundred and seventy leagues, or thereabouts, and it is between 200 and 210 south latitude...
"In the opinion of the Moors who saw it, it is very ancient, and was built there to
keep possession of the mines which are very old, and no gold has been extracted from them
for years, because of the wars (Joao de Barros, in Theal 1899-1903, vol 6, 267-68
[originally published in Joao de Barros's Da Asia between 1532 and 1613])"

This account is clearly secondhand, for there is very little evidence of Portuguese visitation there
(but see Bent 1992 on a Portuguese expedition in search of Great Zimbabwe during the18th
century). De Barros's sources were Swahili traders who penetrated the interior long before the
early 16th century. It is from these accounts that we derive the term zimbabwe from 17th century
and later Portuguese writers such as Duarte Barbosa and Diogo de Couto, a term which literally
6
means, "houses of stone", but in references to royal settlements or royal courts. By the time the
Portuguese arrived on the Zimbabwe plateau early in the 16th century, Great Zimbabwe seems to
have been abandoned. Portuguese cartography also confirms this. Most of the cartographic
specimens published in Cortesao and Teixeira (1960 [1987]) do not show quite accurately the
southern sections of the Zimbabwe plateau, concentrating more in the area occupied by the
successor Mutapa state to the north.
It was natural for the Portuguese to believe that the cyclopean buildings on the Zimbabwe
plateau were the work of King Solomon (see extensive discussion in Carroll 1988), Prester John,
or the Queen of Sheba and that the gold associated with these potentates was waiting there, for
the taking, in the African bush. That the area contained many sources of precious metal only
tended to reinforce these ideas of El Dorado that were associated, in their minds, with the stone
buildings. The Portuguese convinced themselves that Prester John's kingdom was the source of
gold traded out of Africa to the Persian Gulf and other places in the Middle East. This explains
why they energetically mounted their first military sorties onto the Zimbabwe plateau in the
second half of the 16th century. Unfortunately, neither Prester John's kingdom nor Orphir was
ever found. But this misunderstanding gave birth to the Great Zimbabwe controversy and for the
next three centuries the Portuguese beliefs were maintained. Like early mappae mundi marking
an "empire of Monomotapa" in south central Africa, the descriptions of the unseen interior
retailed by the Portuguese became part of the intellectual baggage of Europe, coming into view
in the geographical compendium of the Purchas and the poetry of Milton. The idea of an ancient
fastness in the hinterland of coastal Africa remained as a central motif of geography, particularly
the rise of scientific geographers in the 19th century, from whence it passed on to the self-taught
adventurers like Karl Mauch (Hibbert 1982, pp. 253-65; Vogel 1994).

Oral traditions on Great Zimbabwe

Between the 16th and 19th centuries, information on Great Zimbabwe comes from oral
traditions. These may be gleaned from Karanga dynasties living around Great Zimbabwe itself
(Beach 1980, 1983a, b, 1984, 1994a, b, Mtetwa 1976a). According to Beach, there is no link
between recent Karanga and the original builders of the structures, who are regarded as recent
immigrants to the area (see Beach 1980). Historians and archaeologists have, however, used
some of the oral histories to reconstruct the use of space and function of Great Zimbabwe (see
Beach et. al 1997, 1998, Huffman 1981, 1983, 1984a, b, 1987, 1996). Recent discussions on
community involvement in the management of the site of Great Zimbabwe has invited fresh
thinking into Karanga traditions and value systems (Ndoro 2001, Fontein 2004, 2005).

Antiquarians and Great Zimbabwe

In 1871, Karl Mauch visited a vegetation-covered Great Zimbabwe (Mauch 1872, 1876,
Petermann 1874 [see also Mauch 1870]), but managed to produce a reasonably accurate account
of the stone buildings. He also collected local traditions insisting that the "great queen" had once
inhabited the place. As he meticulously examined and recorded the site through the overgrowth,
he found a wooden lintel of scented wood. Comparing it with his pencil, which was made of
cedar, he assumed that the lintel came from Lebanon. On this basis, he argued for an association
with Solomon and Sheba (Hibbert 1982, p. 252). Later investigations would find a superficial
similarity between Save [Sabi] (the river) and Sheba (the queen) to mark a similar association.
Mauch thought of the Hill Complex as a copy of the biblical King Solomon's temple and
the Great Enclosure as a replica of the palace in which the Queen of Sheba stayed while visiting
Jerusalem (Mauch 1876). Concession seekers and hunters took up this interpretation. One
English traveler, Thomas Baines, published a "Map of the Gold Fields of South Eastern Africa"
in 1877 showing the region including Great Zimbabwe as the "supposed realm of the Queen of
7
Sheba" (Baines 1877). The plateau was thus confirmed in the minds of many Europeans
observers as Ophir, the biblical locality that was the source of Solomon's gold (see Carroll 1988,
Vogel 1994, 1998 for a discussion of this parochial mythology).
The next European to record his impressions of the vine-covered masonry at Great
Zimbabwe was Willy Posselt, a sometime hunter and sometime trader who ventured there in
1899. In the couple of decades between Mauch’s visit and Posselt’s, the only world of the
“ruins” was the fictionalized journey into central Africa depicted in Rider Haggard’s King
Solomon’s Mines spinning out a romance of adventure. Though he drew a frontier tale of the
1860s, he added nothing new to the image of the monumental towns, but his fiction attracted
readers long after archaeology had determined their true origins and chronology (see discussion
in Tangri 1990). In the decade following Posselt’s trip, the monumental sites were the subjects of
a series of depredations and excavations, some by treasure hunters, others with an archaeological
intent.
In the meantime, Great Zimbabwe had become a European political icon when Posselt
removed one of the large soapstone birds atop a wall in 1889. He eventually sold it to Cecil John
Rhodes, who displayed it in the South African home he donated to that country. In 1890 Rhodes
had bypassed the Boer Republics grabbing Mashonaland, with a filibustering party, some of
whom were given concessions to mine the abandoned zimbabwes in search for gold.
Emphasizing a storied and ancient past, Rhodes hoped to bring settlers and investors to an
increasingly bankrupt enterprise. Failing to attract attention to his newly created colony, Rhodes
attempted to manipulate history, creating an exotic past for Great Zimbabwe. This idea would
justify his acquisition of Mashonaland as well, denying the local people title to the land, which
they had wrenched away from the ancients. Since the “mythos of the ancients” claimed the
territory as the former home of a civilized “race” now overrun by Africans, it was reasonable to
reclaim it for the civilized world. Great Zimbabwe, as an icon of these mythic times, would
justify the claim. Investigators were brought out from Europe under his auspices to prove this
fanciful construct (see Pikirayi 2001a, Vogel 1994 for a detailed discussion).
The existence of Great Zimbabwe and other monumental towns raised a keen interest in
Europe, and in 1891 the first archaeological expedition to the site left England under Rhodes’
patronage. With the support of the Royal Geographical Society and the British Association for
the Advancement of Sciences, James Theodore Bent, a well-known Orientalist, was asked to
prove that Great Zimbabwe was foreign in origin. His journey was greeted with much fanfare as
newspapers and magazines throughout Europe followed his progress. He was interested in the
antiquities of Phoenicia and knew that Arabian and Persian pottery had been found in Zanzibar.
In The Ruined Cities of Mashonaland published in 1892 (Bent 1892, 1896) and a series of
journal articles and public appearances, he chronicled his investigations in central Africa. He
even traveled to Portugal to search the archives for relevant documentation. Bent was dismissive
of the Queen of Sheba and King Solomon hypothesis that formed conventional wisdom at the
time. Instead, he advanced the idea that Great Zimbabwe was constructed by the Sabaean Arabs
to facilitate their gold trade.
Bent claimed Phoenician influence at Great Zimbabwe in terms of phallic worship
symbolized by the conical tower in the interior of the Great Enclosure. This structure supposedly
functioned as a calendar for the observation of the sun and the stars (as proposed by Robert
Swan, a surveyor who worked together with Bent). The monoliths on top of the Great Enclosure
were also used to support his theories for a general northern origin of its builders. Other
Zimbabwe type sites, according to Bent, were arranged to facilitate the passage of caravans to
the Indian Ocean from the gold mining areas of the interior. As fortifications, they were meant to
protect Semitic traders from the “barbaric and hostile tribes” on the Zimbabwe plateau.
Later in the century, various investigators came to the territory to test their ideas about
the so-called ruins. Karl Peters, who thought the ruins to be Egyptian, conducted highly

8
publicized surveys in the Mt Fura region (Peters 1900). His research, like most early
investigators, was a misguided attempt to locate evidence of ancient occupation.

European colonization of the Zimbabwe plateau

In 1890 the British South Africa Company occupied Mashonaland. Cecil Rhodes, the man
behind this move, was eager to justify his occupation of the region as part of his grand vision of
colonizing a large part of Africa. The Phoenician link would also justify his search for treasure,
as Mashonaland was touted as a second Rand. Bent’s colleague, Robert Swan returned to central
Africa in 1892 and visited several zimbabwe (Bent 1892). In his letters to the Royal
Geographical Society, he noted the existence of gold, exotic woods and birds, which seemed to
coincide with biblical accounts of the goods brought away from Ophir by Solomon’s merchant
fleet. Heinrich Schlichter (1898), a geographer, toured the colony as Rhodes’s guest, checking
Swan’s investigations and otherwise confirming the “ancients” hypothesis. Karl Peters, the
German administrator who had assembled Germany’s East African colonies, toured late in the
century, also on a quest for Ophir. Visiting Mutapa settlements in northern Zimbabwe, he
satisfied himself on the success of his research. With the exception of Bent, we can discount
these “investigations” as amateurs in a discipline still in search of its methodologies.
Sir John Willoughby, who first came in the then Rhodesia with the 'Pioneer Column',
visited Great Zimbabwe in 1890. He followed up Bent's work with excavations in 1892 of small
enclosures roughly located in between the Great Enclosure to the south and the Hill Complex to
the north. These enclosures have now disappeared, with the stones being used to erect the grave
of the Shangani Patrol. Willoughby also excavated "No. 1 Ruin", near the Great Enclosure,
believed to be one of the oldest in the valley. This enclosure has now totally disappeared from
the archaeological landscape of Great Zimbabwe (see Summers 1963a). He was critical of Bent's
interpretations as well as Robert Swan's site plans and strange astronomical ideas. His own
interpretation of Great Zimbabwe was rather guarded, and fails to provide the age or discuss the
originators of the monuments (Willoughby 1893).
At the same time, the concessionaire Ancient Ruins Company was methodically reducing
the sites in search for precious metals and thereby severely handicapping all future excavations
(Swan 1994). In the end, realizing that the destruction was reducing the “tourist value” of the
monuments, Rhodes engaged a journalist, Richard N. Hall, to investigate Great Zimbabwe. Hall,
working with prospector W. G. Neal, excavated several sites that were damaged extensively.
They reported this in Ancient Ruins of Rhodesia (1905, 1909, Hall and Neal 1902). Their
conclusions not withstanding, they described more than eighty sites quite accurately. In 1902,
Frederick Philip Mennell, a geologist and museum director, provided the first scientific
description of Great Zimbabwe (Mennell 1902).
At Great Zimbabwe, Hall unearthed over a meter of deposits from the Great Enclosure,
looking for “ancient” deposits. Considerable archaeological evidence was lost since Hall and his
team never imagined that the local archaeological material could provide useful evidence about
the builders of the town. Using little archaeological evidence or reasoning, Hall and Neal (1902)
identified four stages of development, beginning with a Sabaean period from 2000 to 1100 BC,
followed by a Phoenician period in the first millennium BC, a transitional period, and finally a
“decadent period”. Great Zimbabwe and its culture were thus considered foreign in origin and of
considerable antiquity. Hall conveniently chose to ignore the archaeological evidence indicative
of indigenous construction of Great Zimbabwe, opting for Sabaean Arabs as builders. Though
this perception changed with the arrival of the first systematic archaeologists, Hall and his
proponents maintained some semblance of this argument into the 1920s and beyond (see
Summers 1963a [1965], 1963b). Resisting the idea of autochthonous origins in fairly recent
times, Hall and similar minded investigators debated the systematic archaeologists, futilely
attempting to shape their results and to contradict professional opinion.
9
 The first professional archaeological investigations

The activities of Hall and other antiquarians frustrated many in Europe, particularly Britain,
prompting the British Association for the Advancement of Science to send a trained
archaeologist, David Randall-MacIver (1906) to examine Great Zimbabwe and other sites related
to it. Randall-MacIver, like Bent, a graduate of Oxford, had received further training under Sir
Flinders Petrie in Egypt, where he excavated in the Nile Delta and the Fayyum Depression.
Though both Randall-MacIver and Bent were archaeologists steeped in Near Eastern studies,
Randall-MacIver was a forerunner of a new kind of systematic archaeology valuing controlled
excavation, stratigraphy and typological analyses of artifacts recovered and meticulously
recorded. Like the antiquarians, Randall-MacIver knew little about African society, but unlike
them, he intended to use the logic of observed facts, stratigraphy, and dated imported artifacts to
identify and date the builders of Great Zimbabwe and other sites. At Great Zimbabwe he
recovered few imports, including two pieces of porcelain he could not date. In the Great
Enclosure, he dug into an area that had escaped the destruction by Hall and recovered "Nankin-
China" (celadon) dating to the 14th and 15th centuries. Fragments of a 14th century Persian bowl
were found in one of the valley enclosures. Apart from these few imports, the artifacts recovered
- pottery, copper, and iron objects - were locally manufactured. The strongest cultural presence at
any of the sites was definitely African. Though he was not able to fix a secure date for Great
Zimbabwe, he concluded that the contents of the settlements were "essentially African" and
fairly recent, products of a Medieval period rather than antiquity. At the same time, others were
in the process of translating and publishing Portuguese written sources, producing a body of
literature relevant to the indigenous states of the region (Theal 1898-1902, 1912). On this basis,
Randall-MacIver associated Great Zimbabwe with the Mutapa state, dating it to about 1300. He
estimated that the stone buildings in the south-western plateau regions–Khami, Danangombe and
Naletale–were occupied slightly later.
About this time, F. C. Shrubsall (1909) analyzed human remains found at Chumnungwa
zimbabwe and concluded that they were African and that Negroes populated the region at the
time of the construction. Arther Keith (1924) later confirmed these conclusions, which not only
went towards establishing the identity of the builders, but dated entrance of Bantu speakers into
southern Africa. Local historians could no longer discount the local population as "Johnny-
come-latelies" who only recently settled in the region. Despite these conclusions, many remained
skeptical about the African origins of Great Zimbabwe. Hall and proponents of ancient colonies
from the Middle East mounted a counterattack. Hall's later investigations and writings (in 1905
and 1909) were meant to refute aggressively Randall-MacIver's research findings. As a
Rhodesian, Hall's arguments were widely supported by lay opinion, despite their being illogical.
There is very limited research work at Great Zimbabwe between 1910 and the early
1920s, when John Schofield excavated (?or examined) a section of the Western Enclosure of the
Hill Complex not disturbed by the 'restoration' efforts of the Public Works Department (see
below, under conservation). The excavations conducted by H. A. Dumant, a medical practitioner,
seem to have been accompanied by incomplete records (see Summers 1963a). Schofield (1924,
1926) noted a two-phase occupation, the first and earlier one characterised by a simpler culture,
while the later, subsequent phase seems to have been the one associated with monumental
architecture. He attributed the building of Great Zimbabwe to the Rozvi, a Shona dynasty
The Great Zimbabwe controversy was important enough to suggest having a second
trained archaeologist investigate the "ruins". Gertrude Caton-Thompson and a staff of women
archaeologists (including Kathleen Kenyon, who would later work at Jericho) began a follow-up
to Randall-McIver’s investigations in 1929. She, like Randall MacIver, had trained as an
archaeologist with Flinders Petrie in Egypt and had done fieldwork in Arabia, where she
excavated a number of stone structures. Because of the controversy raised by the imported
10
ceramics, Caton-Thompson (1931) decided to excavate enclosures that had not been affected by
Hall's "diggings". She chose one of the valley enclosures, intending to use glass beads recovered
in her excavations to establish the chronology of the site. Unfortunately these did not give her
precise dates. With assistance from the British Museum, she did obtain an 8th-10th century
estimate for some parts of the settlement. On the basis of imported pottery, however, she argued
for a "Medieval" date. As far as the basic debate was concerned, her excavations in the Great
Enclosure and a midden on the Hill Complex disclosed nothing to suggest foreign occupation of
the site. Significantly her excavations demonstrated pre-stone building phases associated with
earlier farming communities.
Using evidence of Chinese blue-on-white pottery recovered at Danangombe, which she
dated to c.1700, she suggested that ancestral Rozvi and Venda built Great Zimbabwe. She could
not quite ascertain the demise of Great Zimbabwe. She thus succeeded in confirming the results
of her colleague three decades earlier. Randall-MacIver himself would chair the session at which
she presented her findings to the British Association for the Advancement of Science, but the
weight of science would not quiet colonial voices that needed the buttress of the "ancient
mythos", an idea that continues in one form or another to this very day (see discussion in Vogel
1994). Influenced by her findings but somewhat constrained by local politics of the 1930s and
world war of the 1940s, the archaeology of central Africa assumed a lower profile.
After Caton Thompson (1931), work at Great Zimbabwe was characterised by continued
conservation of the stone structures (as seen from the activities of Cpl A. St. C. Wallace, curator
at Great Zimbabwe, 1911-1948), architectural analyses of the Great Enclosure (Stevens 1931),
the work of Foster Coates in 1937 on the Hill Complex (no record), and A. C. Hoffman on the
midden at No. 1 Ruin in 1939 (for which no record exists). In 1943, Elizabeth Goodall, an
archaeologist and museum director, excavated Renders Ruin midden. In 1952, S. D. Sanders,
curator of the monuments from 1948 to 1959 conducted repairs and rebuilt the Watergate
causeway on the western side of the Hill (for which an unpublished report exists). These small-
scale, rather isolated researches paved way for more extensive, scientific excavations of the
1950s.
From the worldwide interest shown the Bent excavation, the exploration of the
monumental sites had become a matter of cosseted panels at scientific meetings and technical
papers. It was only after World War II that a professional archaeologist was recruited and housed
at the National Museum in Bulawayo. Under the influence of Roger Summers, the archaeology
of the Zimbabwe plateau became more active yet more localized in purpose, formalizing the
identification of the monumental sites while investigating earlier settlements as well. Soon, a
cadre of locally based archaeologists was carefully mapping, surveying, excavating and
categorizing the pre-colonial manifestations of the country. During the period, significant
investigations took place not only at Great Zimbabwe (Robinson 1961a, b, Robinson et. al 1961;
Summers 1955, 1958, 1961, 1963a, 1964; Summers and Whitty 1961, Summers et. al 1961) but
at Khami (Robinson 1959) in south-western Zimbabwe and Nyanga (Summers 1952, 1958) in
the eastern highlands as well. Investigations by Keith Robinson (1961a, b), Roger Summers
(1971), Anthony Whitty (1957, 1957-1961) and Peter Garlake (1970, 1973, 1974) were a turning
point. They were soon joined by Thomas Huffman (1972a, b, 1974, 1977).
Not only were sites systematically categorized and catalogued but radiocarbon dating was
tried for the first time. Robinson (1961b) found a well document stratigraphic sequence at the
Hill Complex. This coupled with the classification and interpretation of local pottery (Robinson
1961a) suggested an early occupation sometime during the first millennium AD, and the first
phase of stone building early in the second. Architectural analyses by Whitty (1957, 1957-1961)
suggested continued occupation into the 19th century. Subsequent investigations by Garlake
(1968, 1970, 1973) slightly modified the chronology suggesting that Great Zimbabwe was not
substantially occupied after 1450. This view was based on the recovery of Chinese celadon dated
to the Ming dynasty and Persian bowls and Islamic glass of the 13th and 14th centuries. For the
11
first time there was an accurate and detailed look at the occupation sequence at this important
site, as well as evidence of continuity between the earliest farming communities and their
descendants, the builders of Great Zimbabwe. A question remained unanswered regarding the
dynamics of the rise of these states on the Zimbabwe plateau. Some suggested that the zimbabwe
was important to religious practice (see for example Garlake 1973), while others argued the
significance of wealth in the form of agriculture (Sinclair 1977, 1984, 1987) and livestock
(Garlake 1978, Thorp 1984, 1986) and still others found a medium to social complexity in long
distance trade (Huffman 1972). However it is my position that that imports played a minimal
role in the Shona economy and that gold mining (see Summers 1969, Phimister 1974) was only a
seasonal activity and not a full-time specialty. While it is true that imported goods were used to
mark the status of the elite, and emphasis on them would have occurred after, rather than before,
a hierarchical society was achieved. It is not clear whether the imports played a consequential
role in the economy of Great Zimbabwe and other sites associated with it apart from marking
status, a role they played on the Swahili coast where they were put on prominent display in the
elite homes. Thus the role played by foreign trade may have been overstated (Pikirayi 2001a).

Great Zimbabwe and related sites

At the same time that cultural processes supporting the emergence of social complexity were
being mooted, others considered the significance of the fairly regular distribution of zimbabwe, a
fact noted by the amateurs of the Rhodesian Scientific Association early in the 20th century.
Once regarded as a line of forts protecting the ancient’s gold route, they were re-analysed by
Sinclair (1987) as headquarters of administrative wards associated with the administration of the
state based at Great Zimbabwe. Garlake (1978) postulated transhumance patterns of Karanga
herdsmen from archaeological as well as cogent environmental data. Both studies posited
territorial limits of control over internal production. In any event, interest in the anthropological
analysis of archaeological people has been rising. Caton-Thompson’s remarks about
understanding the Karanga as a way to understand the motives of the builders of Great
Zimbabwe have been put to the test. As a result, archaeology has stretched itself, reaching
beyond survey, collection and enumeration. With the introduction of a fresh approach to the past,
archaeologists sought to understand why monumental settlements were built and how people
who lived in them thought and carried out their daily affairs.

Rhodesian apologists

Yet many years of informed archaeological activity have not succeeded in laying to rest the
ghosts of the “ancients”. Many revisionists wish to supplant the general interpretation that so
many impartial observers accept. Dart (1955) claimed to see the images of ancient mariners in
the local rock art and Wainwright (1949) and Jeffreys (1954) posited the once commonly held
idea that monumental sites were produced by Galla invaders from Ethiopia in the 9th century. It
was once commonly believed that the towns were remnants of the passage of a superior race of
beings–the Hamites–who brought elements of Egyptian civilization into a benighted sub-Saharan
Africa (Thorton 1997).
This older revisionism was bad enough, but the temptation to posit zimbabwe as the
product of some ancient folk lives on in the writings of Mallows (1984), who offers the
proposition that Great Zimbabwe was originally constructed as a slave pen by miners from
southern India; Hromnik (1981) also posited ancient settlers from India, while Bruwer (1965)
revived the Phoenicians, and Parfitt (1992) sought to find a lost tribe of Israel. These arguments
are essentially non-scientific in structure and are contemptuous of the findings of mainstream
archaeology and its methods for testing its conclusions. Often they take the discoveries of
archaeology and reinterpret them to suit their pre-conceived notion, much as Hall had reinvented
12
the stratigraphy in Randall-MacIver’s reports to suit his idea that the ancients were degraded by
contact with “black Africa”.
R. Gayre (1972) used exotic elements found at Zimbabwe and related settlements to
argue for an origin in the Mediterranean area and Arabia. The Great Enclosure, for example, was
compared to the Temple of Awwam in Marib, Yemen, simply because of its elliptical shape.
Saba, or Yemen, is regarded as “one of the Semitic maritime powers of ancient times, which
must have been involved in any settlement and exploitation of the coast of East Africa” (Gayre
1972, p. 88). He criticized Randall-MacIver as “the principal originator of the theory that the
Bantu built Zimbabwe” (Gayre 1972, p. 101) in preference to “more civilized peoples”. Randall-
MacIver’s contention that “all characteristics of Oriental or European architecture are entirely
absent” is counted by the use of such evidence as dry stone masonry and similarities to temples
from pre-Christian era in southern Arabia.
Gayre rejected the chronology of the Great Zimbabwe and related sites derived from the
age of imported objects advanced by Randall-MacIver (1906) and Caton-Thompson (1931):

Miss Caton-Thompson was strongly influenced towards a late dating by the presence of
Chinese pottery and similar datable artifacts. This is in sharp contrast to her conclusions
when faced with somewhat similar phenomena in her work in South Arabia….The
irrigation and associated ruins which were excavated….were dateable to the fifth and
fourth centuries BC. [These] had at all times…fifteenth century Chinese and Persian
ceramic wares and ninth and tenth century Islamic fragments. (Gayre 1972).

Thus the evidence for dating Great Zimbabwe and related settlements to the medieval period was
deemed unreliable (Gayre 1972, pp. 106-107).
These revisionist arguments are still strongly expressed (Hromnik 1981, Mallows 1984).
Although such writings are best ignored, they are bothersome in that they sustain a “colonial”
interest in denying the local people a claim in their history. Lamentably, Zimbabwean
archaeology is riddled with the writings of amateurs, reprising shop-worn ideas that they are part
of a wider body of less than scholarly work on the subject (see bibliographies in Vogel 1994)

Great Zimbabwe in post-independent Zimbabwe

With the attainment of political independence in 1980, Great Zimbabwe was proclaimed a
national monument. A few years later, it was accorded world heritage status. Great Zimbabwe
became a national symbol, identified with indigenous African resistance to European colonialism
and pre-colonial indigenous African achievements (see Garlake 1982a, b, Mufuka 1983, Sinamai
1997a, 1998, 2003). National Museums and Monuments (NMMZ), a parastatal organization
under the Ministry of Home Affairs, was charged with the administration of the monument, as
well as other sites and monuments in the country. NMMZ’s tasks involved management,
preservation, conservation and presentation of the site to the visitors and the public. These
activities, including academic research, shaped the work on and around Great Zimbabwe from
1980 to the present.

Colonial background to the management and conservation of Great Zimbabwe

Even before the attainment of independence, Europeans who worked at Great Zimbabwe were
challenged with the tasks of conserving the site (see Ndoro 1997), and they have never found
such approaches easy. A number of attempts to conserve the site may be gleaned from their
work.
Karl Mauch attempted to clear the over-grown Great Enclosure to enhance access to the
site. His rudimentary sketch plans and three-dimensional representation of both the Hill Complex
and the Great Encloure should be regarded as a way of trying to present the site to the European
13
audience (Petermann 1874). R. M. Swan, who worked together with Theodore Bent produced the
first accurate plans of the site, which he interpreted using absurd astronomical theories (Bent
1896), and for which he was criticized by Sir John Willoughby (1893) and Frederick Mennell
(1902). Sir John Willoughby himself destroyed the stratigraphy of two stone structures, and
contributed towards the disappearance of one large enclosure, a record of which only exists on
Mauch’s sketch plan. Parts of Great Zimbabwe had been gutted to construct the grave of the
Shangani Patrol, killed by the Ndebele in 1893. Franklin White (1903-04, 1905) was a mining
engineer who investigated Great Zimbabwe. He published an accurate, scientific plan of the
Great Enclosure (which referred to as “Temple or Elliptical Building”) in the Journal of the
Royal Anthropological Institute. This plan came out as a result of the work done in 1903, and
was used by subsequent researchers until 1958. Richard Hall, appointed as curator for Great
Zimbabwe in 1902, was tasked with the preservation of the stone buildings, but ended up gutting
them and associated dhaka (earthen) structures in search for non-African origins of Great
Zimbabwe. His work has resulted in some of the conservation problems experienced today (see
Ndoro 1990, 1996a, 1997). By the time professional archaeologists arrived to work on the site,
considerable damage had been accomplished (Randall-MacIver 1906, see also comments in
Summers 1963a). The removal of archaeological deposits at Great Zimbabwe alleging that these
were debris left over by Rozvi and Karanga settlers after the original builders had left was a an
unforunate exercise in pillage, with serious implications towards site conservation today. In view
of the fact that Hal recovered a lot of gold, it appears he was merely a treasure hunter.
Attempts to reverse the activities of earlier investigators triggered new conservation and
management problems (see Masey 1911). Francis E. Masey, an architect from Cape Town, drew
up a re port on how Great Zimbabwe may be managed, recommending vegetation clearance,
control of tourist visitors, monitoring cattle straying into the monuments, and the employment of
a resident archaeologist tasked with site conservation, including restoration of collapsed
stonewalls (Ndoro 1996a, 1997, 2001). This recommendation, based on the two weeks he spent
at Great Zimbabwe in the company of the then Director of Public Works, H. B. Douslin, was
adopted, with the appointment of C. Wallace as curator in 1911. Wallace had been at Great
Zimbabwe for some years and had shown interest in the preservation of the stone structures. He
embarked on an extensive programme of re-building, which, according to Summers (1963a),
sometimes went beyond what would be considered justifiable repair. Wallace’s approaches to
restoration were replete with error and failed to follow conservation ethics (Walker and Dickens
1992, Ndoro 1994).
From 1891 to 1936, Great Zimbabwe was placed under the administration of the Public
Works Department (PWD). Acting on the recommendations of Masey (1911), with the
assistance of the PWD, a large quantity of dhaka fill in the Western Enclosure of the Hill
Complex was removed, believing that the pressure from the fill was endangering the south-wall
of the that enclosure, and that the wall would soon fall over the high granite cliff if something
were not done. Consequently, hundreds of tons of earth/dhaka were removed, leaving the
enclosure exposed, untidy and susceptible to soil erosion, a condition which remains problematic
to this day (see Ndoro 1997, 2001) 1.
From 1936 onwards, the Commission for the Preservation of Historical Monuments took
of the responsibility of Great Zimbabwe. The Commission was a statutory body tasked with
better preservation of natural and historical monuments and relics found in the country. It was
granted powers to safeguard the destruction of archaeological heritage, and given the custody of

1
PWD records relating to this and subsequent conservation works - which were also unsystematic - are now kept in
the National Archives of Zimbabwe (NAZ), but these are incomplete, as most pre-1923 British South Africa
Company records were destroyed in 1941.
14
all monuments2. Great Zimbabwe and other sites such as Khami, Naletale and Danangombe,
were proclaimed national monuments. Facilities at these sites were prepared to regulate tourist
visitors. Great Zimbabwe was subsequently administered as a wildlife park, saw the construction
of a hotel, lodges, a golf course, a curio shop, a site museum, a traditional village, and other
facilities.
From the 1930s onwards, conservation efforts were dominated by the work of
professional archaeologists and their interpretation of Great Zimbabwe. This culminated in the
excavations by Roger Summers and Keith Robinson (op cit.) and the subsequent archaeological
reports by Peter Garlake, Thomas Huffman, Paul Sinclair and other researchers. Over-emphasis
on the results of archaeology has been blamed for the distortion or loss of part of the structures,
as such research was not guided by a management plan or policy (Ndoro 1997). These went on
into the 1970s when the area was disrupted by the war of liberation, leaving the site virtually
abandoned, and overgrown with lantana camara bush–something almost similar to what Karl
Mauch witnessed in 1871.

Management and conservation of Great Zimbabwe, 1980-present

Two consultant reports set the pace for the conservation and better management of Great
Zimbabwe after 1980. These are the Hamo Sassoon (1982) and Rodrigues and Mauelshagen
(1987) reports, both commissioned by UNESCO. Sassoon lamented on the desperate state of
preservation and presentation of the site in view of the vegetation growth, and recommended the
need to put in place a maintenance plan, the need to consider other archaeological remains such
as the dhaka structures, a plan for the preservation of the site as well as similar sites throughout
the country. Following his recommendation, and the recommendations by ICOMOS that also
quoted the report and stressed on the need to preserve the dhaka structures, the site was prepared
for nomination for world heritage listing in 1986 and eventually listed in 1992.
Rodrigues and Mauelshagen (1987) alerted NMMZ that there were structural problems
on the walls of Great Zimbabwe, and recommended the setting up of an intervention team that
included stone masons, as well as the procurement of the necessary equipment to monitor the
lateral and vertical movements within the stone walls. This required trained personnel
particularly in stone masonry and photogrammetry, and that would include documentation of the
problems associated with stonewalls such as collapse and bulging, implementation of a
maintenance plan.
These two reports resulted in the appointment of resident archaeologists in 1986
specifically tasked with the conservation of the site, and, the creation of a team tasked with the
preservation, maintenance and management of Great Zimbabwe as an archaeological resource. A
centre was established near Great Zimbabwe to facilitate research in conservation and heritage
education (see for example Stone 1994, Ucko 1994). These developments ultimately led towards
the adoption of a long term strategy or plan for a holistic preservation of the site, which not only
focussed on the stone structures, but the broader cultural landscape settings around Great
Zimbabwe (see Collett 1990, Mueller 1998, Ndoro 1996b). In line with this strategy, the broader
conservation objectives seek to preserve, conserve, provide access to and manage Great
Zimbabwe not only as an important archaeological resource, but also as historical and cultural
place, valued by the visiting public and the communities living around it (see Ndoro 1997). Since
then a number of conservation-related maintenance work, including condition surveys, bush
clearance using herbicides, have been done. Conservation related research such as experimental
studies on dhaka structures (Ndoro1990) to evaluate patterns of failure arising from exposure of
the structures, the quarrying methods employed (Dube 1990) and documentation of architectural
2
Commission records were, at least until 1965, kept in Bulawayo, at the Bulawayo Museum, but copies should now
be in the NAZ. NMMZ should be in possession of back-up records, particularly the reports on the excavations of the
1950s.
15
problems associated with the stone walls (Walker 1993, Walker and Dickens 1992) have been
done. This has resulted in more informed architectural restoration (Matenga 1996, Sinamai
1997b), the conservation of dry stonewalls and monitoring of wall collapses (Ndoro 1996a,
Nehowa 1990).
It has also became necessary to manage visitors to the site, since these contribute towards
the deterioration of the site, by adopting strategies such as reducing the flow of visitors to
specific monuments such as the Great Enclosure, and directing them towards other parts of the
site which had previously received less visitors. In order to make the monument more accessible
to the majority Zimbabweans, attempts have been made to present the site in a manner that
encourages dialogue [in vernacular languages] and interaction with the artifacts on display
(Ndoro 1994). Another important aspect of presentation was to re-evaluate the existing
interpretation of the site, which was primarily based on 19th century ethnographic observations,
and hence carried with it some bias (Ndoro and Pwiti 1997).
From the onset, the conservation programme for Great Zimbabwe needed financial
support. Appropriate equipment and training were required to address the various conservation
challenges affecting the site. This was partially realized from the 1992 Donors Conference. Out f
this conference came support from Finland in the form of aerial and photogrammetric survey of
Great Zimbabwe. This mapping provided digital terrain models (DTM) that served as a baseline
for future planning, condition survey, stonewall monitoring and maintenance of the site (Ndoro
1997).
Within the last eight years or so, Great Zimbabwe re-captured centre stage following
government moves to re-posses commercial farmland from minority whites. The site was
presented and used by politicians as a rallying point for the re-possession of the country's
heritage–land–lost to Europeans through colonization. Political galas were organized at the site
to commemorate events such as the political union between the former political rivalries that had
both fought the war of liberation to dislodge the regime of Ian Smith. While many would
perceive this as a manipulation of the past for purposes of political gain, this is not unusual in
heritage management circles. From a conservation point of view this has to be factored in as part
of the overall management strategy for the site. Management of Great Zimbabwe is also manaing
the conflicts of interest between the politicians, the heritage managers and the community,
including the traditional leaders (see for example Chauke 2002, Fontein 2004, 2005, Ndoro
2001).

16
 SECTION 3: Sources on Great Zimbabwe

The location of the references listed here is generally self-explanatory. A majority of these
sources have a global distribution, and may be acquired on-line or through inter-library loan
facilities, for example the Geographical Journal, published by the Royal Geographical Society
since 1900, and Man, the journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute. Some books published
prior to 1990 may no longer be in print. There are also some periodicals or journals with a
limited, regional, circulation. Native Affairs Department Annual (NADA) was a Rhodesian
government periodical which can be found in the National Archives of Zimbabwe (NAZ), the
University of Zimbabwe (UZ) Library, and some major South African universities such as Cape
Town (UCT), Pretoria (UP) and Witwatersrand (Wits). It is no longer in print. Rhodesian
Prehistory became Zimbabwean Prehistory after 1980, and is the journal of the Prehistory
Society of Zimbabwe. The journal is found in the Museum of Human Sciences (formerly Queen
Victoria Museum) Library in Harare. Arnoldia and Zimbabwea are occasional periodicals and
journals respectively published by the National Museums and Monuments of Zimbabwe
(NMMZ), and these are found in the Museum of Human Sciences. The journal Rhodesian
History became Zimbabwean History after 1980, but was no longer printed after 1983.
Proceedings and Transactions of the Rhodesia Scientific Association became Proceedings and
Transactions of the Zimbabwe Scientific Association after 1980. Copies may be found in the UZ
Library, UZ Department of History has a complete collection of Rhodesian- and Zimbabwean
History. Zambezia is a journal for the humanities faculties of UZ, and its copies are found in the
university’s main library.

Secondary sources

Abraham, D. P. 1962. The early political history of the kingdom of Mwene Mutapa (850-1589).
In Historians in Tropical Africa: Proceedings of the Leverhulme Inter-Collegiate Conference,
September 1960. E. Stokes (ed.), 61-92. Salisbury: University College of Rhodesia and
Nyasaland. (discusses migrations from Mbire to the Zambezi valley with the migrants searching
for salt. This is taken as a reason for the abandonment of Great Zimbabwe. (UZ, NAZ).

Aspinall, Kelle J. 2000. Great Zimbabwe, a well of ancient wisdom: an examination of

traditional Karanga mythology, symbolism and ritual towards an interpretation of spatial
distribution and contextual meaning of symbolic structures and settlement dynamics of the royal
settlement of Central Great Zimbabwe. Masters in Archaeology thesis, University of Natal
(available in the University of Pretoria Library, Special Collection Africana, ZA 968.901
ASPINALL).

Bannerman, J. H. 1982. Ecological and other factors in the rise and fall of the Great Zimbabwe
state. Paper presented in a conference on Zimbabwean History, University of Zimbabwe
(University of Zimbabwe History Department Seminar Archives-paper presents a botanical
survey of the environments of Great Zimbabwe with a view to identifying the ecological factors
which led to the rise and fall of the city).

Barker, G. 1988. Cows and kings: models for zimbabwes. Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society
54, 223-239.

Baines, T. J. [1877] 1968. The gold regions of south-eastern Africa. Bulawayo: Books of
Rhodesia. ("Map of the gold field of south eastern Africa" [Map 1.3], shows the region including
Great Zimbabwe as the "supposed realm of the Queen of Sheba"). (NAZ, Bulawayo Museum
Library).
17
Brain, C. K. 1974. Human food remains from the Iron Age at Great Zimbabwe. South African
Journal of Science 70, 303-309.

Beach, D. N. 1973. Great Zimbabwe as a Mwari-cult centre. Rhodesian Prehistory 11, 11-12.
(argues that 'traditional evidence' on religion at Great Zimbabwe is thin).

Beach, D. N. 1980. The Shona and Zimbabwe, 900-1850: an outline of Shona history. Gweru:
Mambo Press/London: Heinemann. (pp. 36-51 discusses Great Zimbabwe as a pre-15th century
Karanga/Shona capital and centre of a state. Discusses archaeology, religion and environment in
the rise and fall of the site. Gives an idea on ordinary life during the peak of Great Zimbabwe).

Beach, D. N. 1983a. Oral history and archaeology in Zimbabwe. Zimbabwe Prehistory 19, 8-11.

Beach, D. N. 1983b. The Zimbabwe plateau and its peoples. In History of Central Africa (vol. 1),
Birmingham, D. and Martin P. M. (eds), 245-277, 294-296. London and New York: Longman.
(Great Zimbabwe and Khami are summarised on pages 254-257). (This article is an abridged
version of Beach 1984).

Beach, D. N. 1984. Zimbabwe before 1900. Gweru: Mambo Press. (Section 3, pp. 24-29
discusses pre-1700 Shona states, including Great Zimbabwe. A commentary on historiography,
economy, society, political structure, rise, development and decline is given on pp. 70-73).

Beach, D. N. 1987. Documents and African society on the Zimbabwean plateau. Paideuma 33,
129-45.

Beach, D. N. 1994a. A Zimbabwean Past: Shona dynastic histories and oral traditions. Gweru:
Mambo Press. (a detailed ethnohistory of various Shona groups including their movements and
settlement during the pre-colonial period).

Beach, D. N. 1994b. The Shona and their neighbours. Oxford: Blackwell. (presents a simplified
version of the pre-colonial, colonial and post-colonial Shona history. Early chapters discuss
Great Zimbabwe in terms of rise, development and fall).

Beach, D. N., Bourdillon, M. F. C., Denbow, J., Hall, M., Lane, P., Pikirayi, I., Pwiti, G. and
Huffman T. N. 1997. Review feature on Snakes and Crocodiles: Power and symbolism in
ancient Zimbabwe by T. N. Huffman, The South African Archaeological Bulletin 52 (166), 125-
143. (see Huffman 1996, below).

Beach, D. N., Bourdillon, M. F. C., Denbow, J., Liesegang, G., Loubser, J. H. N., Pikirayi, I.,
Schoenbrun, D., Soper, R., Stahl, A. B., 1998. Cognitive archaeology and imaginary history at
Great Zimbabwe. Current Anthropology 39 (1), 47-72. (a discussion of David Beach's article on
the use and interpretation of space at Great Zimbabwe using political process).

Bent, J. T. 1892. The ruins of Mashonaland and the explorations in the country. Proceedings of
the Royal Geographical Society 14 (5), 242-298.

Bent, J. T. 1893a. The ruins in Mashonaland. Geographical Journal 2, 438-441.

Bent, J. T. 1893b. On the finds at the Great Zimbabwe Ruins (with a view to elucidating the
origin of the race that built them). Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute 22, 124-136.
18
Bent, J. T. 1896. The ruined cities of Mashonaland. London: Spottiswoode. (Bent was the first
antiquarian investigator to work at Great Zimbabwe in the 1890s. He was bankrolled by Cecil
John Rhodes, and he was asked to prove that the site was built by Phoenicians).

Blacking, J. 1984. The Great Enclosure and Domba. Man 20, 542-543.

Brullau, H. 1989. Aspects of History of Zimbabwe: Sources, Methods and Results of

Archaeology, History and Ethno-history for the period from the beginning of the late Iron Age
until the 18th century. Prepared for the main seminar of Professor Ziegert, Archaeological
Institute in Hamburg in the context with a course in 'African Studies,' Hamburg. (UZ)

Bruwer, A. J. 1965. Zimbabwe: Rhodesia' s ancient greatness. Cape Town: Keartland. (attributes
the buildings to the Phoenicians). (NAZ, UZ).

Burke, E. D. 1962. Some aspects of Arab contact with south-east Africa. In Historians in
Tropical Africa: Proceedings of the Leverhulme Inter-Collegiate Conference, September 1960.
E. Stokes (ed.), 93-106. Salisbury: University College of Rhodesia and Nyasaland. (NAZ,
NMMZ Library, UZ).

Burke, E. D. (ed). 1969. The journals of Carl Mauch. Salisbury: National Archives of Rhodesia.
(a collection of the accounts of the German geologists and explorer, who in 1871, was the first
European to visit and report Great Zimbabwe to the outside world). (NAZ, UZ, UP, Wits).

Caroll, S. T. 1988. Solomonic legend: The Muslims and the Great Zimbabwe. The International
Journal of African Historical Studies 21 (2), 233-247. (evaluates the Solomonic legend and its
historiographical orgins, its influence on Muslims-by adopting popular Koranic folklore, which
had long-standing traditions in the ancient world, the Muslims constructed the most elusive myth
of all: the Solomonic theory of the origins of Great Zimbabwe).

Chanaiwa, D. 1973. The Zimbabwe Controversy: a case of colonial historiography. New York,
Syracuse: Syracuse University Press.

Caton-Thompson, G. 1931. The Zimbabwe Culture: ruins and reactions. Oxford: Clarendon
Press. (a report on the excavations conducted at Great Zimbabwe in 1929-30. Gertrude Caton-
Thompson was the first professional archaeologist to argue for the African origins of Great
Zimbabwe). (NMMZ, UCT, UP, UZ, Wits)

Chipunza, K. T. 1993a. A diachronic analysis of the architecture of the Hill Complex at Great
Zimbabwe. Studies in African Archaeology 8. Uppsala: Societas Archaeologica Upsaliensis.
(uses Harris Matrix to interpret the development of stone-walled architecture found on the Hill
Complex, Great Zimbabwe). (NMMZ Library, UZ).

Chipunza, K. T. 1993b. A diachronic analyses of the architecture of the Hill Complex at Great
Zimbabwe. In Caves, Monuments and Texts: Zimbabwean Archaeology today. Studies in African
Archaeology 14. G. Pwiti (eds), 125-142. Uppsala: Department of Archaeology and Ancient
History, Uppsala University. (UP, UZ).

Chirawu, S. 1988. The spatial arrangement of the Mutero peripheral settlement at Great
Zimbabwe. Unpublished BA dissertation, University of Zimbabwe.

19
Collett, D. P., Vines, A. D. and Hughes, E. G. 1992. The chronology of the Valley Enclosures:
implications for the interpretation of Great Zimbabwe. African Archaeological Review 10, 139-
161. (use a combination of architectural wall sequences and imported ceramic material to
question Huffman's interpretation of the use of space and meaning of Great Zimbabwe).

Connah, G. 1987 (2001) (2nd edition). African Civilisations: an illustrated perspective.

Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Connah, G. 2004. Forgotten Africa. London and New York: Routledge. (Chapter 26, pp. 157-
162, "Projecting Power" presents an excellent summary of Great Zimbabwe and sites related to
it).

Cooke, C. and Summers, R. 1959. An archaeological survey of Southern Rhodesia. Salisbury:

Government Printers. (NMMZ Library).

Cortesao, A. and Teixeira, da Mota A. 1960 (1987). Portugaliae Monumenta Cartographica

(with introduction by A. Pinheiro Marques) (in 6 volumes). Lisbon. (This volume is now
available in most major libraries in Europe. It is a compilation of manuscript works and atlases
by Portuguese cartographers dating before 1700).

Dart, R. A. 1955. Foreign influences of the Zimbabwe and pre-Zimbabwe eras. Native Affairs
Department Annual 32, 19-30.

Dicke, B. H. 1931. The lightning birds and other analogies and other traditions connecting the
Bantu with the Zimbabwe Ruins. South African Archaeological Bulletin 28, 505-511. (part of the
Zimbabwe controversy using non-archaeological evidence to identify the builders of Great
Zimbabwe).

Dornan, S. S. 1915/16. Rhodesian ruins and native traditions. South African Journal of Science
12, 502-516.

Douslin, H. B. 1922. Recent explorations at Zimbabwe. Proceedings of the Rhodesia Scientific

Association 20, 61.

Dube, B. 1990. Granite quarrying at Great Zimbabwe. In Proceedings of the 1990 Urban Origins
in Eastern and Southern Africa Workshop at Harare and Great Zimbabwe, P. J. J. Sinclair and
Pwiti, G. (eds), Stockholm: Central Board of National Antiquities.

Ehret, C. 2002. The civilisations of Africa: a history to 1800. Charlottesville: University Press of
Virginia. (Great Zimbabwe and the Indian Ocean trade are covered on pages 251-256).

Fontein, J. 2004. 'Silence, destruction and closure at Great Zimbabwe: local narratives of
desecration and alienation', Paper presented at the Heritage in southern and eastern Africa:
Imagining and marketing public culture and history conference, Livingstone, Zambia, 5-10 July
2004. (Please consult British Institute in Southern Africa for copyright clearance).

Fontein, J. 2005. The Silence of Great Zimbabwe: contested landscapes and the power of
heritage. London: UCL Press. (the politics of African cultural heritage, community alienation in
the management of the national monument, etc).

Frobenius, L. 1931. Erythrean: Lander und Zeiten des heiligen Konigsmordes. Berlin: Atlantis
20
Verlag. (Insisted that a culture called "Erythrean" was responsible for the erection of Great
Zimbabwe. The Erythreans are believed to have come from southern India). (UZ, UP, Wits).

Garlake, P. S. 1968. The value of imported ceramics in the dating and interpretation of the
Rhodesian Iron Age. Journal of African History 9 (1), 13-33.

Garlake, P. S. 1970a. Rhodesian ruins: a preliminary assessment of their styles and chronology.
Journal of African History 2 (4), 495-513. (explores architectural styles of Zimbabwe Tradition
sites and discusses the chronological implications).

Garlake, P. S. 1970b. The decline of Zimbabwe in the fifteenth century. Rhodesian Prehistory 5.

Garlake, P. S. 1973. Great Zimbabwe. London: Thames and Hudson. (a classical volume
covering the prehistory and archaeology of Great Zimbabwe. Reviews antiquarian literature and
the contribution of professional archaeologists from David Randall MacIver, through Gertrude
Caton-Thompson to Roger Summers, Keith Robinson and Anthony Whitty. Discusses post Great
Zimbabwe events, including the Mutapa state in northern Zimbabwe)..

Garlake, P. S. 1974. The Ruins of Zimbabwe. Historical Association of Zambia pamphlet no. 4.
Lusaka: Neczam.

Garlake, P. S. 1978. Pastoralism and Zimbabwe. Journal of African History 19 (4), 479-93.
(explores the environment of the Zimbabwe plateau in terms of sour- and sweetveld, highveld,
middleveld and lowveld, and how these environments could have been exploited by the rulers at
Great Zimbabwe to manage an economy dominated by cattle).

Garlake, P. S. 1982a. Great Zimbabwe: described and explained. Harare: Zimbabwe Publishing
House. (provides a simple, straightforward account of the site-puts emphasis on farming and
cattle-herding as well as gold mining and processing as factors in the rise of Great Zimbabwe.
Useful reading for high school students and the public).

Garlake, P. S. 1982b. Life at Great Zimbabwe. Gweru: Mambo Press. (see Garlake 1982a,
above).

Garlake, P. 1983a. Prehistory and ideology in Zimbabwe. In Past and present in Zimbabwe.
Peel, J. D. and Ranger, T. O. (eds.). Manchester: Manchester University Press. (politics of the
past, including the politicization of Great Zimbabwe during the colonial period).

Garlake, P. 1983b. Early Zimbabwe from the Matopos to Inyanga. Gweru: Mambo Press.

Garlake, P.S. 2002. Early art and architecture of Africa. Oxford: Oxford University Press. (A
chapter provides an excellent discussion and interpretation of the architecture of Great
Zimbabwe).

Gayre of Gayre, R. 1972. The origins of Zimbabwean civisaltion. Salisbury: Galaxie. (Rhodesian
antiquarian apologist literature. Denies that the Africans built Great Zimbabwe. Gayre used
exotic elements found at Zimbabwe Culture settlements and the "megalithic" character of
Zimbabwe Culture to argue for an origin in the Mediterranean area and Arabia).

Hall, M. 1987. The Changing Past: Farmers, kings and traders in southern Africa 200-1860.
Cape Town: David Philip. (Chapter 9, pp. 103-116 gives an excellent presentation of Great
21
Zimbabwe; see also Chapter 8, pp. 91-103 which examines the Zimbabwe-type sites on the
Zimbabwe plateau and adjacent regions).

Hall, M. 1990. Hidden history: Iron Age archaeology in southern Africa. In A history of African
Archaeology, Robertshaw, P. (ed.), 59-77. London: James Currey. (the politics of the past in
southern Africa, Great Zimbabwe included).

Hall, M. 1995a. 'Great Zimbabwe and the Lost City: the cultural colonisation of the South
African past', In Theory in Archaeology: a world perspective, P. J. Ucko (ed.), 28-45. London:
Routledge. (presentation of Great Zimbabwe, discussion of history of archaeological research)

Hall, M. 1995b. 'The Legend of the Lost City or the Man with Golden Balls', Journal of
Southern African Studies 21, 2, 179-199. (The Lost City at Sun City presented in the context of
the history and archaeology of southern Africa' s lost cities. Discusses Great Zimbabwe).

Hall, M. 1996. Archaeology Africa. Cape Town and Johannesburg: David Philip. (pp. 23-30
provides a useful critique of the history of archaeological research in southern Africa).

Hall, M. and Vogel, J. C. 1980. Some recent radiocarbon dates from southern Africa. Journal of
African History 21 (4). (p 452 discusses the chronology of Great Zimbabwe from available
radiocarbon dates; see also Huffman and Vogel 1986, below).

Hall, R. N. 1905. Great Zimbabwe. London: Methuen. (NMMZ Library, UCT, UP, UZ, Wits).

Hall, R. N. 1909. Prehistoric Rhodesia. London: Fisher T. Unwin. (NMMZ Library, UCT, UP,
UZ, Wits).

Hall, R. N. and W. G. Neal. 1902 (1904 2nd edition). The Ancient Ruins of Rhodesia. London:
Methuen. (NMMZ Library, UCT, UP, UZ, Wits).

Herbert, E. W. 1996. Metals and power at Great Zimbabwe. In Aspects of African Archaeology:
Papers from the 10th Congress of the Pan-African Association for Prehistory and Related
Studies, eds G. Pwiti and R. Soper, 641-647. Harare: University of Zimbabwe Publications.
(discusses the role of metallurgy in the rise of Great Zimbabwe).

Hibbert, C. 1982. Africa Explored. Hammondsworth, U.K.: Penguin.

Norwich, I. O. 1983. Maps of Africa: an illustrated and annotated carto-bibliography.

Johannesburg: A. D. Donker.

Nowell, C. 1982. The Rose Coloured Map: Portugal' s attempt to build an African Empire from
the Atlantic to the Indian Ocean. Lisboa: Junta de Investigacoes Cientificas do Ultramar.

Hromnik, C. A. 1981. Indo-Africa: Towards a new understanding of the history of sub-Saharan

Africa. Cape Town: Juta. (argues for a link between the 'megalithic' structures of southern Africa
with those in India. Clearly an antiquarian apologist!).

Huffman, T. N. 1972a. Rise and fall of Zimbabwe. Journal of African History 13 (3), 353-66.
(argues Great Zimbabwe rose primarily as a result of the trade with the societies in the western
Indian Ocean coast).

22
Huffman, T. N. 1972b. An Arab coin from Zimbabwe. Arnoldia 5 (32), 1-7. (a useful artifact in
the dating of Great Zimbabwe and its links with the city of Kilwa, in eastern Africa).

Huffman, T. N. 1974. Ancient mining and Zimbabwe. Journal of Mining and Metallurgy 74,
238-242. (see also Phimister 1974, Swan 1994).

Huffman, T. N. 1977. Zimbabwe: southern Africa's first town. Rhodesian Prehistory 7 (15), 9-
14. (Great Zimbabwe discussed in the context of pre-colonial urbanism).

Huffman, T. N. 1981. Snakes and birds: expressive space at Great Zimbabwe. African Studies
40, 131-150. (interpretation of the use of space at Great Zimbabwe).

Huffman, T. N. 1983. Great Zimbabwe and the politics of space. In The indigenous African
town, Posnanasky, M. and Brokenshow, D. (eds), Los Angeles: Heinemann.

Huffman, T. N. 1984a. Expressive space in the Zimbabwe Culture. Man 19, 593-612.
(interpretation of the use of space at Great Zimbabwe).

Huffman, T. N. 1984b. Where you are the girls gather to play: the Great Enclosure at Great
Zimbabwe. In Frontiers: Southern African Archaeology today, M. Hall, G. Avery, D. M. Avery,
M. L. Wilson and A. J. B. Humphreys (eds), 252-265. Cambridge Monographs in African
Archaeology 10, BAR International series 207. Oxford. (interpretation of space at Great
Zimbabwe).

Huffman, T. N. 1985. Soapstone birds from Great Zimbabwe. African Arts 18, 68-73. (soapstone
birds interpreted as symbols of the intercessory role of one of the king's ancestors; see also
Huffman 1996, pp. 134-137, and Matenga 1998).

Huffman, T. N. 1986. Iron Age settlement patterns and the origin of class distinction in Southern
Africa. Advances in World Archaeology 5, 291-338. (Great Zimbabwe presides over a hierarchy
of settlements synonymous with a state level socio-political organisation).

Huffman, T. N. 1978. Symbols in stone: unravelling the mystery of Great Zimbabwe.

Johannesburg: Witwatersrand University Press. (interpretation of the use of space in, and
meaning of space at, Great Zimbabwe).

Huffman, T. N. 1986. Cognitive studies of the Iron Age in southern Africa. World Archaeology
18, 84-95.

Huffman, T. N. 1996. Snakes and Crocodiles: Power and symbolism in ancient Zimbabwe.
Johannesburg: Witwatersrand University Press. (interprets meaning of the stone structures and
use of space of the Zimbabwe Culture settlements. Focus is on Great Zimbabwe).

Huffman, T. N. 1997a. Architecture and settlement patterns. In Vogel, J. O. (ed.) Encyclopedia

of Precolonial Africa: Archaeology, History, Language, Cultures and Environments. California
and New Delhi: Alta Mira Press, 149-155. (discusses the 'Zimbabwe Pattern', derived from
Portuguese written sources and Shona oral traditions, and uses archaeology to argue for its
evolution from Mapungubwe, in the middle Limpopo valley).

Huffman, T. N. 1997b. The Zambezian States. In Vogel, J. O. (ed.) Encyclopedia of Precolonial

Africa: Archaeology, History, Language, Cultures and Environments. California and New Delhi:
23
Alta Mira Press, 513-520. (discusses, using models of models derived from 19th century Sotho-
Tswana and Shona towns, the political hierarchies of the Zimbezian states, and their origins).

Huffman, T. N. and Vogel, J. C. 1979. The controversial lintels from Great Zimbabwe. Antiquity
53, 55-57.

Huffman, T. N. and Vogel, J. C. 1986. The chronology of Great Zimbabwe. South African
Archaeological Bulletin 46, 61-70.

Jeffreys, M. D. W. 1954. Zimbabwe and Galla Culture. South African Archaeological Bulletin 9,
152. (posited the once commonly held idea that the monumental sites were produced by Galla
invaders from Ethiopia in the 9th century. See also Wainwright 1954).

Keith, A. 1924. A report on two skeletons from ancient gold mines in Rhodesia. Proceedings of
the Rhodesia Science Association 22, 20-22. (his report goes a long way in providing a racial
identity of the builders of Great Zimbabwe and when these arrived on the Zimbabwe plateau).

Latham, C. J. K. 1970. Dzimbadzemabgwe. Native Affairs Department Annual 10 (2), 24-30.

Mabvadya, E. 1990. A study of attitudes towards museums and monuments in Zimbabwe.

Unpublished BA dissertation, University of Zimbabwe.

Mahachi, G. 1991. Space and site structures: an ethnoarchaeological study of Shona settlement
patterning. PhD thesis, University of Cambridge.

Mahachi, G. and Ndoro, W. 1997. The socio-political context of southern African Iron Age
studies with special reference to Great Zimbabwe. In G. Pwiti (ed.), Caves, Monuments and
Texts: Zimbabwean Archaeology today. Studies in African Archaeology 14, 68-88. Uppsala:
Department of Archaeology and Ancient History, Uppsala University.

Mallows, W. 1984. The mystery of the Great Zimbabwe: the key to a major archaeological
enigma. London: Robert Hale. (proposed that Great Zimbabwe was originally constructed as a
slave pen by miners from southern India). (NMMZ Library, UCT, UP, UZ, Wits).

Masey, F. E. 1911. Zimbabwean architect's notes. Proceedings of the Rhodesian Scientific

Association 11,37-56.

Matenga, E. 1993. Archaeological figurines from Zimbabwe. Studies in African Archaeology 5.

Uppsala: Societas Archaeologica Upsaliensis.

Matenga, E. 1996. Conservation history of the Great Enclosure, with reference to the proposed
restoration of a lintel entrance. In Aspects of African Archaeology: Papers from the 10th
Congress of the Pan-African Association for Prehistory and Related Studies, Pwiti, G. and
Soper, R. (eds), 825-828. Harare: University of Zimbabwe Publications. (NMMZ, UZ).

Matenga, E. 1998. The soapstone birds of Great Zimbabwe. Harare: African Publishing Group.
(discusses the symbolic meaning and context of the birds. See also Huffman 1985, 1996).
(NMMZ, UZ).

Matenga, E. 2001. Architectural conservation and environmental management of Great

Zimbabwe. In Saouma-Ferero, G.(ed) Authenticity and Integrity in an African Context. Paris,
24
UNESCO.

Matenga, E. 2003. An evaluation of the critical economic resources of Great Zimbabwe, 1200-
1500 AD: a preliminary ethno-botanical survey of edible wild fruits. In Climate change, trade
and modes of production in sub-Saharan Africa. F. Chami, G. Pwiti and C. Radimilahy (eds),
118-127. Studies in the Africa Past 3. Dar es Salaam: Dar es Salaam University Press (Gives an
ethno-botanical survey which documents fruit trees in the Great Zimbabwe district, to shed more
light on the dietary regime of the site's inhabitants). (NMMZ Library, UZ).

Matenga, E. and Chikwanda, G. 2000. Illegal mining at Chumnungwa Ruins, Zimbabwe 1995-
1997: Some aspects of community attitudes towards heritage protection. Journal of Conservation
and Management of Archaeological Heritage Vol. 4, 167-175.

Mauch, K. 1870. Reisen im inneren von Sud-Africa. Petermann'

s Geographischen Mitteilungen
16, 1-8, 92-103, 139-142 (a popular newsletter giving accounts of 19th century European
explorations).

Mauch, K. 1872. Entdeckung der ruinen von Zimbaoe. Petermann' s Geographischen

Mitteilungen 18, 121-126 (a popular newsletter giving accounts of 19th century European
explorations; covers Mauch’s visit to Great Zimbabwe in 1871).

Mauch, K. 1876. Vorlaufige notiz uber die ruinen von Zimbabwe. In Ver(d)handlungen der
Berliner Gesellschaft der Anthropologie, Ethnologie und Urgeschichte fur 8, 185-189. (a letter
by Mauch discussing his finds. A report with slightly less detail was published in a supplement
to Geographischen Mittheilungen (1974). Translations are contained in Benard, F. O. (ed. and
trans.) Karl Mauch: African Explorer (Cape Town, 1971).

Mennell, F. P. 1902. The Zimbabwe Ruins, near Victoria, Southern Rhodesia. Proceedings of the
Rhodesia Scientific Association 3, 69-70.

Ministry of Information, 1929. Fort Victoria and Great Zimbabwe. Salisbury: The Southern
Rhodesia Publicity Bureau. (a guide book to Great Zimbabwe and the town of Fort Victoria, now
Masvingo).

Mitchell, P. 2002. The Archaeology of southern Africa. Cambridge World Archaeology.

Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. (Chapter 11, pp. 300-343, "The Zimbabwe Tradition"
looks at the development of the Zimbabwe Culture from Mapungubwe)

Mtetwa, R. M. G. 1976a. The 'political' and economic history of the Duma people of south-
eastern Rhodesia from the early eighteenth century to 1945, University of Rhodesia [Zimbabwe],
unpublished D. Phil thesis. (see pages 90-107 on religion at Great Zimbabwe).

Mtetwa, R. M. G. 1976b. Labour supplies and the construction of the Zimbabwe and
implications. Rhodesian Prehistory 17, 8-10.

Mufuka, K. N. 1983. Dzimbahwe: Life and politics in the Golden Age, 1100-1500 AD.
Masvingo: Belmont Press. (attempts to use oral traditions to provide a detailed picture of the pre-
1500 period)

Mullan, J. E. 1969. The Arab builders of Zimbabwe. Umtali: J. E. Mullan. (Dissedent Arabs from
Yemen are said to have built Great Zimababwe).
25
Murambiwa, I. 1991. Archaeological heritage management in England and Zimbabwe.
Unpublished MPhil thesis, University of Cambridge.

Muringaniza, J. S. and Ruwitah, A. R. R. M. 1996. Ethnography and archaeological

interpretation of the use of space at Zimbabwe tradition sites. Zimbabwea 4, 23-33. (a critique of
T. N. Huffman's interpretation of use of space at Great Zimbabwe and other Zimbabwe tradition
sites).

Mvenge, G. and Masona, T. 1994. Growing in the shadows of Great Zimbabwe. Harare:
Zimbabwe Literature Bureau. (NMMZ Library).

Ndoro, W. 1994. The preservation and presentation of Great Zimbabwe. Antiquity 68, 616-623.

Ndoro, W. 1996a. Restoration of dry-stone walls at Great Zimbabwe. Conservation and

Management of Archaeological Sites 2, 87-96.

Ndoro, W. 1996b. Redefining the cultural landscape around Great Zimbabwe. In People,
contacts and the environment in the African past. Studies in the African Past 1, Chami, F, Pwiti,
G. and Radimilahy, C. (eds.), 151-167. Dar es Salaam: Dar es Salaam University Press. (UZ).

Ndoro, W. 1997. The evolution of a management policy at Great Zimbabwe. In Caves,

Monuments and Texts: Zimbabwean Archaeology today. Studies in African Archaeology 14. G.
Pwiti (eds), 109-124. Uppsala: Department of Archaeology and Ancient History, Uppsala
University. (NMMZ Library, UZ).

Ndoro, W. 2001. Your Monument Our Shrine: the preservation of Great Zimbabwe. Studies in
African Archaeology 19. Uppsala University: Department of Archaeology and Ancient History.
(NMMZ Library, UZ, UP).

Ndoro, W. and Pwiti, G. 1997. Marketing the past: the "Shona" village at Great Zimbabwe.
Conservation and Management of Archaeological Sites 2 (10), 3-8.

Ndoro, W. and Pwiti, G. 1999. The legacy of colonialism: perceptions of the cultural heritage in
southern Africa with special reference to Zimbabwe. African Archaeological Review 16 (3), 143-
153.

Norwich, I. O. 1983. Maps of Africa: an illustrated and annotated carto-bibliography.

Johannesburg: A. D. Donker.

Nowell, C. 1982. The Rose Coloured Map: Portugal' s attempt to build an African Empire from
the Atlantic to the Indian Ocean. Lisboa: Junta de Investigacoes Cientificas do Ultramar.

Parfitt, I. 1992. Journey to the vanished city: The journey for a lost tribe of Israel. London:
Hodder and Houghton. (argues Great Zimbabwe was built by a lost tribe of Israel).

Petermann, A. (ed.). 1874. Karl Mauch's reisen im inneren von Sud-Africa. Petermann' s
Mitteilungen, Erganzung Vol 8, 1873-1874, no. 37. (see map of Karl Mauch's journey through
the territory of Great Zimbabwe).

Peters, K. 1900. The discovery of Ophir. Harper'

s Monthly Magazine 102, 115-124. (thought
26
Great Zimbabwe was built by Egyptians. Conducted highly publicized surveys in the Mt Fura
region of northern Zimbabwe. His research, like most early investigations, was a misguided
attempt to locate evidence of ancient occupation).

Phillipson, D. W. 1985 (3rd edition, 2005). African Archaeology. Cambridge Africa Collection.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. (Mapungubwe, Great Zimbabwe and related sites are
discussed on pages 297-304).

Phimister, I. R. 1974. Ancient mining near Great Zimbabwe. Journal of the South African
Institute of Mining and Metallurgy 74, 233-237. (examines pre-colonial mining near Great
Zimbabwe. Great Zimbabwe inhabitants might have explored alluvial gold in the rivers nearby,
although these were not as rich as those found in western Zimbabwe).

Pikirayi, I. 1997. Precolonial towns of Zambezia. In Vogel, J. O. (ed.) Encyclopedia of

Precolonial Africa: Archaeology, History, Language, Cultures and Environments. California and
New Delhi: Alta Mira Press, 520-528. (discusses Mapungubwe, Great Zimbabwe, Khami,
Naletale, Danangombe and other stone buildings of the Zimbabwe Culture). (UCT, UP, UZ,
Wits).

Pikirayi, I. 2001a. The Zimbabwe Culture: Origins and decline of southern Zambezian states.
Walnut Creek, New York and Oxford: Alta Mira Press. (chapters 5 explores the rise,
development and fall of Great Zimbabwe from 1290 to 1450 AD). (UCT, UP, UZ, Wits).

Pikirayi, I. 2001b. The physical environment and the landscapes of Great Zimbabwe Culture
states. In Chami, F., Pwiti, G., and Radimilahy, C. (eds) People, Contacts and the Environments
in the African Past. Studies in the African Past 1. Dar es Salaam: DUP, 129-150. (an
environmental appraisal of the landscape of Great Zimbabwe and other pre-colonial states on the
Zimbabwe plateau). (NMMZ, UZ).

Pikirayi, I. 2006. The demise of Great Zimbabwe, 1450-1550: an environmental appraisal. Cities
in the World 1500-2000: Proceedings of the Society for Post-Medieval Archaeology Conference,
Southampton, 18-20 April 2002 (eds Roger Leech and Adrian Green), Maney Publishing. (an
appraisal of the decline of Great Zimbabwe).

Pikirayi, I. 2006 (in press). 'The kingdom, the power and forevermore: Zimbabwe Culture in
contemporary art and architecture', Journal of Southern African Studies (special issue on
marketing African heritage and culture). (Presentation of Great Zimbabwe architectural heritage
in the present. Politicisation of the past using Great Zimbabwe).

Pwiti, G. 1997. The origins and development of stone building cultures of Zimbabwe. In
Legacies of stone: past and present (vol .1), Dewey, W. J. (ed.), 77-95. Brussels: Royal Museum
for Central Africa.

Randall-MacIver, D. 1906. Medieval Rhodesia. London: Macmillan and Co. Ltd. (the first
professional archaeologist to work at Great Zimbabwe and to suggest a 'Medieval Age' for the
site, contrary to ideas of antiquarian investigators such as Theodore Bent and Richard Hall).

Randles, W. G. L. 1958. South-East Africa and the Empire of Monomatapa as shown on selected
printed maps of the 16th century. Studia 2, 103-163. (compiles the relevant geographical sources
relationg to Ophir. The region of south eastern Africa is considered as a plausible possibility for
the location of Ophir).
27
Randles, W. G. L. 1975. The Empire of the Monomotapa from the fifteenth to the nineteenth
century. Gweru: Mambo Press. (focuses on documentary and cartographic evidence on the
Mutapa state in northern Zimbabwe, but earlier references are relevant to Great Zimbabwe).

Robinson, K. R. 1959. Khami Ruins. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. (NMMZ Library,
UCT, UP, UZ, Wits).

Robinson, K. R. 1961a. Zimbabwe Pottery. In Occasional Papers of the National Museums and
Monuments of Southern Rhodesia 23a, 193-226. (a description and characterisation of the pottery
recovered at Great Zimbabwe).

Robinson, K. R. 1961b. Excavations on the Acropolis Hill. In Occasional Papers of the National
Museums and Monuments of Southern Rhodesia 23a, 159-192. (a description and
characterasation of the pottery recovered at Great Zimbabwe).

Robinson, K. R. 1966. The archaeology of the Rozvi. In The Zambezian Past, Stokes, E. and
Brown, R. (eds), 3-27. Manchester: Manchester University Press.

Robinson, K. R., R. Summers and A. Whitty 1961. Some General Conclusions. In Occasional
Papers of the National Museums of Rhodesia 23a, 226-333. (summarises main research findings
of the excavations of the 1950s).

Schofield, J. F. 1926. Zimbabwe: a critical examination of the building methods employed.

South African Journal of Science 23, 971-986.

Schlichter, H. 1899. Travels and researches in Rhodesia. Geographical Journal 13 (4), 376-396.
(compares Great Zimbabwe to Solomon's temple).

Schrubsall, F. C. 1909. A brief note on two crania and some long bones from ancient ruins in
Rhodesia. Man. article 41.

Sinamai, A. 1997a. Heritage and politics: the Great Zimbabwe controversy. Social Change and
Development 42/42, 12-14.

Sinamai, A. 1997b. Wood from the western entrance, Great Enclosure, Great Zimbabwe.
Zimbabwea 5. National Museums and Monuments of Zimbabwe.

Sinamai, A. 1998: Heritage in Politics: Great Zimbabwe in the struggle for self-determination. In
Culture and Development: Perspectives from the South. Chiwome, E. M. and Gambahaya Z.
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Sinamai, A. 2003. Contested Heritage: the socio-political contexts of Zimbabwe sites in

Zimbabwe, South Africa and Botswana. Masters in Public History (Heritage Management),
University of the Western Cape.

Sinamai, A. 2004 Coming in Second: the dilemmas of managing and marketing Khami World
heritage Site. Paper presented at the B.I.E.A. Conference on Heritage in Southern and Eastern
Africa, Livingstone Zambia.

Sinclair, P. J. J. 1977. First steps towards the reconstruction of the rural economy of the
28
Zimbabwe state. Paper presented at the International Conference on Southern African History,
Roma, Lesotho (paper examines the area beyond Great Zimbabwe to give us an idea of where
agriculture, hunting and other branches of the state's economy could have been carried out.
Sources-Uppsala University, Department of Archaeology and Ancient History).

Sinclair, P. J. J. 1984. Some aspects of the economic level of the Zimbabwe state. Zimbabwea 1,
48-53.

Sinclair, P. J. J. 1985. Excavations at Chivowa Hill, South Central Zimbabwe. Working Papers
in African Studies No. 9. Uppsala University: Department of Cultural Anthropology. (one of the
Gumanye period settlements which contributed to the rise of Great Zimbabwe).

Sinclair, P. J. J. 1987. Space, time and social formation: A territorial approach to the
archaeology and anthropology of Zimbabwe and Mozambique, c. 0-1700 AD. Uppsala: Societas
Archaeologica Upsaliensis. (NMMZ Library, UP, UZ).

Sinclair, P. J. J. 1991. Archaeology in eastern Africa: A review of current chronological issues.

In Journal of African History 32, 179-219.

Sinclair, P. J. J. and H. Lundmark, H. 1984. A spatial analysis of archaeological sites from

Zimbabwe, In Frontiers: Southern African Archaeology today, M. Hall, G. Avery, D. M. Avery,
M. L. Wilson and A. J. B. Humphreys (eds), Cambridge Monographs in African Archaeology
10, BAR International series 207. Oxford.

Sinclair, P. J. J., I. Pikirayi, G. Pwiti and R. Soper 1993. Urban trajectories on the Zimbabwe
plateau. In The Archaeology of Africa: Food, Metals and Towns., Shaw, T., Sinclair, P. J. J.,
Andah, B. and Okpoko, A. (eds), 705-31. London: Routledge.

Soper, R. C. 1997. Review of T. N. Huffman's Snakes and Crocodiles: Power and symbolism in
ancient Zimbabwe. Azania 32, 123-127.

Stevens, C. 1931. The Zimbabwe temple. Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute 61, 181-
187.

Stone, P. 1994. Report on the development of the education service of the National Museums and
Monuments of Zimbabwe. London: English Heritage.

Summers, R. 1955. The dating of the Zimbabwe ruins. Antiquity 29, 107-111.

Summers, R. 1958. Structural decoration on Rhodesian ruins. Occasional Papers of the National
Museum of Southern Rhodesia 22a, 148-53. (NAZ, NMMZ Library, UZ).

Summers, R. 1961. Excavations in the Great Enclosure. Occasional Papers of the National
Museums of Southern Rhodesia 23a, 236-288. (NAZ, NMMZ Library, UZ).

Summers, R. 1963a (1965). Zimbabwe: a Rhodesian mystery. Cape Town: Don Nelson. (NAZ,
NMMZ Library, UCT, UP, UZ, Wits).

Summers, R. 1963b. The riddle of Zimbabwe. In Bacon, E. (ed.). Vanished Civilizations:

Forgotten peoples of the ancient world. London., pp. 43-54. (NAZ, NMMZ Library).

29
Summers, R. 1964. Guide to the Zimbabwe ruins. Bulawayo: Historical Monuments
Commission. (NAZ, NMMZ Library).

Summers, R. 1967. Iron Age industries of southern Africa, with notes on their chronology,
terminology and economic status. In W. W. Bishop and J. D. Clark (eds.). Background to
evolution in Africa, pp. 687-700. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Summers, R. 1969. Ancient mining in Rhodesia and adjacent areas. Salisbury: National
Museums of Rhodesia Memoir No.3. (NAZ, NMMZ Library, UCT, UP, UZ, Wits).

Summers, R. 1970. Forty years' progress in Iron Age studies in Rhodesia, 1929-1969. South
African Archaeological Bulletin 25, 95-103.

Summers, R. 1971. Ancient ruins and vanished civilizations of southern Africa. Cape Town:
Gothic Printing. (NAZ, NMMZ Library, UCT, UP, UZ, Wits).

Summers, R. and Whitty, A. 1961. The development of the Great Enclosure. Occasional Papers
of the National Museums of Rhodesia 23a, 306-325. (NAZ, NMMZ Library, UZ).

Summers, R. Robinson, K. R. and Whitty, A. 1961. Zimbabwe excavations. In Occasional

Papers of the National Museums of Rhodesia 23a, 15-332. (summarises main research findings
of the excavations of the 1950s. see also a presentation of glass beads by Robinson). (NAZ,
NMMZ Library, UZ).

Swan, L. 1994. Early gold mining on the Zimbabwean plateau: Changing patterns of gold
production in the first and second millennium AD. Studies in African Archaeology 9. Uppsala:
Societas Archaeologica Upsaliensis. (NMMZ Library, UZ, UP).

Sundstrom, J. 1992. A stratigraphical interpretation of the previous studies of Great Zimbabwe.

Unpublished C-Paper, Institutionen for Arkeologi, Uppsala University.

Tangri, D. 1990. Popular fiction and the Zimbabwe controversy. History in Africa 17, 293-304.

Thornton, J. 1997. Historiography in Africa. In Vogel, J. O. (ed.) Encyclopedia of Precolonial

Africa: Archaeology, History, Language, Cultures and Environments. California and New Delhi:
Alta Mira Press, 54-58.

Thorp, C. 1984. Faunal remains as evidence of social stratification at Great Zimbabwe.

Unpublished MA dissertation, University of the Witwatersrand.

Thorp, C. R. 1996. Kings, commoners and cattle at Zimbabwe Tradition sites. Harare: National
Museums and Monuments of Zimbabwe. (provides an analysis of faunal remains recovered at
Great Zimbabwe and successor sites such as Khami to shed light on the dietary patterns of the
sites' inhabitants). (NMMZ Library, UZ).

Van Oordt, J. 1909. Who were the builders of Great Zimbabwe? Cape Town: Central News
Agency. (argues that Great Zimbabwe was built by the Dravidian Indians, from southern India).

Vines, A. 1987/1988. Myth making and invented tradition: the case of Great Zimbabwe. Staff
seminar paper no. 8, Department of History, University of Nairobi.

30
Vogel, J. O. 1994. Great Zimbabwe: the Iron Age in south-Central Africa. New York: Garland.
(discusses the Queen of Sheba myth). (UCT, UP, Wits).

Vogel, J. O. 1998. Merensky and Nachtigal in southern Africa. Journal of African Travel Writing
4, 20-30. (discusses the Queen of Sheba myth).

Wainwright, G. A. 1949. The founders of Zimbabwe civilisation. Man 49, article 80. (posited the
once commonly held idea that the monumental sites were produced by Galla invaders from
Ethiopia in the 9th century).

Wafawanaka, M. 1991. A comparative analysis of Musengezi tradition and Great Zimbabwe

small finds from sites in northern Mashonaland. Unpublished BA Special Honours dissertation.
University of Zimbabwe: History Department.

Wallace, S. T. 1936. Zimbabwe: the mysterious Southern Rhodesia ruins. The High Commission
of Southern Rhodesia. (NAZ, NMMZ Library).

Walker, P. J. 1993. The architectural development of Great Zimbabwe. Azania 28, 87-102.

Walton, J. 1955. The soapstone birds of Zimbabwe. South African Archaeological Bulletin 10,
78-84.

White, F. 1903-4. Observations on recent discoveries at ancient ruins. Proceedings of the

Rhodesia Scientific Association 4, 14-20. (NAZ, NMMZ Library, UZ).

White, F. 1905. The large elliptical ruin at Great Zimbabwe. Proceedings of the Rhodesia
Scientific Association 5, 11-20. (NAZ, NMMZ Library, UZ).

Whitty, A. 1957 . The origins of the stone architecture of Zimbabwe. In Third Pan-African
Congress on Prehistory, J. D. Clark and S. Cole (eds), 366-77. London: Chatto and Windus.
(NAZ, NMMZ Library, UZ).

Whitty, A. 1957-1961. Architectural style at Zimbabwe. Occasional Papers of the National

Museums of Rhodesia 23a, 289-305. (NAZ, NMMZ Library, UZ).

Whitty, A. 1959. A classification of prehistoric stone buildings in Mashonaland, southern

Rhodesia. South African Archaeological Bulletin 14 (54), 57-71.

Wieschoff, H. A. 1941. The Zimbabwe-Monomotapa Culture in south-east Africa. General

Studies in Anthropology. Menasha, Wisconsin: G. Bata. (NAZ, NMMZ Library, UP, UZ, Wits).

Willoughby, W. C. 1893. A narrative of further excavations at Zimbabwe. London: George

Philip and Son. (NAZ, NMMZ Library, UZ).

Published primary documents with some references to Great Zimbabwe

da Silva Rego, A. and Baxter, T. W. 1962-1975. Documents on the Portuguese in Mozambique

and Central Africa (DPMCA), 1497-1840. Lisbon: Centro de Estudos Historicos Ultramarinos,
and, Salisbury: The National Archives of Rhodesia and Nyasaland. (NAZ, NMMZ Library, UZ).

Theal, G. M. 1898-1903. Records of South Eastern Africa (in 9 volumes). Cape Town: C. Struik.
31
(NAZ, NMMZ Library, UCT, UP, UZ, Wits).

Theal, G. M. 1912. Catalogue of books and pamphlets relating to Africa south of the Zambezi (in
the English, Dutch, French and Portuguese languages). Cape Town and Pretoria: T. Maskew
Miller. (NAZ, NMMZ Library, UCT, UP, UZ, Wits).

Sources, published and unpublished, on the conservation and management of Great Zimbabwe

Acceptance of Great Zimbabwe nomination to the World Heritage List. UNESCO Convention
concerning the protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage Committee, Tenth Session,
(Paris, UNESCO Headquarters, 24-28 November 1986), Report of the Rapporteur, CC-
86/CONF. 003/10, Paris, 5 December 1986.

Collett, D. P. 1991. The archaeological heritage of Zimbabwe: a masterplan for resource

conservation and development. Harare: National Museums and Monuments of Zimbabwe.

Chauke, C. 2002. Community participation in management of cultural heritage: co-management

and participatory management on Zimbabwe. Unpublished MA thesis in Heritage Studies,
History Department, University of Zimbabwe.

International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS) World Heritage List no. 364:
nomination of Great Zimbabwe national monument, June 25 1985. (ICOMOS recommendations
in response to the nomination of the site by the state party, based on criteria (i), (iii) and (vi) of
the World Heritage List. Some brief descriptions of Great Zimbabwe’s main components.
ICOMOS recommendations remind Zimbabwe of the Sassoon report of 1982, particularly with
regards to the conservation of the dhaka structures).

Matenga, E. 1996. Conservation history of the Great Enclosure, with reference to the proposed
restoration of a lintel entrance. In Aspects of African Archaeology: Papers from the 10th
Congress of the Pan-African Association for Prehistory and Related Studies, Pwiti, G. and
Soper, R. (eds), 825-828. Harare: University of Zimbabwe Publications. (NMMZ Library, UZ).

Mueller, T. 1998. Proposal for improving the landscape of the Great Zimbabwe National
Monument Estate. Unpublished consultant report. National Museums and Monuments of
Zimbabwe. (paper gives a botanical survey of Great Zimbabwe environs, and makes
recommendations for the reclamation and restoration of its indigenous woody vegetation)

Munjeri, D. 2001. The notions of integrity and authenticity: the emerging themes in Africa. In:
G. Saouma-Forero (ed.), Authenticy and Integrity in an African Context. Expert meeting, Great
Zimbabwe 26-29 May 2000. Paris: UNESCO.

Munjeri, D. 2003. Anchoring African cultural and natural heritage: the significance of local
community awareness in the context of capacity-building. Linking universal and local values:
managing a sustainable future for world heritage. World Heritage Series No.13. Paris: UNESCO
World Heritage Centre. pp. 76-80 (Great Zimbabwe is one of the four case studies from Africa,
on pp. 77-78).

Munjeri, D., Ndoro, W.and Edroma, E. 2002. The Global Strategy: World Heritage Convention
in Africa Workshop Manual. Harare, National Museums and Monuments of Zimbabwe.

Munjeri, D., Ndoro. W., Sibanda, C., Saouma-Forero, G., Levi-Strauss, L. and Mbuyamba, L.
32
(eds.) 1995. African Cultural Heritage and the World Heritage Convention. First Global Strategy
Meeting, Harare (11-13 October 1995). Harare: National Museums and Monuments of
Zimbabwe.

Murambiwa, I. 1991. Archaeological heritage management in England and Zimbabwe.

Unpublished MPhil thesis, University of Cambridge.

Ndoro, W. 1990. An investigation into the pattern of failure mechanism of daga (earth)
structures at Zimbabwe type monuments. In Adobe 90, Agnew, N. (ed), 3-6. Los Angeles: Getty
Conservation Institute.

Ndoro, W. 1994. The preservation and presentation of Great Zimbabwe. Antiquity 68, 616-623.

Ndoro, W. 1996a. Restoration of dry-stone walls at Great Zimbabwe. Conservation and

Management of Archaeological Sites 2, 87-96.

Ndoro, W. 1996b. Past and present conservation policy on the dry stone heritage of Zimbabwe.
Monuments and Sites (Zimbabwe). Paris: ICOMOS.

Ndoro, W. 1997. The evolution of a management policy at Great Zimbabwe. In Caves,

Monuments and Texts: Zimbabwean archaeology today. Studies in African Archaeology 14. G.
Pwiti (eds), 109-124. Uppsala: Department of Archaeology and Ancient History, Uppsala
University.

Ndoro, W. 2001. Your Monument Our Shrine: the preservation of Great Zimbabwe. Studies in
African Archaeology 19. Uppsala University: Department of Archaeology and Ancient History.
(NMMZ Library, UZ, UP).

Ndoro, W. 2003. traditional and customary heritage systems: nostalgia or reality? the
implications of managing heritage sites in Africa. Linking universal and local values: managing
a sustainable future for world heritage. World Heritage Series No.13. Paris: UNESCO World
Heritage Centre. pp. 81-84. (not primarily focussing on Great Zimbabwe but management of
cultural heritage sites in Zimbabwe and other African countries in general).

Ndoro, W. 2005. The preservation of Great Zimbabwe: your monument, our shrine. ICCROM
Conservation Studies 4. Rome: ICCROM.

Ndoro, W. and Pwiti, G. 1997. Marketing the past: the "Shona" village at Great Zimbabwe.
Conservation and Management of Archaeological Sites 2 (10), 3-8.

Ndoro, W. and Pwiti, G. 2005 (eds). Legal frameworks for the protection of cultural heritage in
Africa. ICCROM Conservation Studies 5. Rome: ICCROM.

Nehowa, O. 1990. Using trillatiration for monitoring wall deformations. Unpublished

documentation report on Great Zimbabwe monitoring scheme, National Museums and
Monuments of Zimbabwe.

Nehowa, O. 1997. Evaluation of the environmental management system at Great Zimbabwe.

Unpublished internal report, National Museums and Monuments of Zimbabwe.

Periodic Report Africa 2002. Reporting exercise on the World Heritage Convention. World
33
Heritage Report No. 3. Paris: UNESCO World Heritage Centre (see pages 36, 11, 45, 49, 73, 78
and 86 on Great Zimbabwe and other sites related to it).

Rodrigues, J. and Manuelshagen, 1987. Preservation of Great Zimbabwe and Khami Ruins.
Series no. FMR/CC/CH/87/217. Paris: UNESCO.

Sassoon, H. 1992. Preservation of Great Zimbabwe. Technical Report, Series no.

FMR/CCCT/CT/82/156. Paris: UNESCO.

Schofield, J. F. 1924. The Acropolis at Zimbabwe. Journal of African Society 25, 122-4.

Schofield, J. F. 1926. Zimbabwe: a critical examination of the building methods employed.

South African Journal of Science 32, 508-527.

Schofield, J. F. 1935. The Ancient Ruins Company Limited. Man 35, 19-20.

Sinamai, A. 1997. Wood from the Western Entrance, Great Enclosure, Great Zimbabwe.
Zimbabwea 5. National Museums and Monuments of Zimbabwe.

Saouma-Forero, G. (ed.) 2001, Authenticity and Integrity in an African Context. Expert meeting,
Great Zimbabwe, 26-29 May 2000. Paris: UNESCO.

Walker, P. J. 1993. The architectural development of Great Zimbabwe. Azania 28, 87-102.

Walker, P. J. and Dickens, J. 1992. An engineering study of dry stone monuments in Zimbabwe
(vols 1 and 2). Loughborough: Loughborough University . (NMMZ Library, UZ).

Ucko, P. J. 1994. Museums and sites: cultures of the past within education in Zimbabwe, some
ten years on. In The presented past: heritage, museums and education. Stone, P. G. and
Molyneaux, B. L. (eds.)., 237-278. London: Routledge.

Unpublished primary archaeological sources

Blake-Thompson, J. 1934. Notes on Zimbabwe collected between 1921 and 1946. National
Museums and Monuments of Zimbabwe survey files. (NMMZ Library).

Robinson, Keith Radcliffe, 1947-1969, Natural History Museum, Bulawayo. (original notes, etc.
on the excavations at Great Zimbabwe, Khami and other sites). (Bulawayo Museum Library).

Popular fiction and Great Zimbabwe

Buchan, John 1910. Prester John. London. (Bantu people in south eastern Africa are considered
primitive and unintelligent, but he believes they may have built Great Zimbabwe, and as such
were regarded as a danger to the white people. They had to be denied knowledge of their past
because of this.).

Smith, W. 1972.The Sunbird. London: St Martins Paperbacks (a fiction germane of the Great
Zimbabwe controversy. Attacked academic archaeologists, who are seen as siding with black
African nationalists. Black people considered inferior).

34
 SECTION 4: Introduction to the Nyanga archaeological complex

Description of the complex

The Nyanga highlands are part of the Eastern Highlands of Zimbabwe and adjacent
Mozambique. An archaeological complex dating from the early 14th century dominates the
mountainous landscape. The complex, which occupies about 8000 square kilometers spans from
the upper reaches of the Honde and Odzi rivers in the south, to the middle reaches of the Ruenya
and Matisi rivers in the north. A majority of the sites within the complex are found east of the
Ruenya, occupying the highlands and lowlands that form the Nyanga plateau, the adjacent
escarpment and adjacent lower plains. Because this is a high altitude area (Mt Nyangani is the
highest peak in Zimbabwe, rising to 2592 m above sea level), it experiences low temperatures
and higher rainfall than the surrounding lowlands. There is also considerable temperature and
rainfall variability between the highlands, the escarpments and the lowlands. The Nyanga
highlands appear to have supported fairly high concentrations of people because of the fertile
dolerite-derived soils. It is for this reason that as population densities increased, cultivation
extended towards the steeper escarpments and lower slopes, creating a risk of soil erosion. This
may have forced population dispersal towards other regions, leaving the area largely depopulated
in the 19th century (see Beach 1995, 1996). The earliest settlements of the Nyanga complex are
located in altitudes ranging between 1400 m and 2000 m above sea level. Later settlements
occupy altitudes lower that 1400 m, attesting to the spread of the complex towards lowlands.
The Nyanga highlands were first settled in the 14th century, when climate conditions
were increasingly becoming cooler and drier. The area may have experienced considerable forest
clearance with increased settlement in the highland zones. This may have resulted in timber
shortage, forcing humans to rely on stone for building. The early hilltop sites are found at
World's View, Chirimanyimo Hill, Rukotso and Mt Muozi. These cover several hectares, and
largely reflect a nucleated pattern (Soper 2002, p. 123). Houses are supported by terraced
platforms, while livestock were kept in walled hollows. Some hilltop sites such as those at
Chirimanyimo may have been occupied by some elite–their size is taken into account–but they
lack tangible evidence of wealth such as glass beads. While the inhabitants grazed cattle, it is not
yet clear whether they cultivated any crops, given the cool to colder conditions obtaining at the
time. There are no comparative sites in the lowlands during this time, and apparently the
explanation to why such high altitudes were preferred for human settlement remains largely
speculative. According to Soper (2002, p. 132), their location suggests relative isolation or
concealment from some external threat. It is highly probable they were responding to the
growing influence of the Great Zimbabwe state, whose settlements have been located near
Rusape, some 80-90 km from the southern part of the complex.
Pit structures–both ruined and well preserved–date from the 16th/17th centuries, and on
the basis of ceramic evidence, developed from the earlier hilltop settlements. Ruined structures
have a limited, higher altitude distribution. Well-preserved terraces continue into the 19th
century, and appear to derive from the ruined structures, and this may explain their wider
distribution compared to the latter, occupying altitudes of about 1400 m above seal level. Clearly
the area was experiencing a population expansion. Settlement migration from higher altitudes to
the lower ones may have been attributed to climate, which was changing towards warmer and
wetter conditions during the 16th century. However, more research is required to explore the
implications of population increases in the lower altitudes, which may have been encouraged by
the need to move out of concealment. The pit structures were probably organized along family
homesteads, distributed in loose, kin-based social groups akin to villages. Sites with double or
satellite pit structures are apparently richer in livestock.
Terraces are apparently associated with well-preserved pit structures in the lowlands.
This is indicative of the growing importance of crop cultivation, in addition to livestock farming.
35
In the lowlands are pit enclosures and double-concentric enclosures, and besides, both types of
structures seem to relate to simpler stone structures that are also found in there. The pit structures
at Ziwa show occupation dating to the 18th and 19th centuries, and seem to derive from the well
preserved pit structures of the previous centuries. The enclosures in the lowlands are loosely
clustered, which is indicative of a local population concentration. Homesteads are closely
integrated with terracing, with walled trackways skirting field systems (Soper 2002, p. 134).
There is variation in homestead sizes, some with or without pits or inner enclosures for livestock
penning, but their standardization suggests that only selected beasts were kept in these, with the
rest kept elsewhere. Soper (2002, p. 134) suggests these homesteads were occupied for not more
than a single generation, with some being abandoned following the death of the owner, while
new ones were built nearby. This indicates a cycle of abandonment and renovation of some of
the homesteads, in line with the fallowing cycle for the terraced fields.
Fortified settlements in the lowlands also show some variation, with those at Ziwa
showing evidence of regular occupation, while those found further north in Nyautare are simpler
and smaller, pointing towards less regular occupation. Those in Nyangombe are fairly sizeable,
and could have been under chiefly control. Both highland and lowland communities interacted
with each other, as was clearly the case between Ziwa and adjacent highlands. Interaction may
have involved the exchange of cattle and agricultural produce. The movement of cattle from the
lowlands to graze on the highland pastures, as has been noted recently in the case of Ruangwe
further north, is a very strong possibility.
The population must have increased with time, but the region was not over-populated at
any one time. Nineteenth century estimates for areas such as Unyama slightly exceed 5000
people.

Regional context

The Nyanga archaeological complex represents the work of specialized farming communities
pushed aside by expanding Zimbabwe Culture communities (Pikirayi 2001a). The complex is
identified linguistically with the Manyika people to the south and Unyama to the north (Beach
1996, pp. 717-718). Previously, it was thought that that the Sena-speaking Tonga were
responsible, having been forced to this marginal environment by unstable conditions in the
Zambezi valley, especially the events connected with the Zimba menace during the second half
of the 16th century (Summers 1958). These factors resulted in population displacements from the
Zambezi valley toward the mountainous plateau regions both to the north and south of the river
(Isaacman 1972a, b, Newitt 1973).
The appearance of the Nyanga archaeological complex in the northern part of Manyika
suggests that a portion of the Manyika expansion involved the occupation of lands traditionally
owned by the Unyama. In part this stems from the Portuguese involvement in Manyika after
1570, when Vasco Homem occupied the gold mines there (Bhila 1982, Mudenge 1988).
Although the Manyika survived the threat posed by the Zimba in the lower Zambezi, their polity
soon became part of Sena, the Portuguese using it as a base to launch attacks and expeditions
against neighbouring states (Bhila 1982, chapter 2). Between 1632 and 1695, the Portuguese
rained chaos on the Manyika region, as well as adjacent territories of Mukaranga, Barwe and
Uteve (Theal 1898-1903). These events are poorly recorded, and we do not know what the
impact the Portuguese had on the terrace builders to the north. Fortified settlements were
constructed in response to this development as well as the much earlier developments associated
with the expansion of the Zimbabwe state. While these external threats may not have impacted
the communities in the mountains in a significant way, it is important not to underestimate their
contribution in marginalizing the inhabitants of the complex, and in the creation of apparently
circumscribed communities that they apparently were. The construction of the complex seems to
be a combined response to local climatic and other environmental conditions and historical
36
processes, some–for example the initial expansion of the Zimbabwe Culture–have escaped the
notice of early observers and may only be reconstructed from archaeology.

Demise

It has not been possible to state with absolute certainty what happened to the complex. Having
flourished for about 600 years through adaptations to the varied plateau environment–which
enhanced changing climate conditions–it is difficult to explain how and why specialized systems
of terracing, cultivation, livestock management specialized stone construction such as those
found in Nyanga. According to Soper (2002, p. 138), the abandonment of the complex cannot be
attributed to change in average annual rainfall, as Nyanga communities have survived episodes
of low rainfall in the past. Disruption may have resulted from extended dry periods. However,
we must be cautious in accounting for cultural change primarily on environmental factors.
The civil war in Unyama in the late 18th century may have affected labour organization,
which is critical in the articulation of the specialized form of agriculture for which the complex
largely represents. Other potentially disruptive forces would derive from beyond the complex, in
the form of the reactions and responses of the lower Zambezi communities to Portuguese
settlement in the region, as implied above. Early and subsequent 19th century raiding associated
with Nguni incursions into the region is another strong disruptive factor, but this would have
been difficult in the mountains where a majority of the structures associated with the complex
are found. Beach (1996, see also Annex in Soper 2002) attributes the drought that struck the
regions between the lower Zambezi and the Sofala-Inhambane region coast between 1823 and
1831, prior to the Nguni invasions, and the famine which affected the region between 1858 and
1863 as the most probable causes for the abandonment of the complex.
This may not be the final answer, as research has yet to establish the impact of
Portuguese and British colonization in the area in bringing to an end a complex network of
subsistence agriculture which had been in existence for much of the second millennium AD.

37
 SECTION 5: Guide to the literature on Nyanga archaeological landscape

Historical sources

The northern and eastern parts of the Zimbabwe plateau and adjacent lower Zambezi valleys and
Mozambique are generally covered by Portuguese documents for the pre-colonial period starting
from the early 16th century. However, despite the early visit by some Portuguese such as
Antonio Fernandes to gather information on the nature of African kingdoms in the Zimbabwe
plateau, and to find out the sources of gold emanating from there (Godlonton 1945, 1960, Tracey
1968), and despite the subsequent Portuguese attempts to conquer the Mutapa state and occupy
the mines of Manyika in the eastern sections of the Zimbabwe plateau, there are no known
Portuguese references to the Nyanga archaeological complex (see Beach 1995, 1996, Soper
2002). This does not however mean that the Portuguese written sources cannot be used in the
reconstruction of the history of the cultural and historical identities of the builders. Portuguese
written sources have been extensively used to reconstruct the history of the Manyika people, a
Shona speaking dialect group that occupied the southern sections of the archaeological landscape
(see for example Bhila 1982).
Oral histories have been collected from late 19th century and throughout the 20th
century, and these have helped shed light on the identity and history of the builders and use of
the structures and the various features including water furrows (Machiwenyika [1920s, see
Beach 1995, 1996], Lloyd 1926, Norton 1926, Schlichter 1899, Storry 1974, 1976, Taylor 1924).
There are also colonial administrative reports collected during the 1940s (Stead 1949).
Additional oral research was conducted during the 1980s and 1990s, and these claimed ancestral
Manyika, Nyama and Makoni people as the builders of the structures (Chiro 1989, Maxwell
1999, Mukaronda 1988, Nyabadza 1988).

Archaeological descriptions and reports

The first direct written references to Nyanga date from the second half of the 19th century, and
up to the 1950s, and these–perhaps with the exception of archaeologist David Randall MacIver
(1906)–imply that some of the terraces were in use for different purposes by communities who
occupied them. In 1872, Karl Mauch saw terraces in Tsangura. Further observations were made
during the 1890s by Europeans such as Frederick Courtney Selous and W. L. Armstrong, G. D.
Fortheringham, M. J. C. Jeffreys, N. MacGlasham, C. Harding, H. Schlichter, T. Edwards, L.
Puzey, and C. Peters (see Burke 1969, Edwards 1898, Hall and Neal 1904, Peters 1902,
Schlichter 1899). Their observations are captured in archival sources cited in Beach (1995, 1996,
see also Soper 2002, pp. 237-239 for detailed referencing of sources from the National Archives
of Zimbabwe, Arquivo Ultramarino, Lisbon, and Arquivo Historico de Mozambique). Hall
(1905), an antiquarian amateur and curator of Great Zimbabwe, described and mapped Nyangwe
Fort and structures on the Rhodes Estate and excavated pit structures, while Randall MacIver
(1906), a professionally trained archaeologists), described and excavated the structures at Ziwa,
which he interpreted as defensive (see Soper 2002, p. 9).
The 1929 expedition by Frobenius (1931) resulted in detailed descriptions and mapping
of pit structures and terraces, the latter of which were linked to rice cultivation (see also
Wieschoff (1941). Oral traditions, which linked pit structures to cattle pens, were used to
speculate on the latter's function. This was followed by more descriptions as well as excavations
of artifacts (including burials), and stone and pit structures from Penhalonga (Martin 1937, 1940,
1941, Mason 1933).
The highly fragmented approach to the research continued during the 1940s, when Mrs
Finch (1949) described stone enclosures, forts, pit structures, water furrows and ditches found in
the Nyanga Downs, ahead of the launching of the "Inyanga Research Fund". This fund would

38
support research for a broad-based project that would investigate the Nyanga archaeological
complex more extensively. This responsibility was eventually given to Roger Summers and
Keith Robinson, who conducted three field seasons in the area from 949 to 1951. They
concentrated their investigations in the Ziwa and Nyautare areas, and, south and west of Nyanga
town, concluding that the structures were the work of the Manyika and the Unyama people
(Summers 1952, 1958). Studies of the iron-using and farming communities of the first
millennium AD were also conducted during this time, concentrating around Mt Ziwa (see
Bernhard 1959, 1961, 1962, 1963, 1964). For the second millennium AD, Anthony Whitty
studied the Zimbabwe tradition settlements in terms of their architecture, which he compared
with the architecture of the stone structures in Nyanga, and concluded that the latter were meant
for the ordinary people rather than the elite. Since then there has been very little archaeological
research work (see Garlake 1966, Huffman 1975, Storry 1974).
Proper archaeological research work only resumed after 1980, following the
independence of Zimbabwe, with the work of John Sutton of the British Institute in Eastern
Africa (Sutton 1983, 1988) who discussed the possibilities of irrigation on some of the terraces
and the use of cultivation ridges, as well as the possibilities of fertilizing the terraces using
livestock manure. The structures were also discussed within the broader context of terrace
systems in Africa (Sutton 1984, 1985, 1989a, b, Grove and Sutton 1989). It was from Sutton's
contributions that the "Agricultural History and Archaeology in Nyanga and Adjacent Districts
of Zimbabwe" project (1993-1997), coordinated by the British Institute in Eastern
Africa/University of Zimbabwe was initiated (Soper 2002). The research involved an aerial
photographic survey of an area of over 12000 square kilometers to identify terracing, cultivation
ridges, water furrows, stone and pit structures and other visible features; ground surveys to locate
the various sites and features located on the air photographs, some of which were mapped;
excavation of selected terraces (to determine their construction, nature and depth of soil), and
other structures (to reveal details of layout). An important dimension was the dating of the
archaeological complex, using a combination of settlement types and geographical distribution,
ceramic typology, glass beads, and radiocarbon. From the 30 radiocarbon determinations, Soper
(2002) concluded that the Nyanga archaeological landscape was established around the same
time as Great Zimbabwe, during the early 14th century. Soil analyses were conducted so as to
describe in detail the soils associated with the terraces and the ridges, some of which were
excavated. Faunal remains from some of the sites, particularly Mount Muozi attest to the
presence of dwarf cattle, which were housed in the pit structures. Plant macrofossils shed light
on the crops grown by the inhabitants of the complex. The project has also benefited from the
historical research documented by Beach (1995, 1996), which examined the population history
of the Nyanga area and adjacent regions, including Unyama. This has shed more light on the
ethnic identities of the builders of these structures. Soper (2002) is the most comprehensive
archaeological research project conducted in the area to date, and the reader is advised to consult
this source in conjunction with non-archaeological sources. It also contains a comprehensive,
annotated bibliography of the research area, as well as readings in landscape archaeology
associated with pre-European, African agricultural systems.3
Any researcher will always discover that alongside these scholarly sources thee is
literature that seeks to deny local people their rightful place in prehistory. To some extent
influenced by antiquarian attitudes such as those portrayed in Hall (1904, 1905, 1909), these
sources represent a failure to accept available archaeological evidence, and portray colonial
racist attitudes towards authentic scholarship. They attribute the builders of the Nyanga
structures to outside groups such as Egyptians, Arabs, Phoenicians and other immigrants. This
has been part of Zimbabwean historigraphy as the section on Great Zimbabwe demonstrates (see
3
This bibliography has largely guided this report on the Nyanga landscape, although I restrict myself to
archaeological, oral and written sources that focus, mention or relate to the area, rather than provide general sources
on landscape archaeology relating to prehistoric agricultural systems.
39
for example, Gwatkin 1932, Rossiter 1938, Bruwer 1965, Mullan 1969, Gayre 1972).

Air photographs

Mapping of the vast Nyanga archaeological landscape can best be achieved using air
photographs. However, apart from Crawford (1950), there are no air photographs that were taken
specifically for purposes of archaeological research. Vertical, black and white panchromatic
photographs (scale 1:25000) have however proved quite useful for archaeological research, and
these are available at the Surveyor General's Department, in Harare. Records of these
photographs going back to the 1930s are archived there. Archaeologists have taken landscape
photos, which can be used to analyze archaeological features such as furrows, terraces, etc.
These photographs are archived with the National Museums and Monuments of Zimbabwe's
Archaeological Department, Museum of Human Sciences, Harare, although they are poorly
indexed. These include the photographs taken by Roger Summers (1958) in his detailed, pace-
setting archaeological report on Nyanga. Recent photographic work by Robert Soper (2002) can
be located in the Archaeology Unit of the History Department, University of Zimbabwe. Robert
Soper is in possession of a large collection of photographic slides of the Nyanga archaeological
complex, some of which have been used for teaching archaeological fieldwork methods at the
university.

Heritage management and site conservation

National Museums and Monuments of Zimbabwe (NMMZ) are in charge of the country's
archaeological resources, and are currently focusing on a programme to conserve selected sites
and monuments. This also entails best heritage management practices including the adoption of
management approaches that are community oriented (Chiwaura 2004; Mupira 1990, 1995,
2003). Currently NMMZ (Eastern Region) is restoring collapsed stonewalls at the fortified stone
structures at Chawomera, as well as the stone enclosures at Ziwa National Monument. The Ziwa
monuments are also being prepared for nomination for World Heritage listing

40
 SECTION 6: Sources on the Nyanga archaeological complex

Please refer to the notes introducing Section 3 above, which are also applicable here.

Published secondary sources

Adams, L. 1988. The archaeology of the Nyanga uplands, Zimbabwe. Unpublished BA

dissertation, University of Southampton. (describes and discusses the stone structures, pits and
other structures in the Nyanga National Park).

Aylen, D. 1941. Who built the first contour ridges? Rhodesia Agricultural Journal 38 (3), 144-
148. (terraces, water furrows, erosion gullies, in the Pungwe Gorge and Rhodes Estate).

Axelson, E. 1956. Some loopholed forts in the Mt. Darwin district. Proceedings and
Transactions of the Rhodesia Scientific Association 44, 7-12.

Barnes, J. 1977. Survey of a ruin in Tanda Purchase Area, Rhodesia. Rhodesian Prehistory 7
(15), 19-20.

Beach, D. N. 1980. The Shona and Zimbabwe, 900-1850: an outline of Shona history. Gweru:
Mambo Press. (provides a summary of Nyanga history on pp 185-6).

Beach, D. N. 1984a. Zimbabwe before 1900. Gweru: Mambo Press. (briefly discusses the terrace
complex as part of Manyika/Unyama history).

Beach, D. N. 1984b. Towards a population history of precolonial Zimbabwe, University of

Zimbabwe History Department Seminar Paper.

Beach, D. N. 1987. Documents and African Society on the Zimbabwean Plateau. Paideuma 33,
129-45.

Beach, D. N. 1988. 'Refuge' Archaeology, Trade and Gold in 19th century Zimbabwe: Izidoro
Correia Pereira's list of 1857. Zimbabwe Prehistory 20, 3-8.

Beach, D. N. 1990. Zimbabwean demography: early colonial data. Zambezia 17 (1), 21-83.

Beach, D. N. 1994a. A Zimbabwean Past: Shona Dynastic Histories and Oral Traditions.
Gweru: Mambo Press. (a detailed ethnohistory of various Shona groups including their
movements and settlement during the pre-colonial period. Manyika, Saunyama, Makoni are
discussed. See also Beach 1995, 1996, 1997).

Beach, D. N. 1994b. The Shona and their neighbours. Oxford: Blackwell. (presents a simplified
version of the pre-colonial, colonial and post-colonial Shona history, including a summary on
Nyanga).

Beach, D. N. 1995. Archaeology and history in Nyanga, Zimbabwe. History Department

Seminar Paper, University of Zimbabwe (see the published version in Soper, R. 2002, pp. 222-
234; carries an extensive review of the oral and historical sources of Nyanga).

Beach, D. N. 1996. Archaeology and history in Nyanga, Zimbabwe. In Aspects of African

Archaeology: Papers from the 10th Congress of the Pan-African Association for Prehistory and
41
Related Studies, eds G. Pwiti and R. Soper, 715-718. Harare: University of Zimbabwe
Publications.

Beach, D. N. 1997. Oral traditions in eastern Zimbabwe: the work of Jason Takafa
Machiwenyika, c. 1889-1924. History Department seminar paper no. 99, University of
Zimbabwe.

Beach, D. N. 1998. Zimbabwe's south-eastern highlands in 1891-92. Heritage of Zimbabwe 16,

1-36. (stone terracing and structures near Chimanimani).

Beach, D. N. and H. Noronha 1980. The Shona and the Portuguese (1575-1890), (2 vols.).
Unpublished mimeograph. University of Zimbabwe: History Department.

Benhard, F. O. 1959. A "ritual Z2 pit" on Ziwa Farm, Inyanga. South African Archaeological
Bulletin 14 (55), 104-105.

Benhard, F. O. 1961. The Ziwa ware of Inyanga. Native Affairs Department Annual 38, 84-92.

Benhard, F. O. 1962. Two types of iron smelting furnaces on Ziwa Farm (Inyanga). South
African Archaeological Bulletin 17 (68), 235-236.

Benhard, F. O. 1963. A Bambata type pot from Inyanga. African Archaeological Bulletin 18
(72), 185.

Benhard, F. O. 1964. Notes on the pre-ruin Ziwa culture of Inyanga. Rhodesiana 11, 22-30.

Benhard, E. 1968. Ancient village site on Murahwa's Hill, Umtali: report on excavations, 1964-
68. Unpublished report. Salisbury: National Museums and Monuments of Rhodesia.

Bhila, H. H. K. 1982. Trade and Politics in a Shona Kingdom: The Manyika and their
Portuguese and African Neighbours, 1575-1902. Harare: Longmans. (as detailed coverage of
Manyika history from the 16th century, their relationship with the Portuguese and other groups.
References to terraces, pit structures and fortifications are on pp 8-9).

Bolding, A., Manzungu, E. and van der Zaag, P. 1996. Farmer-initiated irrigation furrows:
observations from the Eastern Highlands. In Manzungu, E. and van der Zaag, P. (eds.). The
practice of smallholder irrigation: case studies from Zimbabwe Harare: University of Zimbabwe
Publications, 191-218.

Bordini, M. A. 1974. Excavations of two graves in a cemetery near Bonda Mission. Rhodesian
Prehistory 6 (12), 15-16.

Brand, W. 1970. Further observations on the Pit Ruin M4, Mkondwe Farm, Penhalonga,
Rhodesia. South African Archaeological Bulletin 25 (98), 59-64.

Bruwer, A. J. 1965. Zimbabwe: Rhodesia' s ancient greatness. Cape Town: Keartland. (makes
references to Nyanga on pp. 15-23, and 108-112; attributes the buildings to the Phoenicians).

Burke, E. D. (ed). 1969. The journals of Carl Mauch, 1869-1872. Salisbury: National Archives
of Rhodesia.

42
Chauke, C. 1996. Water furrows in the Nyanga archaeological complex: description, function
and relationship to other features. Unpublished BA Honours Archaeology dissertation,
University of Zimbabwe.

Chirawu, S. 1999. The archaeology of the ancient agricultural and settlement systems in Nyanga
lowlands. Unpublished MPhil dissertation, University of Zimbabwe (presents a detailed analyses
of the structures within the Ziwa National Monument and in the St Mary's Maristvale area).

Chiro, C. 1989. Iron Age stone structures in the Nyamaropa area of Nyanga District and their
significance for the Nyanga Iron Age. Unpublished BA Archaeology dissertation, University of
Zimbabwe.

Crawford, O. G. S. 1950. Rhodesian cultivation terraces. Antiquity 24, 96-99. (carries air
photographs).

Dickinson, R. W. 1968. Sofala-Gateway to the Gold of Monomotapa. Rhodesiana 19, 33-47.

Dickinson, R. W. 1971. Antonio Fernandes: A reassessment. Rhodesiana 25, 45-52.

Fagan, B. 1965. Southern Africa during the Iron Age. London: Thames and Hudson. (On pages
136-142, he summarises the archaeological evidence from Nyanga).

Finch, E. M. 1949. Pit people of the Inyanga Downs. Proceedings of the Rhodesian Scientific
Association 42, 38-59. (describes archaeological structures north-east of Troutbeck).

Fripp, C. and Wells, L. H. 1938. Excavation in a pit circle at Inyanga, Southern Rhodesia. South
African Journal of Science 35, 399-406. (excavations in the Nyanga National Park).

Frobenius, L. 1931. Erythraa: Lander und Zeiten des heiligen Konigsmordes. Berlin: Atlantis
Verlag. (on pp. 254-258 decribes and interprets Nyanga terraces and pit structures).

Gale, C. L. 1980. Vukutu. Rhodesian Prehistory 18, 10-13. (reports three sets of structures on
Vukutu Hill near Sanyatwe).

Galloway, A. 1937. A report on the skeletal remains from the pit circles, Penhalonga, Southern
Rhodesia. South African Journal of Science 33, 1044. (describes and identifies three skeletons
found by Martin (1937) erroneously as Bush-Boskopoid).

Garlake, P. S. 1966. A guide to the antiquities of Inyanga. Bulawayo: Historical Monuments

Commission. (a guidebook, covering Nyanga National Park and Ziwa).

Garlake, P. S. 1970a. Rhodesian ruins: a preliminary assessment of their styles and chronology.
Journal of African History 2 (4), 495-513.

Garlake, P. 1983b. Early Zimbabwe from the Matopos to Inyanga. Gweru: Mambo Press.

Gayre, R. 1972. The origins of Zimbabwean civisaltion. Salisbury: Galaxie. (Rhodesian

antiquarian apologist literature. Thinks the structures were an agricultural compex supporting
Great Zimbabwe. Attributes the ruins to foreign, non African, origins).

43
Gerharz, R. 1973. Niamara: Funde und befunde aus eine eisenzeitlichen Ruine Sudostafrikas.
Acta Praehistorica et Archaeologica 4 (1), 199-233. (describes a Khami phase stone platform in
Mozambique east of Nyanga, excavated by Wieschoff [1941]).

Gilges, W. 1956. Mysterious slave pits of the Inyanga. The Rhodesian and Central African
Annual, 31-33. (thought the pits were constructed using slave labour).

Gilliland, H. B. 1938. The vegetation of Rhodesian Manicaland. Journal of South African Botany
4 (3), 73-99. (some limited discussion on the pits and the plant species that would grow in them).

Gwatkin, R. D. S. 1932. The ancient forts of Penhalonga, Southern Rhodesia. Rhodesian Mining
Journal Part I 6 (65), 513-514; Part II 6 (66), 553-554; Part III 7 (68), 693-695. (presents pits as
integral parts of a defensive system built by foreigners).

Godlonton, W. A. 1945. The Journeys of Antonio Fernandes-the first known European to find
the Monomotapa and to enter Southern Rhodesia. Transactions of the Rhodesia Scientific
Association 11, 71-103.

Godlonton, W.A. 1960. The journeys of Antonio Fernandes: some amendments. Proceedings of
the Rhodesia Scientific Association 42, 44-9.

Hall, M. 1987. The Changing Past: Farmers, kings and traders in southern Africa 200-1860.
Cape Town: David Philip. (Chapter 11, examines the sites from Nyanga in terms of local
responses to Portuguese incursions in south-eastern Africa and settlement on the Zambezi, see
pp. 134-136).

Hall, R. N. 1904. Inyanga fort: a report on the examination of these ruins. South African Journal
of Science 2, 519-525. (based on a description of Nyangwe fort).

Hall, R. N. 1905. Stone fort and pits on the Inyanga Estate, Rhodesia. Journal of the Royal
Anthropological Institute 35, 92-102. (description of Nyangwe fort as based on Hall [1904] and
the pit structures in Nyanga National Park).

Hall, R. N. 1909. Prehistoric Rhodesia. London: Fisher T. Unwin. (description of Nyanga, eg.
Nyangwe fort and stone lined pits come from Hall [1904/5]).

Hall, R. N. and W. G. Neal. 1902. The Ancient Ruins of Rhodesia. London: Methuen. (pp. 350-
367 covers Nyanga).

Holleman, J. F. 1953. Accommodating the spirit amongst some north-eastern Shona tribes.
Rhodes-Livingstone Institute Papers 22. Cape Town: Oxford University Press.

Huffman, T. N. 1975. A radiocarbon date from Zimbiti ruin, Inyanga. South African Journal of
Science 49, 247-248. (Zimbiti is a fortification near Ziwa. Huffman secured a date of 200+/-50
BP from a preserved wooden drawbar from the entrance).

Isaacman, A. F. 1972a. Mozambique, The Africanisation of a European Institution: The Zambezi

Prazos, 1780-1902. Madison, Milwaukee and London: The University of Wisconsin Press.

Isaacman, A. F. 1972b. The origin, formation and early history of the Chikunda of south-central
Africa. Journal of African History 13 (3), 443-61.
44
Jacobson-Widding, A. 1992. Pits, pots and snakes: an anthropological approach to ancient
African symbols. Nordic Journal of African Studies 1 (1), 5-27. (discusses the symbolic meaning
attached to the structures by the Manyika).

Lloyd, E. M (Muhlanga, S.). 1926. In the early days. Native Affairs Department Annual 4, 107-
110. (an oral account of pit structures and their use for protecting cattle from raiders in the
Muponda area, collected in 1924 from an informant believed to be over 100 years old-Muhlanga
seems to have compiled this account).

Madya, M. 1989. Crops grown by Africans in east and north-east Southern Rhodesia in the
period 1895-1922. Unpublished BA History dissertation, University of Zimbabwe.

Mandipa, C. 1989. Organisation of space: the case of Nyanga. Unpublished BA Archaeology

dissertation, University of Zimbabwe. (examines the layout of traditional kitchens in the
Nyautare area, which are related to the structures).

Manyanga, M. 1995. Nyanga pottery: the relationship between the pre-ruin wares, upland and
lowland wares. Unpublished BA Hons Archaeology dissertation, University of Zimbabwe.
(examines pottery from the museum and argues for little continuity between first millennium AD
pottery and that of the Nyanga archaeological complex).

Martin, C. 1937. Prehistoric burials at Penhalonga. South African Journal of Science 33, 1037-
1043. (two burials from passages to hut circles in a pit structure and a third from a cairn
excavated by Mason [1933]).

Martin, C. 1940. Manyika beads of the 19th century. Native Affairs Department Annual 18-26.
(beads used by the Manyika and also those from middens associated with some hillforts).

Martin, C. 1941. Manyika pottery. Proceedings of the Rhodesia Scientific Association 38, 52-62.
(Manyika pots and their manufacture).

Mason, A. Y. 1933. The Penhalonga ruins, Southern Rhodesia. South African Journal of Science
30, 559-581. (fortifications, terraces, water furrows and pit structures at Mkondwe are described
in this article and a report on the excavation conducted at one of the pit structures).

Maxwell, D. 1994. A social and conceptual history of north-east Zimbabwe, 1890-1990.

Unpublished DPhil dissertation, Oxford.

Maxwell, D. 1999. Christians and Chiefs in Zimbabwe: a social history of the Hwesa people, c.
1870s-1990s. International African Library 20. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.

Mitchell, P. 2002. The Archaeology of southern Africa. Cambridge World Archaeology.

Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. (Chapter 11, "The Zimbabwe Tradition" discusses the
Nyanga highlands and lowlands terraces and associated developments in the context of the post-
Great Zimbabwe developments-see pages 333-336)

Mudenge, S. I. G. 1974. The role of foreign trade in the Rozvi empire: a reappraisal. Journal of
African History 15, 373-91.

45
Mudenge, S. I.G. 1988. A political history of Munhumutapa. Harare: Zimbabwe Publishing
House.

Mukaronda, C. 1988. The late pre-colonial and early colonial history of Nyanga. Unpublished
BA History dissertation, University of Zimbabwe. (refers to pre-colonial cultivation in ridges
and vleis).

Mullan, J. E. 1969. The Arab builders of Zimbabwe. Umtali: J. E. Mullan. (is of the opinion that
Arabs from Yemen built the Nyanga structures).

Mupira, P. 1991. A classification of imported glass beads from some Iron Age traditions in
Zimbabwe. Unpublished BA Special Honours dissertation. University of Zimbabwe: History
Department.

Mupira, P. 1995. The archaeological agricultural landscape in Nyanga, Zimbabwe: local attitudes
and their implications for protection and preservation. Unpublished MPhil dissertation,
University of Cambridge. (heritage management issues surrounding Ziwa monuments,
community participation and benefits).

Nehowa, O. 1994. GIS application is archaeology using MGE PC-1 from Intergraph.
Unpublished BSc (Surveying) project, University of Zimbabwe. (a computerised correlation of
the terraces with the geology).

Newitt, M. D. D. 1973. Portuguese Settlement on the Zambezi: Exploration, Land Tenure and
Colonial Rule in East Africa. London: Longman.

Norton, E. A. 1926. Inyanga, Southern Rhodesia: some remains of ancient civilisation. Journal
of the Africa Society 25, 237-244.

Nyabadza, G. 1989. Land settlement in northern Makoni (Maungwe) from the pre-colonial to the
early colonial period (c. 1625-c. 1940). Unpublished BA History dissertation, University of
Zimbabwe. (states Makoni immigrants to Maungwe found the stone structures on arrival, but
they also built fortifications and cattle enclosures).

Paver, B. 1957. Zimbabwe cavalcade: Rhodesia' s romance. London: Cassell. (A general

description of the stone structures of Nyanga, and some air photos of some of the structures and
the landscape). (UZ).

Peters, C. 1902. The Eldorado of the ancients. London: Pearson. (mentions terraces, stone
enclosures, water furrows and pit structures on the western part of the Nyanga highlands which
he saw in 1901 when he passed through the area). (NAZ).

Petheram, R. W. 1974. Inyanga with special reference to the Rhodes Inyanga Estate. National
Trust of Rhodesia. (gives an account of European settlement in the area during the 1990s, with
some references to the archaeological landscape and its interpretation). (NAZ, UZ).

Phillipson, D. W. 1985 (Third edition, 2005). African Archaeology. Cambridge Africa

Collection. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. (Nyanga is briefly discussed on pages 302,
304).

46
Plug, I., Soper, R. C. and Chirawu, C. 1997. Pits, tunnels and cattle in Nyanga: new light on an
old problem. South African Archaeological Bulletin 52 (166), 89-94. (faunal analysis of cattle
bones from Mount Muozi ash midden. Cattle identified as dwarf in size, shedding new light on
the meaning of pit structures).

Randles, W. G. L. 1958. South east Africa and the Empire of the Monomotapa as shown on
selected printed maps of the sixteenth century. Studia 2, 103-63.

Randles, W. G. L. 1975. The Empire of the Monomotapa from the fifteenth to the nineteenth
century. Gweru: Mambo Press. (NAZ, UZ).

Randall-MacIver, D. 1906. Medieval Rhodesia. London: Macmillan and Co. Ltd. (the first
professional archaeological investigation of the Nyanga cultural landscape, describing
fortifications, pit structures, water furrows in the Nyanga National Park. Also describes the stone
structures at Ziwa. See pages 1-37). (NAZ, NMMZ Library, UP, UZ).

Schofield, J. 1942. A survey of the recent prehistory of Southern Rhodesia. South African
Archaeological Bulletin 38, 81-111. (views pit structures as cattle pens and compares them to
Zulu pens, located in the centre of a homestead).

Selous, F. C. 1893. Travel and adventure in South-East Africa. London: Rowland Ward and Co.,
Limited. (together with W. L. Armstrong, found three deserted strongholds close to Mount
Dombo). (Bulawayo Museum Library, NAZ, NMMZ Library, UP, UZ, Wits).

da Silva Rego, A. and T. W. Baxter (eds) 1962-75. Documents on the Portuguese in

Mozambique and Central Africa, 1497-1840 (8 vols.). Lisbon: Centro de Estudes Historicos
Ultramarinos and the National Archives of Rhodesia and Nyasaland.

Sinclair, P. J. J. 1987. Space, Time and Social Formation: A territorial approach to the
archaeology and anthropology of Zimbabwe and Mozambique, c. 0-1700AD. Uppsala: Societas
Archaeologica Upsaliensis. (NMMZ Library, UZ).

Sinclair, P. J. J 1991. Archaeology in eastern Africa: a review of current chronological issues. In

Journal of African History 32, 179-219.

Sinclair, P. J. J. and H. Lundmark, H. 1984. A spatial analysis of archaeological sites from

Zimbabwe, In Frontiers: Southern African Archaeology today, M. Hall, G. Avery, D. M. Avery,
M. L. Wilson and A. J. B. Humphreys (eds), Cambridge Monographs in African Archaeology
10, BAR International series 207. Oxford.

Schlichter, H. 1899. Travels and researches in Rhodesia. Geographical Journal 13 (4), 376-396.
(travelled southwards of the Nyanga western lowlands. Reports about the terraces [which he
considers recent], forts, and pit structures [regarded as slave pits], water furrows, iron-smelting
furnaces etc.).

Soper, R. C. 1994. Ancient fields and agricultural systems: new work on the Nyanga terrace
complex. Nyame Akuma 42, 18-21. (summarises the Nyanga research project, giving the results
of two years of research).

Soper, R. C. 1995. The mystery of the "slave pits". The Zimbabwean Review 1 (3), 20-21.
(discusses the function of pit structures). (NMMZ Library, UZ).
47
Soper, R. C. 1996. The Nyanga terrace complex of eastern Zimbabwe: new investigations.
Azania 31, 1-35. (an interim report of research carried out from 1993 to early 1995).

Soper, R. C. 1997. Eastern African terraced-irrigation systems. In Vogel, J. O. (ed).

Encyclopedia of Precolonial Africa: Archaeology, History, Language, Cultures and
Environments. California and New Delhi: Alta Mira Press, 227-231. (covers terracing of Nyanga
and Engaruka). (UP, UZ).

Soper, R. C. 1999. Water furrows in Nyanga National Park. Zimbabwean Prehistory 23, 3-14.

Soper, R. C. 2002. Nyanga: Ancient fields, settlements and agricultural history in Zimbabwe
(with contributions from David Beach, Ina Plug, Katherine Verbeek and Jimmy Jonsson).
Memoirs of the British Institute in Eastern Africa No. 16. London: The British Institute in
Eastern Africa. (A detailed archaeological survey, mapping and excavation of terraces, ridges,
water furrows, pit structures, stone enclosures and other sites of the Nyanga archaeological
landscape. Extensively illustrated. Provides detailed references on the Nyanga landscape as well
as relevant sources on terracing and past agricultural systems in Africa and the rest of the world.
The history of the area is given as an annex, while the appendices carry specialist information on
soil analyses, faunal analyses, identification of plant macrofossils, pottery, glass and copper
beads and radiocarbon dates). (NAZ, NMMZ Library, UP, UZ, Wits).

Soper, R. C. and Chirawu, S. 1996. Excavation of a stone enclosure at Ziwa Ruins, Nyanga
District. Zimbabwea 4, 34-43. (excavation report of an enclosure near Ziwa Site Museum, which
revealed partitioned houses).

Soper, R. C. and Chirawu, S. 1997. Ruins on Mount Muozi, Nyanga District, Zimbabwe.
Zimbabwean Prehistory 22, 14-20. (describes the site on Mount Muozi and the excavations on
an ash midden).

Stead, W. H. 1947. Types of clay pots found in Inyanga District. Native Affairs Department
Annual 24, 100-102. (names Manyika traditional pots).

Stead, W. H. 1949. The people of early Rhodesia. Proceedings of the Rhodesia Scientific
Association 42, 75-83. (attributes the terraces to Arab influence, and regards pits as sheltered
dwellings. He reported the cultivation of terraces and the re-use of pits as cattle pens during the
1940s in the Bende area of Nyanga).

Storry, J. G. 1974. Pungwe pit-structures: a preliminary report. Rhodesian Prehistory 13, 10-13.
(description and excavation of a pit structure in the Pungwe Gorge).

Storry, J. G. 1976. The settlement and territorial expansion of the Mutasa dynasty. Rhodesian
History 7, 13-30. (discusses terracing which he tries to relate to Manyika history).

Summers, R. 1950. Iron Age cultures in Southern Rhodesia. South African Journal of Science
47, 95-107. (provides little information of the Nyanga archaeological complex).

Summers, R. 1952. Inyanga: a preliminary report. Antiquity 26 (102), 71-75. (a preliminary

report on the research work carried out since 1949. Attributes the Nyanga "Uplands Culture" to
the Manyika people).

48
Summers, R. 1958. Inyanga: Prehistoric settlements in Southern Rhodesia. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press. (together with Keith Robinson, this is the first comprehensive
archaeological report of the Nyanga area, being research carried out from 1949 to 1951. There
are specialist reports on glass beads, animal bones and plants). (NAZ, NMMZ Library, UCT,
UP, UZ, Wits).

Summers, R. 1967. Archaeological distributions and a tentative history of tsetse fly infestation in
Rhodesia and adjacent territories. Arnoldia 3 (13), 1-18.

Summers, R. 1969. Ancient mining in Rhodesia. Salisbury: National Museums of Rhodesia

Memoir No.3. (NAZ, NMMZ Library, UCT, UP, UZ, Wits).

Summers, R. 1971. Ancient ruins and vanished civilizations of Southern Africa. Cape Town:
Gothic Printing. (places the Nyanga stone structures into a general classification with other stone
structures on the Zimbabwe plateau and adjacent regions). (NAZ, NMMZ Library, UCT, UP,
UZ, Wits).

Sutton, J. E. G. 1983. A new look at the Inyanga terraces. Zimbabwean Prehistory 19, 12-19.
(considers the role of irrigation in the terracing of Nyanga).

Sutton, J. E. G. 1984. Irrigation and soil conservation in African agricultural history. Journal of
African History 25, 25-41.

Sutton, J. E. G. 1985. Irrigation and terracing in Africa. In Farrington, I. S. (ed). Prehistoric

intensive agriculture in the tropics. Oxford: British Archaeological Reports 232, 737-764.

Sutton, J. E. G. 1988. More on the cultivation terraces of Nyanga: the case for cattle manure.
Zimbabwe Prehistory 20, 21-24.

Swan, L. 1994. Early Gold Mining on the Zimbabwean Plateau: changing patterns of gold
production in the first and second millennium AD. Studies in African Archaeology 9. Uppsala:
Societas Archaeologica Upsaliensis.

Taylor, G. A. 1924. The geographical method of anthropological enquiry. Native Affairs

Department Annual 2, 33-48. (makes references to a battle fought in about 1875 in a fort).

Theal, G. M. 1898-1903. Records of South Eastern Africa (in 9 volumes). Cape Town: C. Struik.
(NAZ, NMMZ Library, UCT, UP, UZ, Wits).

Theal, G. M. 1912. Catalogue of Books and Pamphlets relating to Africa south of the Zambezi
(in the English, Dutch, French and Portuguese languages). Cape Town and Pretoria: T. Maskew
Miller. (NAZ, NMMZ Library, UCT, UP, UZ, Wits).

Tomlinson, M. H. 1973. The Inyanga area: an essay in regional biogeography. University of

Rhodesia Series in Science, Occasional Paper No. 1. (UZ).

Tracey, H. 1940. Antonio Fernandes, Descobridor do Monomotapa 1514-1515: Traducao

Portuguesa E Notas por Caetano Montez, Encarregado do Arquivo Historico de Mocambique,
Ano Dos Centenarios Da Fundacao E Restauracao de Portugal. Laurenco Marques: Adicao do
Arquivo Historico de Mozambique, Composto E Impresso Na Nacional. (NAZ, NMMZ Library,
UZ).
49
Tracey, H 1968. Antonio Fernandes: Rhodesia's first pioneer. Rhodesiana 19, 1-17. (NAZ,
NMMZ Library, UZ).

Whitty, A. 1959. A classification of prehistoric stone buildings in Mashonaland, southern

Rhodesia. South African Archaeological Bulletin 14 (54), 57-71. (provides a general
description/coverage of the Nyanga stone structures, which he compares with those of Great
Zimbabwe).

Wieschoff, H. A. 1941. The Zimbabwe-Monomotapa Culture in south-east Africa. General

Studies in Anthropology. Menasha, Wisconsin: G. Bata. (Describes terraces, furrows and pits,
interpreting the pits as dwellings. Reports on the excavation of Niamara zimbabwe in adjacent
Mozambique. Also describes the stone structures in Maungwe, north-east of Rusape). (NMMZ
Library, UP, UZ).

Wilmot, A. 1986. Monomotapa (Rhodesia): Its monuments and its history from the most ancient
times to the present century. New York: Negro Universities Press. (NMMZ Library, UCT, UP,
UZ, Wits).

Published technical reports

Brinn, P. J. 1987. Communal land physical resource inventory: Nyanga District. Harare:
Chemistry and Soils Research Institute, Soils Report no. A539.

Challenger, G. 1964. The relationship of land use to ecology in the Inyanga area of Southern
Rhodesia. In The ecology of man in the tropical environment. IUCN Publication no. 4, 295-302.

Collett, D. P. 1991. The archaeological heritage of Zimbabwe: a masterplan for resource

conservation and development. Harare: National Museums and Monuments of Zimbabwe.

Bassett, W. J. 1963. A preliminary account of the vegetation and land use of the Inyanga
Intensive Conservation Area. Salisbury: Federal Department of Conservation and Extension
Technical Memo no. 14.

Stocklmayer, V. R. 1978. The geology of the country around Inyanga. Rhodesia Geological
Survey Bulletin 79.

Stocklmayer, V. R. 1980. The geology of the Inyanga North-Makaha area. Zimbabwe

Geological Survey Bulletin 89.

Newspaper articles (listed and annotated in Soper 2002)

Davison, S. L. 1993. Idea from the past. Letter to The Herald, 1 September 1993.

Chipunza, K. T. 1993. Those slave pits at Nyanga. Letter to The Herald, 23 September 1993.

Chirawu, S. 1994. Terraces built to create space: Research on Nyanga forts continues. Manica
Post, 29 July-5 August 1994.

Edwards, T. 1898. Wonders of Mashonaland. Rhodesia Herald, 20 December 1898. (saw part of
the terracing).
50
Garlake, P. 1967. Value of wide discussion on Inyanga theories. Letter to The Herald, 3 January
1967.

Mears, M. 1969. Inyanga slave pits were play pens. Rhodesia Herald, 23 August 1969.

Soper, R. C. 1993a. New light on Nyanga pits. Letter to The Herald, 8 September 1993.

Soper, R. C. 1993b. Nyanga pits. Letter to The Herald 4 October 1993.

Rhodesia Herald 1894. Article on Inyangombe valley, 26 October 1894. (the first published
report on the stone structures of Nyanga with Umtali Advertiser 1894)

Rhodesia Herald 1962. Iron Age site to be opened at Nyanga, 25 December 1962. (opening of
Nyahokwe and site museum).

Sunday Mail 1976. Pottery jar found in remote Nyanga area. 5 December 1976

"Tilian" 1972. Of slave pits, figs and sweet peas. Rhodesia Herald , 30 December 1972.

Umtali Advertiser, 1894. 6 December. Makes a brief mention to the stone structures.

van Hoffen, P. 1966. The Inyanga "slave pits" were probably built for the retention of water.
Rhodesia Herald, 19 December 1966.

van Hoffen, P. 1968. Were "slave pits" really for water storage? Letter to the Rhodesia Herald, 4
October 1968.

Whitty, A. 1961. Inyanga. The Central African Examiner, January 1961.

Archival data

In addition to the photographs of the Nyanga landscape kept at the National Archives of
Zimbabwe, researchers are also advised to consult with the Department of the Surveyor
General’s office in Harare, which has a collection of the vertical air-photographs going back to
the 1930s/40s. The archival texts on the Nyanga area are largely skewed towards Manyika (Bhila
1982) but researchers may now glean more for areas further north from a collection of
unpublished texts compiled in Beach (1995, 1996), which are published as annex to Soper
(2002). The most cited documents is the collection from Jason Machiwenyika (c. 1889-1924) on
the "History and customs of the Manyika" Historical Manuscripts Collection MA 14/1/2, found
in the National Archives of Zimbabwe. These sources should be complemented with additional
oral data collected by University of Zimbabwe history students (see for example Madya 1989,
Mukaronda 1988) as well as other researchers (see Maxwell 1994, 1999)

Conservation and heritage management programmes in the Nyanga archaeological landscape

Conservation work is currently being carried out at the Chawomera (restoration of collapsed
stonewalls) and Ziwa National Monument (restoration of stone enclosures and the passage). The
associated documentation is filed in the Mutare Museum as well as the site museum at Ziwa.
Below is a list of published and unpublished reports relating to conservation and management of
the Nyanga archaeological landscape.
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Chiwaura, H. 2004. Community development, income generation and heritage management in
Zimbabwe in the face of declining tourism: the case study of Ziwa national monument. In Report
on the 5th regional thematic seminar on sustainable tourism and immovable cultural heritage,
26-30 October 2004. Africa 2009: Conservation of Imovable Cultural Heritage in sub-Saharan
Africa, pp. 67-71.

Matowanyika, J. 1991. Indigenous resource management and sustainability in rural Zimbabwe:

an exploration of practices and concepts in communal lands. PhD thesis, Waterloo, Ontario.
(study based on Kagore. Notes the customary prohibition of settlement and cultivation on the
terraces).

Matowanyika, J. and Madondo, A. (forthcoming). In the shadow of Mount Muozi: indigenous

knowledge systems as ecological produce in the sustainable management of a local common
property resource comprising terraced mountain slopes in Nyanga District, Zimbabwe. Harare:
IUCN Regional Social Policy Series. (current land use, conservation of terraces, oral traditions
pertaining to Mt Muozi).

Mupira, P. 1990. Ziwa National Monument site management plan. Unpublished document,
National Museums and Monuments of Zimbabwe.

Mupira, P. 1995. The archaeological agricultural landscape in Nyanga, Zimbabwe: local attitudes
and their implications for protection and preservation. Unpublished MPhil dissertation,
University of Cambridge. (heritage management issues surrounding Ziwa monuments,
community participation and benefits).

Mupira, P. 2003. Local Community Landscape Perception: Implications for management: the
case of Nyanga Cultural Landscape. Paper presented at the The 14th General Assembly of the
International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS), Victoria Falls, 27-31 October 2003.

Rodgers, T. A. 2002. The New Zealand bee-keeping project at Ziwa, Nyanga: evaluation phase
1, June 2001-November 2002. Unpublished report, National Museums and Monuments of
Zimbabwe.

Sumba, M. 2003. Ziwa National Monument: Its significance to local people hangs in the balance.
Paper presented at The 14th General Assembly of the International Council on Monuments and
Sites (ICOMOS), Victoria Falls, 27-31 October 2003.

52
 Annex 1: About the consultant

INNOCENT PIKIRAYI, PhD

Senior Lecturer in Archaeology
Department of Anthropology and Archaeology
School of Social Sciences
Faculty of Humanities
University of Pretoria
Lynnwood Road/Roper Street, Pretoria 0002
SOUTH AFRICA
Tel. Nos. +27 12 420 4661; +27 12 420 2595
Fax. No. +27 12 420 4921
e-mail: innocent.pikirayi@up.ac.za

Personal Details

Full names: Innocent Pikirayi

Date and place of birth:
Nationality and citizenship:
Marital status:
Home address:
3 May 1963, Masvingo, ZIMBABWE
Zimbabwean
Married to Susan, with 3 children, Rumbidzai, Shamiso and Tafadzwa
Spring Valley Unit 51, Kolgans Street, Monument Park 2, Pretoria 0181, City of
Tshwane, SOUTH AFRICA, Tel. Nos. +27 12 347 4569

Academic Qualifications

BA (Honours) (History) (1983-85), MA (African History) (1986-87) [UZ], PhD (Historical Archaeology) (1989-94)
[Uppsala]

Career Summary in Archaeology

January 2005-present: Senior Lecturer in Archaeology, Department of Anthropology and Archaeology, University
of Pretoria, SOUTH AFRICA
August 2003-December 2004: Senior Lecturer in Archaeology and Executive Dean, Faculty of Arts, Midlands State
University, Gweru, ZIMBABWE
January 2001-July 2003: Full-Time Senior Lecturer in Archaeology, University of Zimbabwe, Harare,
ZIMBABWE
November 2000-April 2001: Visiting Commonwealth Fellow and Scholar, Pitt Rivers Museum, Wolfson College,
University of Oxford, ENGLAND
April 1994-December 2000: Full Time Lecturer in Archaeology, University of Zimbabwe, Harare, ZIMBABWE
October 1992-March 1994: Temporary Full Time Lecturer in Archaeology, University of Zimbabwe, Harare,
ZIMBABWE
October 1988-September 1992: Staff Development Fellow in Archaeology, University of Zimbabwe, Harare,
ZIMBABWE

Research Interests

Origins, development and demise of socio-political complexity in sub-Saharan Africa; African historical
archaeologies, particularly African-European contact during the early and later Atlantic periods; The archaeology of
the Zimbabwe Culture, with a special focus on the demise of Great Zimbabwe as a centre of political and economic
power; Iron Age ceramics and cultural entities in southern Africa; Landscape archaeology, particularly landscapes
of political power; History of archaeological research, post-colonial archaeology and the politics of archaeology in
southern Africa

Research in progress

Ceramic analysis: Khami pottery from the Pitt Rivers Museum, Oxford; Zhizo and Leopard’s Kopje pottery from
the Shashe-Limpopo confluence area
Monumental archaeology: Excavation reports of Zimbabwe Culture sites near Mt Fura, northern Zimbabwe, the
demise of Great Zimbabwe in south-central Zimbabwe
Landscape archaeology: Historical landscape characterization of the Zimbabwe Culture area, particularly northern

53
 and central Zimbabwe

Referees

Professor Joseph O. Vogel, 800 Energy Centre Blvd, #3806, Northport, AL 35473, USA, Tel. No. 1 (205) 758 9836
(jvogel@tenhoor.as.ua.edu)
Professor Martin Hall, Bremner Building, University of Cape Town, Rondebosch 7701, SOUTH AFRICA, Tel.
Nos. +27 21 650 4002-3/ Fax +27 21 686 0475 (mhall@bremner.uct.ac.za)
Professor Paul Sinclair, Department of Archaeology and Ancient History, Uppsala Universitet, Engelska parken,
Humanistiskt centrum, Thubergsv. 3 H, Box 626, 751 26, Uppsala, SWEDEN, Tel. No. +46 18 4712214
(Paul.Sinclair@arkeologi.uu.se)
Professor Felix Chami, Archaeology Unit, University of Dar es Salaam, P. O. Box 35050 Dar es Salaam,
TANZANIA, Tel. Nos. +255 51 410397-410500/8 ext. 2217 (fchami@ucmail.co.tz)

Select Publications

Articles in refereed journals

Pikirayi I. 1996. Archaeological pointers to the decline or collapse of the Mutapa State. Zimbabwea 4, 9-22.
Pikirayi, I. 1999. Great Zimbabwe tradition settlement and gold mining: local pottery from historical period mines in
northern Zimbabwe, Zimbabwea 6, 15-20.
Pikirayi, I. and G. Pwiti 1999. States, Traders and Colonists: Historical Archaeology in Zimbabwe. In Historical
Archaeology 33 (2), 73-89.

Books
Pikirayi, I. 1993a. The Archaeological identity of the Mutapa State: towards an historical archaeology of northern
Zimbabwe. Uppsala: Societas Archaeologica Upsaliensis.
Pikirayi, I. 2001a. The Zimbabwe Culture: Origins and Decline of southern Zambezian states. Walnut Creek, New
York and Oxford: Altamira Press.

Chapters in edited books

Pikirayi I. 1996. Ceramics and culture change in northern Zimbabwe: on the origins of the Musengezi tradition. In
G. Pwiti and R. Soper (eds), Aspects of African Archaeology: Papers from the 10th Congress of the Pan
African Association for Prehistory and Related Studies. Harare: UZ. Publications, 629-639.
Pikirayi I. 1997. Precolonial towns of Zambezia. In Vogel J. O. (editor) Encyclopedia of Precolonial Africa:
Archaeology, History, Language, Cultures and Environments. California and New Dehli: Altamira Press,
520-528.
Pikirayi, I. 1997. Pots, People and Culture: an overview of ceramic studies in Zimbabwe. In G. Pwiti (ed.), Caves,
Monuments and Texts: Zimbabwean Archaeology today. Studies in African Archaeology 14. Uppsala:
Department of Archaeology and Ancient History, Uppsala University, 69-87.
Pikirayi, I. 1997. Research Trends in Historical Archaeology on the Zimbabwe Plateau and Adjacent Margins. In G.
Pwiti (ed). Caves, Monuments and Texts: Zimbabwean Archaeology Today. Studies in African Archaeology
14 Uppsala: Department of Archaeology and Ancient History, Uppsala University.
Pikirayi, I. 1999. Research trends in the historical archaeology of Zimbabwe. In Funari, P. P. A., Hall, M., and
Jones, S. (eds) Historical Archaeology: Back from the edge. One World Archaeology 31. London and New
York: Routledge, 67-84.
Pikirayi, I. 2003. Environmental data and historical process: Historical climate reconstruction and the Mutapa State,
1450-1862. In Beinart, W. and McGregor, J. (eds). Social History and African Environments. Oxford: James
Currey, 60-71.
Pikirayi, I. 2004. Less implicit historical archaeologies: Oral traditions and later Karanga settlements in south-
central Zimbabwe. In Reid, A. M. and Lane, P. J. (eds). African Historical Archaeologies. New York,
Boston, Dordrecht, London, Moscow: Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers, 243-267.
Pikirayi, I. 2006. Gold, Black Ivory and Houses of Stone, In Hall, M and Silliman, S (eds), Historical Archaeology.
Blackwell Studies in Global Archaeology: A Prospectus. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing.
Manyanga, M., Pikirayi, I. and Ndoro, W. 2000. Copying with dryland environments: preliminary results from
Mapungubwe and Zimbabwe phase sites in the Mateke Hills, south-eastern Zimbabwe. In Leslie, M. and
Maggs, T. (eds) Africa Naissance: The Limpopo Valley 1000 years ago. The South African Archaeological
Society Goodwin Series 8, 69-77.
Sinclair, P., Pikirayi, I., Soper, R., and Pwiti G. 1993. Urban trajectories on the Zimbabwe plateau. In Shaw, T.,
54
 Sinclair, P., Andah, B., and Okpoko, A. (eds) The Archaeology of Africa: Food, metals and towns. One
World Archaeology 20. London and New York: Routledge, 705-731.

Book reviews and journal review features

Pikirayi, I. 2004. Book review, The Archaeology of Southern Africa by Peter Mitchell (Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, 2002), in The South African Archaeological Bulletin 59 (179), 29-32
Beach, D. N., Bourdillon, M. F. C., Denbow, J., Hall, M., Lane, P., Pikirayi, I., Pwiti, G. and Huffman T. N. 1997.
Review Feature on Snakes and Crocodiles: Power and symbolism in ancient Zimbabwe by T. N. Huffman,
The South African Archaeological Bulletin 52 (166), 125-143.
Beach, D. N., Bourdillon, M. F. C., Denbow, J., Liesegang, G., Loubser, J. H. N., Pikirayi, I., Schoenbrun, D.,
Soper, R., Stahl, A. B., 1998. Cognitive archaeology and imaginary history at Great Zimbabwe. Current
Anthropology 39 (1), 47-72.

Special reports
Gonçalves, A. and Deacon, J. (Rapporteurs) with contributions from Buckley, K., Truscott, M., and Pikirayi, I.
2004. General report of the scientific symposium on “Place – Memory – Meaning: preserving intangible values in
monuments and sites”, Fourteenth General Assembly of ICOMOS, Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe, 28 – 31 October 2003
(http://www.international.icomos.org/victoriafalls2003/finalreport-rapporteurs.pdf)

Pikirayi, I. 2005. The cultural landscape of the Shashe-Limpopo confluence zone: threats and challenges of
preserving a world heritage setting. In “Proceedings of International Council of Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS)
15th General Assembly and Scientific Symposium vol. 1”, Xi’an: World Publishing Corporation, pp. 427-433.

Forthcoming Publications
Pikirayi, I. 2005. Lost cultures, environments and heritage: the impact of dam construction on the Middle Zambezi.
In Brandt, S. and Hassan, F. (eds). Damming the Past. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books.
Pikirayi, I. 2006. The demise of Great Zimbabwe 1450-1550: an environmental re-appraisal. Cities in the World
1500-2000: Proceedings of the Society for Post-Medieval Archaeology Conference, Southampton, 18-20
April 2002 (eds Roger Leech and Adrian Green), Maney Publishing.
Pikirayi, I. 2006. The archaeology of sub-Saharan Africa: an overview. In Cunliffe, B. and Gosden, C. (eds), Oxford
Handbook of Archaeology. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Pikirayi, I. 2007. Gold, Slaves and Palaces: The consequences of African-European contact in northern Zimbabwe
during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Proceedings of the "The Atlantic World and Virginia, 1550-
1624," The Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture.

Membership to Professional Associations (No qualifying examination)

Member, South African Association of Professional Archaeologists (ASAPA)

Member, World Archaeological Congress (WAC)
Member, Society for Historical Archaeology (SHA)
Member, Society of Africanist Archaeologists (SAfA)
Member, The International Council on Museums and Sites (ICOMOS)
Member, The Pan African Association for Prehistory and Related Studies

Honours/Awards Received/Positions Held/Committees Served

Editorial Advisor to the Encyclopedia of Precolonial Africa: Archaeology, History, Language, Cultures and
Environments (edited by Professor Joseph Vogel, University of Alabama) published in 1997 by AltaMira
Press
Commonwealth Fellow, Pitt Rivers Museum; Visiting Scholar, Wolfson College, Oxford (November 1, 2000-April
30, 2001)
Vice President of ICOMOS (Zimbabwe) (1997-present), and head of ICOMOS (Zimbabwe) evaluation mission for
the nomination of the Matobo Hills to the World Heritage List, 14-18 October 2002
President, The International Council on Museums and Sites (ICOMOS) (Zimbabwe), July 2003-present
Organizing Committee Member, 14th International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS) General Assembly,
27th-31st October 2003
Committee Member (Research), University of Pretoria Mapungubwe Committee tasked with the repatriation and
restitution of cultural and skeletal remains from the Zimbabwe Culture site of Mapungubwe, chaired by the
55
 Principal, January 2005-present
Serving on the editorial panel and panel of referees for African Art and Architecture, the research journal for
architecture, art and allied disciplines, 11th January 2005-present

Hobbies

English and Spanish Premier Leagues Soccer, F1-Motor Racing, Test-Cricket, Watching Sitcoms, Sports, History
and Environmental Programmes on Satellite Television, Landscape Gardening.

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