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States of the Zimbabwe Plateau and Zambezi Valley (Afr.Std.)

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Jun 17th, 2017
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  1. Introduction
  2.  
  3. Since the 10th century AD various African states developed, rose to prominence, competed with other polities, and declined on the Zimbabwean plateau and in the adjacent Zambezi and Limpopo valleys. Most of these sites are marked by extensive stone walled ruins. Early colonial accounts proposed various exotic explanations for their origins, ranging from suggestions that these stone walled sites were the remains of the Land of Ophir to claims that they were built by people from Persia. The idea that the stone walled buildings could have been constructed by Africans was anathema to these colonial explorers, and the later white Rhodesian Front government, whose ideas were deeply rooted in racist and colonial imaginings of Africans. A substantial body of scholarship has since shown that these sites were conceptualized, constructed, and occupied by African communities. In contrast to the colonial stereotypes, the history of these African communities and their states is dynamic and complex, as has been demonstrated in more than eighty years of archaeological and historical research. The theoretical underpinnings of this scholarship have been diverse, and have included structuralism, historical materialism, and postcolonial approaches. These theoretical differences have informed a number of the debates about state formation processes on the Zimbabwean plateau. In addition, debates have arisen where data is thin, such as regarding the chronology of occupation at Great Zimbabwe. This bibliography focuses on five of the most prominent and archaeologically visible states in the region: the Mapungubwe, Great Zimbabwe, Mutapa, Torwa–Changamire-Rozvi (spelled Rozwi in some texts), and Ndebele states. The Mapungubwe state was the most prominent from the 11th to the 13th centuries. Great Zimbabwe controlled the region in the 14th and 15th centuries. The Mutapa State dominated the northeastern plateau and Zambezi valley from the 15th century to the 19th century. At about the same time the Torwa–Changamire-Rozvi state governed the southwestern region, but at the height of its power its reach stretched to the Great Zimbabwe area. The most recent of the Zimbabwe plateau states, the Ndebele State, broke the long-standing Zimbabwe culture hegemony on the Zimbabwe plateau. It took control over the southwestern region in the 19th century, an area previously controlled by the Rozvi. Due to the expansion of the colonial frontier into the region this was a short-lived endeavor. The history of these five states can be accessed through archaeological data as well as a range of historical sources, including oral and archival material. The archaeological remains include numerous stone walled sites, such as the well-known Great Zimbabwe, occupation sites constructed from less durable materials, and smaller items such as ceramics and glass beads.
  4.  
  5. General Overviews
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  7. Archaeological research conducted in the first half of the 20th century showed that the stone walled ruins of Zimbabwe were remnants of earlier African civilizations. Exotic ideas, however, still persisted, and were systematically challenged by archaeologists such as Peter Garlake and Roger Summers. Garlake 1970 maintained that archaeology is crucial to the writing of Zimbabwean history, and that archaeology can be used to challenge exotic narratives about the past. An example of archaeological data being used to write a factually accurate past that challenges exotic accounts is Summers 1966, which located the development of Great Zimbabwe and other Zimbabwean plateau sites in the context of the archaeological sites of the last two thousand years. This paper specifically linked these sites with African farming communities. These ideas are expanded on in more detail in Summers 1971. The research by this generation of archaeologists in Zimbabwe showed that the stone walled sites formed part of larger entities on the Zimbabwe plateau and immediate surrounding areas that developed and declined in the context of complex regional, economic, and social contexts. Consequently, the next generation of archaeologists started to grapple with the operation and functioning of these entities. Studies in the late 20th century were strongly rooted in economic approaches; for example, Sinclair 1987 emphasized the sociopolitical and economic aspects of state formation. Similarly van Waarden 1998 interpreted developmental drivers as primarily economic, and consequently argued that Mapungubwe and Great Zimbabwe were competing polities, with Great Zimbabwe gaining the upper hand due to a shift in trade routes. She also suggested that similar processes shaped the expansion of the Khami state and the decline of the Great Zimbabwe state. Other works placed the state sites in a broader regional context, as can be seen in the papers on the Zimbabwean plateau states in Sinclair and Pwiti 1990. Pikirayi 2001 continued in this tradition and focused on the development of these states in their historical and environmental contexts. In stark contrast to the economic and contextual models of state formation is the structuralist approach manifest in Huffman 1996. This volume emphasized the internal ideology and meanings that informed architectural and material culture developments in the Zimbabwe culture. Most of the debates on the archaeology of the Zimbabwe plateau states have focused on the reasons for state formation, the interpretation of structures and features, or conflicting meanings of the past in the present. In general, very little attention has been paid to critiques of uncritical approaches equating complexity with state formation, which have been put forward in other parts of Africa and expressed in texts such as Mackintosh 1999. Calabrese 2007, however, does engage with these critiques, and explored the development of social complexity in the Mapungubwe state. Specifically, focussing on the development of ethnic diversity in the region during state formation.
  8.  
  9. Calabrese, John A. The Emergence of Social and Political Complexity in the Shashi-Limpopo Valley of Southern Africa, AD 900 to 1300: Ethnicity, Class, and Polity. BAR International Series 1617. Oxford: Archaeopress, 2007.
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  11. Report on insights obtained though his PhD excavations in the Shashe-Limpopo Confluence Area, which challenged long-held ideas about cultural hegemony and Mapungubwe state formation, showing that people from multiple origins co-resided in the area.
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  13. Garlake, Peter S. “The Zimbabwe Ruins Reexamined.” Rhodesian History 1 (1970): 17–29.
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  15. A paper advocating the use of archaeology to better understand Zimbabwe’s precolonial past. The second part of the paper summarized what was known about the sequence from Great Zimbabwe to the Rozvi states.
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  17. Huffman, Thomas N. Snakes and Crocodiles: Power and Symbolism in Ancient Zimbabwe. Johannesburg: Witwatersrand University Press, 1996.
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  19. A synthesis and reinterpretation of existing data that uses a “cognitive approach,” informed by structuralism, to the settlement patterns, internal use of space, and material culture at Zimbabwe stone walled sites. Huffman’s approach makes extensive use of Venda ethnography. The book had a mixed reception.
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  21. Mackintosh, S. K., ed. Beyond Chiefdoms: Pathways to Complexity in Africa. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1999.
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  23. Edited volume that brings together a set of key papers that interrogate the idea of complexity in African archaeology, challenging past approaches to complexity.
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  25. Pikirayi, Innocent. The Zimbabwe Culture. Walnut Creek, CA: AltaMira, 2001.
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  27. An important synthesis of recent research into Zimbabwean farming community archaeology that includes information on the environmental contexts. Specifically focuses on the sequence from the arrival of the first herders to the 19th century Mutapa and Rozvi-Changamire states.
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  29. Sinclair, Paul J. J. “Space, Time and Social Formation: A Territorial Approach to the Archaeology and Anthropology of Zimbabwe and Mozambique c. 0–1700 AD.” PhD diss., Uppsala University, 1987.
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  31. Explores the economic and political configuration of Zimbabwean plateau- and Mozambican farming-based societies before 1700, specifically focusing on state formation.
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  33. Sinclair, Paul J. J., and Gilbert Pwiti, eds. Urban Origins in Eastern Africa: Proceedings of the 1990 Workshop, Harare and Great Zimbabwe. Sweden Paper 6. Stockholm: Central Board of National Antiquities, 1990.
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  35. Edited volume that reports on research conducted in eastern and southern Africa under the banner of the Urban Origins program, which played a major role in stimulating research into the Zimbabwean plateau and Zambezi valley sites.
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  37. Summers, Roger F. H. “The Iron Age of Southern Rhodesia.” Current Anthropology 7.4 (1966): 463–484.
  38. DOI: 10.1086/200753Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  39. A significant contribution to the second wave of archaeological research on the Zimbabwe sites, starting with a brief overview of the history of archaeological research in Zimbabwe, and followed by a summary of the archaeological sequence as it was understood at the time.
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  41. Summers, Roger. Ancient Ruins and Vanished Civilizations of Southern Africa. Cape Town: T. V. Bulpin, 1971.
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  43. Comprehensive overview of the archaeology, architecture, distribution, and origins of the stone walled ruins of Zimbabwe. The sites are also located in a regional and environmental context.
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  45. van Waarden, Catrien. “The Late Iron Age.” In Ditswa Mmung: The Archaeology of Botswana. Edited by Paul Lane, Andrew Reid, and Alinah Segobye, 115–160. Gaborone: Botswana Society, 1998.
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  47. Van Waarden’s paper grapples with the archaeology of chiefdoms and states in Botswana, South Africa, and Zimbabwe from 900 AD. Her approach to the sequence is based on her research in Botswana.
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  49. Reference Works
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  51. A number of reference works that focus on African archaeology include some information on the Zimbabwean states. The entries in Vogel 1997 provide accessible information about the African past. Researchers grappling with the complexity of the ceramic style in Southern Africa will find Huffman 2007 a useful tool. The relevant chapters in Mitchell and Lane 2013 provide useful syntheses of existing research.
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  53. Huffman, Thomas N. Handbook to the Iron Age: The Archaeology of Pre-Colonial Farming Societies in Southern Africa. Scottsville, South Africa: University of KwaZulu-Natal Press, 2007.
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  55. This richly illustrated overview of southern African Iron Age archaeology combines the various strands of Huffman’s previous interpretations, specifically his cognitive approach to space, and his use of ceramic style as a proxy for the peoples he studies.
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  57. Mitchell, Peter, and Paul Lane. The Oxford Handbook of African Archaeology. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013.
  58. DOI: 10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199569885.001.0001Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  59. Collection of scholarly papers on African archaeology covering most key research topics and regions of Africa. Relevant are chapters on African urbanism (pp. 689–702), precolonial states (pp 703–722) and the Zimbabwe culture (pp 915–927).
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  61. Vogel, Joseph O., ed. Encyclopaedia of Precolonial Africa: Archaeology, History, Language, Cultures and Environments. Walnut Creek, CA: AltaMira, 1997.
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  63. Comprehensive volume with papers from a range of disciplines. Specifically relevant are the chapters on the “Southern African Iron Age,” “Development of States in Sub-Saharan Africa,” “Urbanism in Sub-Saharan African,” “Zambezian States,” “Precolonial Towns of Zambezia,” “Southeastern African Gold Mining and Trade,” and “Indian Ocean Trade.”
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  65. Textbooks
  66.  
  67. Textbooks on African and particularly southern African archaeology often include some information about the Zimbabwe plateau sites. Hall 1996 locates Zimbabwean state formation in an ideological context, and includes information about the Politics of Archaeology in the region. Phillipson 2005 includes a useful summary. Mitchell 2002 is a valuable and comprehensive resource for researchers new to the region.
  68.  
  69. Hall, Martin. Archaeology Africa. London: James Curry, 1996.
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  71. Accessible textbook that integrates information about the southern African archaeological sequence with complexities raised by the political context of archaeology in the region.
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  73. Mitchell, Peter. The Archaeology of Southern Africa. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2002.
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  75. A comprehensive and insightful synthesis of southern African archaeology that traces the sequence from the early Stone Age to the colonial period.
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  77. Phillipson, David W. African Archaeology. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2005.
  78. DOI: 10.1017/CBO9780511800313Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  79. An update of this well-known synthesis of African archaeological discoveries that includes information about past and ongoing research in African archaeology spanning the continent and that summarizes the entire archaeological sequence.
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  81. Bibliography and Guide
  82.  
  83. Texts on the history and archaeology of the Zimbabwean plateau states have been published in a wide range of formats in several countries. These scattered sources can be challenging to identify and locate, and many of the 20th century research papers and books on Zimbabwean history and archaeology are not always readily available outside Zimbabwe. Furthermore, many of the Zimbabwean Journals, in which key papers were published, have a limited distribution, and most are not available yet in digital format. There also are numerous unpublished texts in the Zimbabwean archives. Baxter and Burke 1970 is an example of an early attempt to aid in the navigation of unpublished texts. Hubbard 2007 comprises a comprehensive list of published archaeological texts on Zimbabwean archaeology.
  84.  
  85. Baxter, T. W., and Eric E. Burke. Guide to the Historical Manuscripts in the National Archives of Rhodesia. Salisbury: National Archives of Rhodesia, 1970.
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  87. An interesting text that reflects historical approaches to the pre-1970 manuscripts in the National archives of Zimbabwe.
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  89. Hubbard, Paul, ed. A Bibliography of Zimbabwean Archaeology to 2005. African Rock Art Digital Archive. 2007.
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  91. A comprehensive bibliography on Zimbabwean archaeology to 2005 available as a free downloadable e-book.
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  93. Journals
  94.  
  95. A number of academic journals publish academic research on the African past. The Journal of African History covers current research in African archaeology and history, while the African Archaeological Review attracts papers on current research in the eastern and southern regions. Azania and the South African Archaeological Bulletin provide regional coverage. Journal of the Prehistory Society of Zimbabwe, Zimbabwean History, and Zimbabwea focus on specific content regarding Zimbabwe and data that often is not available elsewhere. These three journals, however, are not always easy to access.
  96.  
  97. African Archaeological Review. 1983–.
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  99. A leading journal on African archaeology that explores African archaeology in the context of global issues.
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  101. Azania: Journal of the British Institute in East Africa. 1966–.
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  103. While the focus of Azania has been on East African archaeology, the journal also publishes archaeological reports on southern African archaeology.
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  105. Journal of African History.1960–.
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  107. A well-respected forum for the publication of archaeological and historical articles that cover the whole African past.
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  109. Journal of the Prehistory Society of Zimbabwe. 1980–.
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  111. Previously Rhodesian Prehistory: Journal of the Prehistory Society of Rhodesia (1968–1979) this journal has a limited distribution, but plays an important role in the dissemination of Zimbabwean archaeological research.
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  113. South African Archaeological Bulletin 1945–.
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  115. One of the oldest archaeological journals on African archaeology, which continues to play a leading role in disseminating archaeological data from southern Africa, including Zimbabwean prehistory.
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  117. Zimbabwea. 1988–.
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  119. Journal of the Museums and Monuments of Zimbabwe that focuses on research into Zimbabwe’s cultural heritage and its public portrayal.
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  121. Zimbabwean History. 1980–.
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  123. From the Journal of the Historical Association of Zimbabwe, previously known as Rhodesian History (1970–1979). Zimbabwean History disseminates academic research into Zimbabwe’s historical past.
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  125. Antiquarian and Colonial Imaginings
  126.  
  127. Early narratives about Zimbabwean history and archaeology were fundamentally entangled in colonial imaginings of Africa and Africans. Most of these were racist and consequently early accounts of Great Zimbabwe and other stone walled sites on the Zimbabwe plateau denied African authorship of the structures. Instead the sites were linked to Phoenicians, Sabaeans and even the Biblical land of Ophir. These interpretations were fanciful and generally rested on casual visits, such as those reported in Maund 1891 and Mauch, et al. 1969. A few works such as Bent 1892, Hall and Neal 1904, and Hall 1905 reported on mapping and excavations. These excavations were not systematic or scientific, and were clearly driven by a colonial agenda. Similar weaknesses underlay Wilmot 1896, which was based on archival research. Others, for example Fletcher 1941, used more bizarre sources of data such as séances. These colonial imaginings of lost cities and exotic occupants even inspired the fictional narrative of Haggard 1900. While the conclusions reached by these authors are ludicrous, the texts often contain valuable observational data. A substantial body of scientific research conclusively demonstrated that these exotic interpretations were deeply flawed. Yet, as several of the papers in the Politics of Archaeology section point out, these colonial imaginings were again invoked, and further elaborated, during the rule of the white Rhodesian Front government from 1964 to 1980. Karl Mauch’s diaries, published as Mauch, et al. 1969, were edited and published in this context.
  128.  
  129. Bent, J. Theodore. The Ruined Cities of Mashonaland: Being a Record of Excavation and Exploration in 1891. London: Longmans, Green, 1892.
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  131. One of the earliest colonial texts on Great Zimbabwe. Narrates Bent’s exploration of the region and sites. The account includes descriptions and illustrations of archaeological and ethnographic material culture from the region. Bent claimed that the archaeological architecture and material culture show similarities to that of Egyptian and Middle Eastern sites. With appendices by Robert McNair Swan.
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  133. Fletcher, H. Clarkson. Psychic Episodes of Great Zimbabwe: A True Narrative. Cape Town: Central News Agency South Africa, 1941.
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  135. A bizarre account that narrates the supposed information obtained about the past of Great Zimbabwe through a series of séances. This narrative is deeply embedded in racist colonial imaginings of Africans.
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  137. Haggard, H. Rider. Elissa: The Doom of Zimbabwe. New York: Longmans, Green, 1900.
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  139. Fictional account rooted in colonial portrayals of the Zimbabwean past, and denials of African authorship. Haggard’s portrayal of the Great Zimbabwe ruins as the remains of a Phoenician kingdom destroyed through conflict with Africans reflected popular interpretations at the time.
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  141. Hall, Richard N. Great Zimbabwe Mashonaland, Rhodesia: An Account of Two Years’ Examination Work in 1902–1904 on behalf of the Government of Rhodesia. London: Methuen, 1905.
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  143. Report on the 1902 to 1904 excavations at Great Zimbabwe conducted by Hall. Includes detailed descriptions of the site, stone-walled features and some of the finds. It, however, also contains rather bizarre interpretations that attempts to link the site to the near East.
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  145. Hall, Richard N., and W. G. Neal. The Ancient Ruins of Rhodesia. 2d ed. London: Methuen, 1904.
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  147. Report on surveys and excavations conducted from 1902 to 1904, which gives a detailed description of the Great Zimbabwe, Khami, and various other ruins. Hall and Neal link the region to the Biblical land of Ophir, and the occupants are interpreted as of South Arabian, Phoenician, or Palestinian origin.
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  149. Mauch, Karl, E. Bernhard, F. O. Bernhard, and E. E. Burke. The Journals of Carl Mauch: His Travels in the Transvaal and Rhodesia, 1869–1872. Salisbury: National Archives of Rhodesia, 1969.
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  151. Edited journals of Carl Mauch, who ‘discovered’ Great Zimbabwe, which narrate his travels through Southern Zimbabwe, and describe communities in the region.
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  153. Maund, Edward A. “On Matabele and Mashona Lands.” Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society and Monthly Record of Geography 13.1 (1891): 1–21.
  154. DOI: 10.2307/1800793Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  155. Narrates Maund’s travels through Zimbabwe, containing brief descriptions and illustrations of key Zimbabwean sites such as Khami and Great Zimbabwe. At the core of the account is an assessment of the potential of the region for extensive colonization and settlement by Britain.
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  157. Wilmot, Alexander. Monomutapa (Rhodesia): Its Monuments and Its History from the Most Ancient Times to the Present Century. London: T. F. Unwin, 1896.
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  159. The first deeply flawed attempt at historical research into the history of Monomutapa based on archival research in the Lisbon and Vatican archives. Wilmot claimed that the builders were Phoenician. The research was commissioned by Cecil John Rhodes of the British South Africa company.
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  161. The First Stratigraphic Archaeological Research
  162.  
  163. Systematic and scientific archaeological research on the Zimbabwean ruins started in the early 20th century. A number of stone walled sites similar to the Zimbabwe ruins were surveyed, after which Randall-MacIver 1906a and Randall-MacIver 1906b contended that these sites were the remains of a medieval African civilization. That interpretation was supported by the more intensive and extensive excavations reported in Caton-Thompson 1931. This research clearly showed that the colonial models were factually flawed, and laid the foundation for the archaeological research that followed.
  164.  
  165. Caton-Thompson, Gertrude. The Zimbabwe Culture: Ruins and Reactions. Oxford: Clarendon, 1931.
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  167. Pioneering book on Zimbabwean archaeological excavations. Caton-Thompson reports on her extensive archaeological excavations at Great Zimbabwe, which focused on understanding the site stratigraphy and identifying its occupation date.
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  169. Randall-MacIver, D. “The Rhodesian Ruins: Their Probable Origin and Significance.” Geographical Journal 27 (1906a): 325–336.
  170. DOI: 10.2307/1776233Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  171. The first paper published on scholarly archaeological research at the stone walled Zimbabwe sites. Based on the material culture recovered in his excavations, such as metalwork and ceramics, the occupants are identified as African.
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  173. Randall-MacIver, D. Medieval Rhodesia. London: Macmillan, 1906b.
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  175. The monograph reports in detail on MacIver’s scientific archaeological research conducted in Zimbabwe. It includes descriptions of the surveys and first scientific excavations at Inyanga, the Niekerk ruins, Untali, Dhlo-Dhlo, Nanatali, Khami, and Great Zimbabwe.
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  177. Historiography and Zimbabwean States
  178.  
  179. There is a death of primary historical sources on Mapungubwe and Great Zimbabwe state formation, and the configuration of related stone walled sites on the Zimbabwean plateau. Consequently, historians relied on archaeological data about this period as well as on general historical processes. More sources are available for the period after 1500 AD. Historians, however, have not always used these sources in a meaningful manner, and several texts have reflected on the limitations of historical sources, contextualized earlier texts, and interrogated weaknesses in past approaches. The historian David Beach, who played a key role in the writing of precolonial African history in Zimbabwe, has also reflected critically on history writing: Beach 1973, for example, examined the writing of Zimbabwean peoples’ history before the 1970s, highlighting the limitations of these studies. Beach 1984 explored the long-term history, from the start of the Shona occupation to the formation and decline of the various states in the region, while Beach 1994 discussed the use of oral histories when writing about Shona precolonial history, and included an in-depth critique of past interpretations of historical sources. Mazarire 2013 focused on early colonial texts as sources of information about the region and African society, and contended that Mauch’s journals should be read more critically than has often been the case in the past.
  180.  
  181. Beach, David. “The Historiography of the People of Zimbabwe in the 1960s.” Rhodesian History 4 (1973): 21–30.
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  183. A critical review of Zimbabwean historiography before the 1970s.
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  185. Beach, David. The Shona and Zimbabwe, 900–1850: An Outline of Shona History. Gweru, Zimbabwe: Mambo, 1984.
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  187. A very important contribution to the study of precolonial Zimbabwean history and society based on archaeological, oral, and documentary sources, which includes substantive chapters on the Mutapa, Torwa and Rozvi states, as well as a discussion of the complexities of historical research in this context.
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  189. Beach, David. A Zimbabwean Past: Shona Dynastic Histories and Oral Traditions. Gweru, Zimbabwe: Mambo, 1994.
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  191. A thorough assessment of the use and interpretation of oral traditions, especially those of the Shona, that have been used to write precolonial Zimbabwean history.
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  193. Mazarire, Gerald C. “Carl Mauch and Some Karanga Chiefs around Great Zimbabwe 1871–1872: Re-Considering the Evidence.” South African Historical Journal 65.3 (2013): 337–364.
  194. DOI: 10.1080/02582473.2013.768290Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  195. An important interrogation of the Karl Mauch diaries and their use by historians and archaeologists to understand precolonial history and archaeology in Zimbabwe.
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  197. Relationship between Toutswe Mapungubwe and Great Zimbabwe
  198.  
  199. One of the continuing debates in African archaeology is the relationship between the three early second millennium polities in southern Africa: Toutswe, Mapungubwe and Great Zimbabwe. Denbow 1986 argued that these were parallel polities, and that the centre of power shifted between them. Supporting the competing polities approach, van Waarden 1998, cited under General Overviews, argued that the shifting location of economic power from Mapungubwe to Great Zimbabwe related to changes in trade routes. Huffman 2000, however, viewed the relationship as sequential, and contended that the Zimbabwe culture pattern started at Mapungubwe. This argument, which rests on cultural continuities visible through a structuralist reading of settlement patterns, is expanded on in Huffman 2009. Recently the debate has been reinvigorated by Chirikure, et al. 2013b, which suggested that the occupation at Great Zimbabwe started earlier than previously thought. This argument is based on a recent attempt to reread the Great Zimbabwe occupation sequence. Chirikure, et al. 2013a elaborated on the implications of the recalibrated dates for Great Zimbabwe, suggesting that the start of stone walls at Great Zimbabwe overlaps with the Mapungubwe sequence, thereby returning to the competing polities model put forward in Denbow 1986. This interpretation again was challenged by Huffman 2015, which questions Chirikure, et al. 2013b in its reading of the stratigraphy as well as its reinterpretation of the radiocarbon data.
  200.  
  201. Chirikure, Shadreck, Munyaradzi Manyanga, Innocent Pikirayi, and Mark Pollard. “New Pathways of Sociopolitical Complexity in Southern Africa.” African Archaeological Review 30.4 (2013a): 339–366.
  202. DOI: 10.1007/s10437-013-9142-3Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  203. Reassessment of the Zimbabwean archaeological sequence based on ceramics, stone architecture and recalibrated radiocarbon dates.
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  205. Chirikure, Shadreck, Mark Pollard, Munyaradzi Manyanga, and Foreman Bandama. “A Bayesian Chronology for Great Zimbabwe: Re-Threading the Sequence of a Vandalized Monument.” Antiquity 87.337 (2013b): 854–872.
  206. DOI: 10.1017/S0003598X00049516Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  207. Report on an attempt to construct a Bayesian chronology for Great Zimbabwe, suggesting that the start of wall construction occurred earlier than previously thought.
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  209. Denbow, James. “A New Look at the Later Prehistory of the Kalahari.” Journal of African History 27.1 (1986): 3–28.
  210. DOI: 10.1017/S0021853700029170Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  211. Important and very sound contribution to the understanding of the development of complexity in southern Africa. The study is based on archaeological data from Botswana, but the research has implications for our understanding of the late first millennium to early second millennium state formation in southern Africa as a whole.
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  213. Huffman, Thomas N. “Mapungubwe and the Origins of the Origins of the Zimbabwe Culture.” Goodwin Series: African Naissance: The Limpopo Valley 1000 Years Ago 8 (2000): 14–29.
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  215. A summary of existing and new settlement pattern data, radiocarbon dates, and ceramic style that further develops Huffman’s cognitive model (see Huffman 1996, cited under General Overviews).
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  217. Huffman, Thomas N. “Mapungubwe and Great Zimbabwe: The Origin and Spread of Social Complexity in Southern Africa.” Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 28 (2009): 37–54.
  218. DOI: 10.1016/j.jaa.2008.10.004Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  219. A more detailed version of Huffman 2000, which includes spatial, stratigraphic, and radiocarbon data from Great Zimbabwe.
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  221. Huffman, Thomas N. “Social Complexity in Southern Africa.” African Archaeological Review 32 (2015): 71–91.
  222. DOI: 10.1007/s10437-014-9166-3Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  223. Challenge to Chirikure, et al. 2013a and Chirikure, et al. 2013b in which Huffman compares various approaches to radiocarbon date calibration, as well as the relationship between stratigraphy and calibration.
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  225. Mapungubwe
  226.  
  227. Mapungubwe Hill is a sandstone outcrop in the Shashe-Limpopo Confluence Area, on which members of the Mapungubwe elite lived and were buried. It overlooks the surrounding valley, where the Mapungubwe town stood. In the early 20th century excavations at Mapungubwe Hill yielded a large amount of gold as well as goods obtained through international trade. Fouché 1939 and Gardner 1963 reported on the early excavations. These studies were followed by archaeological research by Pretoria University, reported in Meyer 1998. This research established that the town at the base of Mapungubwe was formed while the regional capital was still based at the nearby site of K2, and before the Mapungubwe hilltop became a residential site. Subsequent research showed that the hilltop occupation was the final phase in a long process of state formation in the area. The first capital in the Shashe-Limpopo Confluence Area was the 10th century AD site of Schroda, where, as Hanisch 1980 reported, a substantial amount of Indian Ocean trade beads were found. From the early 11th to the early 13th century AD K2 was the capital, and in the 13th century AD Mapungubwe Hill became the center of power. Huffman 2000 suggested that at its zenith Mapungubwe town was home to approximately five thousand people, which was substantially larger than its predecessor K2, which housed one thousand to two thousand people. At its height of power the Mapungubwe state controlled approximately 30,000 square kilometers in South Africa, Zimbabwe, and Botswana. Meyer 1998 provides detailed information on the stratigraphy and radiocarbon dating that informs many of the interpretations of the Mapungubwe sequence. The edited volume by Leslie and Maggs 2000 brings together the various components of Mapungubwe research, including excavation reports and new insights into the sequence. Since 2000 a substantial amount of new research has attempted to grapple with complexity and social processes in the region. One of the first of these new approaches is reported in Calabrese 2000, which challenged earlier interpretations of the regional sequence that suggested the Schroda-centered farmers were replaced by the farmers who established their capital at K2, demonstrating continuities in occupation as well as ethnic complexity. Research also focused on other forms of interaction and Schoeman 2006 explored the role of rain control in the ideology of the Mapungubwe state, arguing that the involvement of San hunter-gatherers in farmer rain control speaks to the development of complexity. In an attempt to grapple with the internal dynamics away from the center, Manyanga 2006 explored resilience in the occupation sequence.
  228.  
  229. Calabrese, John A. “Interregional Interaction in Southern Africa: Zhizo and Leopard’s Kopje Relations in Northern South Africa, Southwestern Zimbabwe, and Eastern Botswana, AD 1000 to 1200.” African Archaeological Review 17.4 (2000): 183–210.
  230. DOI: 10.1023/A:1006796925891Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  231. Report on some of the insights obtained in Calabrese’s PhD excavations of K2 and Leokwe sites in the Shashe-Limpopo Confluence Area, which demonstrated that not all Zhizo farmers abandoned the region when the K2 capital was established.
  232. Find this resource:
  233. Fouché, Leo, ed. Mapungubwe: Ancient Bantu Civilization on the Limpopo. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1939.
  234. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  235. Pioneering text on archaeology in South Africa. This edited volume reports on the first excavations at K2 and Mapungubwe, which took place in 1934 under the direction of the University of Pretoria Archaeological Committee.
  236. Find this resource:
  237. Gardner, Guy A. Mapungubwe, Vol. 2, Report on Excavations at Mapungubwe and Bambandyanalo in Northern Transvaal from 1935 to 1940. Pretoria, South Africa: J. L. van Schaik, 1963.
  238. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  239. Second report on the 1935–1940 excavations at K2 and Mapungubwe under the direction of the University of Pretoria Archaeological Committee.
  240. Find this resource:
  241. Hanisch, Edwin O. M. “An Archaeological Interpretation of Certain Iron Age Sites in the Limpopo/Shashe Valley.” MA diss., University of Pretoria, 1980.
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  243. Masters dissertation reporting on Hanisch’s excavations at Schroda.
  244. Find this resource:
  245. Huffman, Thomas N. “Mapungubwe and the Origins of the Zimbabwe Culture.” In Special Issue: African Naissance: The Limpopo Valley 1000 Years Ago. Edited by Mary Leslie and Tim Maggs. Goodwin Series 8 (2000): 14–29.
  246. DOI: 10.2307/3858043Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  247. A synthesis of research on the state formation sequence of the Shashe-Limpopo Confluence area that links Mapungubwe state formation to international trade.
  248. Find this resource:
  249. Leslie, Mary, and Tim Maggs, eds. Special Issue: African Naissance: The Limpopo Valley 1000 Years Ago. Goodwin Series 8 (2000).
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  251. Issue of the South African Archaeological Bulletin Goodwin Series with papers on current insights into Mapungubwe archaeology.
  252. Find this resource:
  253. Manyanga, Munyaradzi. “Resilient Landscapes: Socio-Environmental Dynamics in the Shashe Limpopo Basin, Southern Zimbabwe, c. AD 800 to the Present.” PhD diss., Uppsala University, 2006.
  254. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  255. PhD thesis rooted in resilience theory that discusses the archaeological sequence of the Shashe-Limpopo Confluence Area from 800 AD onwards.
  256. Find this resource:
  257. Meyer, Andrie. The Archaeological Sites of Greefswald: Stratigraphy and Chronology of the Sites and a History of Investigations. Pretoria, South Africa: University of Pretoria, 1998.
  258. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  259. Detailed report on the excavations in the Shashe-Limpopo Confluence Area conducted by the University of Pretoria from the 1970s to the 1990s.
  260. Find this resource:
  261. Schoeman, Maria H. “Imagining Rain-Places: Rain-Control and Changing Ritual Landscapes in the Shashe-Limpopo Confluence Area, South Africa.” South African Archaeological Bulletin 61.184 (2006): 152–165.
  262. DOI: 10.2307/20474923Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  263. Discusses rain-control in the Shashe-Limpopo Confluence Area, based on her PhD excavations of hilltop sites that examined the role hunter-gatherers played in rain-control and associated ideological processes in the formation of the Mapungubwe state.
  264. Find this resource:
  265. Great Zimbabwe
  266.  
  267. The monumental stone walled site of Great Zimbabwe marks the location of a town that was at its peak between the early 14th and mid-15th-century AD. At this time Great Zimbabwe was the largest center in southern Africa. In addition to the political and economic power it exerted over the Zimbabwe plateau, it also controlled the trade networks from the Indian Ocean coast. Excavations discussed in the Great Zimbabwe: Archaeology section explored the configuration of the town, which comprised dry stone wall enclosures on the hill and in the valley, as well as extensive unwalled residential areas enclosed by a surrounding wall. The site has a long history of use and reuse, and debates about the chronology of Great Zimbabwe are discussed in the Stratigraphy and Dating of Great Zimbabwe section. This town was the center of a state that controlled the south-central Zimbabwean plateau. This network of political power is materialized in smaller stone walled zimbabwea in the regions, which is discussed in the Zimbabwean State Landscape.
  268.  
  269. Archaeology
  270.  
  271. Understanding the site of Great Zimbabwe has been made complicated by the large scale of the largely unrecorded excavations conducted by Hall, as well as subsequent damage to the site by public works. In spite of this several archaeologists tried to grapple with the archaeology of Great Zimbabwe in the second half of the 20th century. Whitty 1957 identified three stone walled construction techniques: P, Q and R. Archaeologists have used these techniques to date wall construction at Great Zimbabwe. Summers, et al. 1961 examined the excavation of an area that had not been previously excavated or disturbed and found that the site was continuously occupied for about three hundred years. Subsequently others have reinterpreted the data from these excavations. Huffman 1986 argued that the settlement pattern of Great Zimbabwe is a manifestation of the Zimbabwe culture, which developed at Mapungubwe. In this interpretation the Mapungubwe state formation process was accompanied by substantial ideological changes, which included the relocation of royal residences onto hilltops seen at Great Zimbabwe. Chirikure and Pikirayi 2008 reviewed the available Great Zimbabwe data and consequently raised concerns about past interpretations, such as that of Huffman. This, however, does not mean that new interpretations are not possible, and Pikirayi 2013 explored the relationship between, space, architecture, and ideology at Zimbabwe culture sites, locating the development of the Zimbabwe settlement plan in a Great Zimbabwean discourse about power.
  272.  
  273. Chirikure, Shadreck, and Innocent Pikirayi. “Inside and Outside the Dry Stone Walls: Revisiting the Material Culture of Great Zimbabwe.” Antiquity 82.318 (2008): 976–993.
  274. DOI: 10.1017/S0003598X00097726Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  275. Overview of earlier archaeological research, and critical assessment of previous interpretations.
  276. Find this resource:
  277. Huffman, Thomas N. “Iron Age Settlement Patterns and the Origins of Class Distinction in Southern Africa.” Advances in World Archaeology 5 (1986): 291–338.
  278. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  279. Examination of continuities and change in the settlement pattern of southern Africa, focusing on the origins of the Zimbabwe culture pattern;argues that the first manifestation of this pattern is Mapungubwe.
  280. Find this resource:
  281. Pikirayi, Innocent. “Stone Architecture and the Development of Power in the Zimbabwe Tradition AD 1270–1830.” Azania 48.2 (2013): 282–300.
  282. DOI: 10.1080/0067270X.2013.789225Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  283. Uses theoretical approaches developed in architectural studies to explore the relationship between nature, ideology, and construction at Great Zimbabwe and Khami, suggesting that there was a recursive relationship between power and construction of sites associated with leaders.
  284. Find this resource:
  285. Summers, Roger F. H., Keith R. Robinson, and Anthony Whitty. “Zimbabwe Excavations, 1958.” Occasional Papers of the National Museums of Rhodesia 3 (1961): 157–332.
  286. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  287. Report on excavations conducted at Great Zimbabwe in 1958.
  288. Find this resource:
  289. Whitty, Anthony. “The Origins of the Stone Architecture of Zimbabwe.” In Third Pan-African Congress on Prehistory, Livingstone, Zambia, 1955. Edited by J. Desmond Clark, 366–377. London: Chatto and Windus, 1957.
  290. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  291. A very important pioneering study on the construction and architecture of Great Zimbabwe, which focused on wall construction techniques.
  292. Find this resource:
  293. Stratigraphy and Dating of Great Zimbabwe
  294.  
  295. Most of the late 19th and early 20th century excavations at Great Zimbabwe and other plateau sites were not scientific and extensive records were not kept. The limited data set has been a challenge for archaeologists who try to grapple with the occupation sequence at this site. Among others Murambiwa 1990 reinvestigated the stratigraphy of Great Zimbabwe. Several attempts have been made to untangle the chronology. Huffman and Vogel 1991, for example, combined radiocarbon and spatial data, while Collett, et al. 1992 reinterpreted the spatial configuration as well as the architecture. The calibration of the dates and interpretation of the stratigraphy remains a subject of debate. Huffman 2010 challenged more recent interpretations of the stratigraphy, while Chirikure, et al. 2012 argued for a new approach to the chronology of the site.
  296.  
  297. Chipunza, Kundishora T. “A Diachronic Analysis of the Architecture of the Hill Complex at Great Zimbabwe.” MA diss., Uppsala University, 1993.
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  299. Grapples with the development of the Hill complex at Great Zimbabwe through an analysis of the construction sequence. Chipunza also explores the changes in construction techniques, architectural form, and spatial layout.
  300. Find this resource:
  301. Chirikure, Shadreck, Munyaradzi Manyanga, and A. M. Pollard. “When Science Alone is Not Enough: Radiocarbon Timescales, History, Ethnography, and Elite Settlements in Southern Africa.” Journal of Social Archaeology 12.3 (2012): 356–379.
  302. DOI: 10.1177/1469605312457291Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  303. An examination of the complexity of the occupation sequence of Zimbabwean stone walled sites that combines historical and archaeological data sets to reconsider the occupation sequence
  304. Find this resource:
  305. Collett, David P., A. E. Vines, and E. G. Hughes. “The Chronology of the Valley Enclosures: Implications for the Interpretation of Great Zimbabwe.” African Archaeological Review 10 (1992): 139–161.
  306. DOI: 10.1007/BF01117699Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  307. A key challenge to Huffman’s structuralist interpretation of space at Great Zimbabwe, which is supported by a sound reading of chronological data, architectural histories, and a rereading of spatial organization.
  308. Find this resource:
  309. Huffman, Thomas N. “Revisiting Great Zimbabwe.” Azania: Archaeological Research in Africa 45.3 (2010): 321–328.
  310. DOI: 10.1080/0067270X.2010.521679Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  311. Huffman’s reply to newer interpretations of the archaeology of Great Zimbabwe, in which the stratigraphy and chronology of the site is revisited.
  312. Find this resource:
  313. Huffman, Thomas N., and John C. Vogel. “The Chronology of Great Zimbabwe.” South African Archaeological Bulletin 46.154 (1991): 61–70.
  314. DOI: 10.2307/3889086Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  315. Huffman and Vogel integrate spatial and stratigraphic data with radiocarbon dates in order to reinterpret the occupation sequence at Great Zimbabwe. The paper suggests that the occupation of the site can be divided into five distinct phases.
  316. Find this resource:
  317. Murambiwa, Ivan M. “Stratigraphy and Settlement Pattern at Great Zimbabwe and Khami.” In Urban Origins in East Africa: Proceedings of the 1989 Madagascar Workshop. Edited by Paul J. J. Sinclair and J. A. Rakotoarisoa, 198–199. Sweden Paper 4. Stockholm: Central Board of National Antiquities, 1990.
  318. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  319. An attempt to grapple with the archaeology of royal Zimbabwe plateau sites, specifically focusing on the site stratigraphy and settlement patterns.
  320. Find this resource:
  321. The Zimbabwean State Landscape
  322.  
  323. Great Zimbabwe is not an isolated site, as portrayed in colonial imaginings. Instead it is the centre of a complex network of regional capitals marked by smaller stone walled zimbabwea. In turn all the zimbabwea formed part of local settlement networks, of which the majority were not built in stone. Exploring this site distribution and the relationship between sites and the surrounding landscape has deepened insights into the Zimbabwean past. The sequence and distribution patterns of stonewalled sites throughout Zimbabwe are the subject of Sinclair, et al. 1993, which stressed the development of urbanism in the region. Soper 1990 reported on a cluster of understudied stonewalled sites in Northern Zimbabwe. Pikirayi 2001 explored the complex relationship between the physical environment and the Zimbabwe cultural landscape.
  324.  
  325. Pikirayi, Innocent. “Tsheboeng: The Physical Environment and the Landscapes of Great Zimbabwe Culture States.” In People, Contacts, and the Environment in the African Past. Edited by Felix Chami, Gilbert Pwiti, and Marie de Chantal Radimilahy, 129–150. Studies in the African Past 1. Dar es Salaam, Tanzania: Dar es Salaam University Press, 2001.
  326. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  327. A summary of the known archaeological sequence of the Great Zimbabwe culture states, followed by a comparison of site distribution patterns with physical, environmental, and resource data.
  328. Find this resource:
  329. Sinclair, Paul J. J., Innocent Pikirayi, Gilbert Pwiti, and Robert Soper. “Urban Trajectories on the Zimbabwean Plateau.” In The Archaeology of Africa: Food, Metals, and Towns. Edited by Thurstan Shaw, Paul Sinclair, Bassey Andah, and Alex Okpoko, 705–731. One World Archaeology 20. London: Routledge, 1993.
  330. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  331. A reinvestigation of the settlement distribution and hierarchies of Zimbabwe plateau sites that demonstrates that farming played an important role in the development of the system.
  332. Find this resource:
  333. Soper, Robert C. “Great Zimbabwe Sites in Local Context: The Centenary Survey.” In Urban Origins in Eastern Africa: Proceedings of the 1990 Workshop, Harare and Great Zimbabwe. Edited by Paul J. J. Sinclair and Gilbert Pwiti, 67–76. Sweden Paper 6. Stockholm: Central Board of National Antiquities, 1990.
  334. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  335. A report on the stratigraphic sampling of five contemporaneous stone walled sites within a three-mile radius, in Northern Zimbabwe, that belong to the Great Zimbabwe tradition.
  336. Find this resource:
  337. The Mutapa State
  338.  
  339. The Mutapa state was a successor to the Great Zimbabwe state that dates from the mid-15th-century to the end of the 19th century. The identity of the founders of this state, and thus its relationship with Great Zimbabwe, is discussed in the The Rozvi and the Mutapa State. There are, however, clear cultural continuities between the Great Zimbabwe and Mutapa sites. The Mutapa sites, and the gold resources in the region, were described in Portuguese documents, which also are a rich source on the history of the state as well as the impact of Portuguese colonialism on the region, as discussed in the Mutapa State: History and the Mutapa State and Portuguese Colonialism sections. Archaeologists, whose research is discussed in the Mutapa State: Archaeology section, have linked the location of this state in Northern Zimbabwe and the Zambezi valley to changing patterns of trade in southern Africa.
  340.  
  341. History
  342.  
  343. The history of the Mutapa state is better understood than the history of the Great Zimbabwe state. Several factors contributed to this, among which are that this state dates to the more recent past, and there is continuity in the occupation of the region. As a result oral and written sources record aspects of the history. Abraham 1959 tried to grapple with the history of the Mutapa dynasty and linked it to Great Zimbabwe. Alpers 1968 followed Abraham and suggested that there was a connection between Great Zimbabwe and the Mutapa state, but argued that Africans were the drivers of the Mutapa state. Mudenge 1977 suggested that the occupations at Dambarare and Ruhanj, which have been used by archaeologists as reference dates, were not reestablished after their destruction between 1684 and 1695, and thus do not date to the 18th century as suggested by the archaeologist Garlake. More details on the colonial period, as well as other periods of the Mutapa state history, are narrated in Mudenge 1988.
  344.  
  345. Abraham, Donald P. “The Monomotapa Dynasty.” NADA 36 (1959): 59–84.
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  347. Often-cited pioneering narrative of the history of the Mutapa dynasty based on a range of sources. A number of Abraham’s conclusions, however, have been critiqued.
  348. Find this resource:
  349. Alpers, Edward A. “The Mutapa and Malawi Political Systems of the Time of the Ngoni Invasions.” In Aspects of Central African History. Edited by Terence O. Ranger, 1–28. London: Heinemann, 1968.
  350. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  351. Investigation into Zimbabwean history, using archaeological and historical sources, which relies heavily on Abraham’s field notes.
  352. Find this resource:
  353. Mudenge, Stanislaus I. G. “Eighteenth-Century Portuguese Settlements on the Zambezi and the Dating of Rhodesian Ruins: Some Reflections on the Problems of Reference Dating.” International Journal of African Historical Studies 10.3 (1977): 384–393.
  354. DOI: 10.2307/216733Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  355. A critique of earlier attempts by archaeologists to date the ruins in the Mutapa state region, proposing more accurate dates based on a closer reading of historical texts.
  356. Find this resource:
  357. Mudenge, Stanislaus I. G. A Political History of Munhumutapa c. 1400–1902. Harare: Zimbabwe Publishing House, 1988.
  358. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  359. An important contribution to the history of the Mutapa state region based on research into archival, oral, and written sources. Includes information on the political, administrative and economic functioning of the state. It also grapples with the relationship between the people of the Mutapa state and the Portuguese.
  360. Find this resource:
  361. The Rozvi and the Mutapa State
  362.  
  363. The relationship between the Rozvi dynasty, which ruled the state in southwest and central Zimbabwe, and the Mutapa state has been the subject of debate. This debate has implications for the understanding of Great Zimbabwe history because long-term Rozvi continuity could imply that they also controlled Great Zimbabwe. Abraham 1964 linked the Rozvi to the early Mutapa state, but noted that the Portuguese records referred to conflict between the Mutapa and Rozvi in the 16th century. Alpers 1970 supported Abraham’s earlier contention that the Mutapa and Rozvi dynasties were related. On the other hand Mudenge 1974 argued for a more complex history in which the province of Guruuswa, ruled by the Togwa (Torwa), broke from the Mutapa empire in the 15th century. The Torwa then controlled southwestern Zimbabwe, where they started the construction of Khami, from where they ruled until the Rozvi took control of the region. Beach 1976, however, argued that the Mutapa state did not develop out of Great Zimbabwe, but instead was the result of local developments in Northern Zimbabwe.
  364.  
  365. Abraham, Donald P. “Ethnohistory of the Empire of Mutapa: Problems and Methods.” In The Historian in Tropical Africa. Studies Presented at the Fourth International African Seminar at the University of Dakar, Senegal, 1961. Edited by Jan Vansina, R. Mauny, and L. V. Thomas, 104–211. International African Institute. London: Oxford University Press, 1964.
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  367. Pioneering research into the history of precolonial Zimbabwe. Abraham combined information obtained through extensive fieldwork with sociological, archaeological, and archival data. Some of his conclusions have been questioned.
  368. Find this resource:
  369. Alpers, Edward A. “Dynasties of the Mutapa-Rozwi Complex.” Journal of African History 11.2 (1970): 203–220.
  370. DOI: 10.1017/S0021853700009944Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  371. A study of the histories of the various Mutapa and Rozvi dynasties that draws conclusions based on Abraham’s field notes.
  372. Find this resource:
  373. Beach, David N. “The Mutapa Dynasty: A Comparison of Documentary and Traditional Evidence.” History in Africa 3 (1976): 1–17.
  374. DOI: 10.2307/3171558Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  375. Important contribution to the understanding of the Mutapa state that reexamines oral and written sources used by Abraham, and challenges several of his interpretations.
  376. Find this resource:
  377. Mudenge, Stanislaus I. G. “An Identification of the Rozwi.” Rhodesian History 5 (1974): 19–32.
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  379. Thorough research into the history of the Rozwi based on oral, archival, and published sources.
  380. Find this resource:
  381. The Mutapa State and Portuguese Colonialism
  382.  
  383. The end of the Mutapo state was related to several factors. These include Portuguese colonialism. Newitt 1969 examined the Prazo system, which formed a key part of colonial control in the region. Newitt 1973 focused on the complexity of Portuguese colonialism and the Prazo system, suggesting that the local culture that developed in the region was a hybrid of Portuguese and African elements. Mudenge 1988 (cited under The Mutapa State: History) also explored the complexities of the interaction between the Mutapa state and Portuguese.
  384.  
  385. Newitt, Malyn D. D. “The Portuguese on the Zambezi: An Historical Interpretation of the Prazo System.” Journal of African History 10.1 (1969): 67–85.
  386. DOI: 10.1017/S0021853700009282Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  387. A historical study of the Prazo system in the Zambezi region, which existed from the 17th to the 20th centuries.
  388. Find this resource:
  389. Newitt, Malyn D. D. Portuguese Settlement on the Zambesi: Exploration, Land Tenure and Colonial Rule in East Africa. New York: Africana, 1973.
  390. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  391. A substantial contribution to the history of Zambesia, focused on the period of colonial rule from the mid-17th-century.
  392. Find this resource:
  393. Archaeology
  394.  
  395. The Mutapa state extended over a substantial part of the northern Zimbabwean plateau, stretching into the Zambezi valley at its height. The region where the Mutapa state was located has not received as much archaeological attention as the rest of the Zimbabwe plateau; research by Innocent Pikirayi and Gilbert Pwiti constitutes notable exceptions. Pikirayi 1993 reported on his historical archaeological excavations, which stood in a recursive relationship with ethnographic and historic data. Pwiti 2004 contended that the developments that led to the rise of the Mutapa state were the result of several economic and ideological changes. More recently Pikirayi 2006 situated these processes in the context of the expansion of merchant capital in Africa.
  396.  
  397. Pikirayi, Innocent. “The Archaeological Identity of the Mutapa State.” PhD diss., Uppsala University, 1993.
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  399. Makes an important contribution to historical archaeology in southern Africa, and examines archaeological evidence for the Mutapa state.
  400. Find this resource:
  401. Pikirayi, Innocent. “Gold, Black Ivory, and Houses of Stone: Historical Archaeology in Africa.” In Historical Archaeology. Edited by Martin Hall and Stephen W. Silliman, 230–250. Malden, MA: Blackwell, 2006.
  402. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  403. An overview of historical archaeology in Africa that locates the archaeology of the historical Zimbabwean states in a broader context.
  404. Find this resource:
  405. Pwiti, Gilbert. “Economic Change, Ideology and the Development of Cultural Complexity in Northern Zimbabwe.” Azania 39.1 (2004): 265–282.
  406. DOI: 10.1080/00672700409480403Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  407. A synthesis of historical and archaeological information on the nature and causes of the development of complexity in northern Zimbabwe.
  408. Find this resource:
  409. The Torwa and Changamire-Rozvi States
  410.  
  411. The states ruled by the Torwa and Changamire-Rozvi dynasties controlled southwestern Zimbabwe from centers such as Khami and Danamombe until the 19th century, when the state splintered. Similar to the earlier Zimbabwean plateau states, the southwestern state economy included elements of trade as well as local production, which are discussed in the Torwa and Changamire-Rozvi States: History. These sites comprise extensive dry stone walled buildings that date from the 15th to the 17th centuries. The Torwa and Changamire-Rozvi States: Archaeology discusses the material culture of this region, which shows similarities with the material culture of Great Zimbabwe, but there also are distinct local elaborations in architectural design and ceramic style. Unfortunately, there appears to have been little collaboration between archaeologists and historians, which has resulted in two parallel data sets. A notable exception is the work of Leslie Machiridza, which is discussed in the Torwa and Changamire-Rozvi States: Archaeology.
  412.  
  413. History
  414.  
  415. State formation processes in the Khami/Butua area started under the Torwa dynasty. These processes included economic growth and related expansion of trade networks, and this southwestern plateau state eventually started to compete economically with Great Zimbabwe. In the late 17th century the Rozvi dynasty took control of the region and established their capital at Danamombe. From there they ruled much of southwestern Zimbabwe until the early 19th century. They also controlled some areas in south-central Zimbabwe. This state has been portrayed as a trade-based complex, but Mudenge 1974 challenged the claim that the Rozvi empire was largely based on foreign trade, instead arguing that cattle formed the economic base. Beach 1983 explored the construction of Rozvi history, and the implication of this in the present.
  416.  
  417. Beach, David N. “The Rozvi in Search of Their Past.” History in Africa 10 (1983): 13–34.
  418. DOI: 10.2307/3171688Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  419. An examination of the research of African historians before 1960 and the impact their work had on understandings of the history of the Changamire Rozvi. Beach also explores the uses of these histories in 1980s Zimbabwe.
  420. Find this resource:
  421. Mazarire, G. C. “Changing Landscape and Oral Memory in South-Central Zimbabwe: Towards a Historical Geography of Chishanga, c. 1850–1990.” Journal of Southern African Studies 29.3 (2003): 701–715.
  422. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  423. Challenges the chiefdom-centered approach to history through an exploration of the history of Chisanga in south-central Zimbabwe, which was a tributary of the Rozvi state.
  424. Find this resource:
  425. Mudenge, Stanislaus I. G. “The Role of Foreign Trade in the Rozvi Empire: A Reappraisal.” Journal of African History 15.3 (1974): 373–391.
  426. DOI: 10.1017/S0021853700013542Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  427. Thorough interrogation of the historical record for information about the economy of the Rozvi state.
  428. Find this resource:
  429. Archaeology
  430.  
  431. It is very difficult to archaeologically distinguish between Torwa and Rozvi material culture, which means that it is near impossible to corroborate historical narratives about the relationship between the Torwa and Rozvi dynasties. Consequently, several archaeological sites, such as Khami and Danamombe, have been linked to both the Torwa and Changamire-Rozvi dynasties. Robinson 1959 reports on an excavation in Khami that uncovered a single pottery type in the occupation remains. Robinson suggested that this pottery type was also present in the upper levels at Great Zimbabwe. This was interpreted to mean that one group occupied Khami, and that they also lived in the Great Zimbabwe area. Robinson 1966 linked the archaeology of Khami, as well as numerous other stone walled sites in Zimbabwe, with the history of the Rozvi dynasty. Murambiwa 1990 indicated that a survey of the region around Khami showed that the site of Khami is the largest in the region, and that contemporaneous stone walled sites are much smaller. This pattern supports the historical model of a centrally controlled hierarchical state. In a further attempt to understand the archaeological sequence, Machiridza 2012 compared the archaeology of two major sites from the region, Khami and Danamombe. This dissertation attempts to create a conversation between historical and archaeological data sets, and suggests that the differences in ceramic diversity between the two sites speak to identity creation and constraining processes related to the conflict between the Rozvi and Torwa.
  432.  
  433. Machiridza, Lesley H. “Material Culture and Dialectics of Identity and Power: Towards a Historical Archaeology of the Rozvi in South-Western Zimbabwe.” MA diss., University of Pretoria, 2012.
  434. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  435. Important contribution to the archaeology of the Rozvi state based on oral, written, and previously excavated archaeological material.
  436. Find this resource:
  437. Murambiwa, Ivan M. “Survey of Archaeological Sites Within a 50km Radius of Khami.” In Urban Origins in Eastern Africa: Proceedings of the 1990 Workshop, Harare and Great Zimbabwe. Edited by Paul J. J. Sinclair and Gilbert Pwiti, 93–94. Sweden Paper 6. Stockholm: Central Board of National Antiquities, 1990.
  438. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  439. Report on a survey of stone walled sites in the region surrounding the archaeological site of Khami. The site sizes and distribution patterns in this survey further deepen the understanding of the Khami period hierarchies of this state.
  440. Find this resource:
  441. Robinson, Keith R. Khami Ruins: A Report on Excavations in Southern Rhodesia. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1959.
  442. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  443. Comprehensive report on Robinson’s pioneering 1947–1955 excavations at Khami for the Commission for the Preservation of Natural and Historical Monuments and Relics, Southern Rhodesia. Includes information from the general survey of the site, the occupation sequence, and material culture recovered. It contains excellent excavation and material culture photographs.
  444. Find this resource:
  445. Robinson, Keith R. “The Archaeology of the Rozwi.” In The Zambezian Past: Studies in Central African History. Edited by Eric Stokes and Richard Brown, 3–27. Manchester, UK: Manchester University Press, 1966.
  446. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  447. A discussion of archaeological evidence relating to the Rozvi, which, the author contends, can be traced from Great Zimbabwe via the Mutapa State to the Khami region.
  448. Find this resource:
  449. The Ndebele State
  450.  
  451. In the early 19th century the leaders of the Ndebele state took control of the region previously home to the Torwa and Changamire-Rozvi States in southwestern Zimbabwe. While a new political leadership was now in power, there was great continuity in the general population of the region. Papers discussed in the Ndebele State: History section explore these political and social changes and continuities. While there was continuity in the population, the material culture and architecture of the capital at KoBulawayo, discussed in the Ndebele State: Archaeology section, is fundamentally different from that of the preceding Zimbabwean plateau state centers. The most conspicuous difference is the absence of the monumental stone walled architecture that characterized earlier Zimbabwean plateau capitals.
  452.  
  453. History
  454.  
  455. The Ndebele state in southwestern Zimbabwe is the ‘youngest’ state on the Zimbabwe plateau, and the only one not linked to the Karanga–Kalanga language group. Beach 1974 found that far fewer Ndebele raids on Shona-speaking communities took place than have been claimed. Instead these raids should be seen as responses to threats to the state that they took over. This suggests a far greater level of integration of Shona speakers into the Ndebele-led state. Rasmussen 1975 traced the origins and migration of the core group that founded the Ndebele state in southwestern Zimbabwe. This migration period is the starting point of Cobbing 1981, which explored the origins and functioning of the Ndebele state, while also suggesting that the population included Shona speakers from the Rozvi state, who became Ndebele after incorporation.
  456.  
  457. Beach, David N. “Ndebele Raiders and Shona Power.” Journal of African History 15.4 (1974): 633–651.
  458. DOI: 10.1017/S0021853700013918Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  459. Investigation into Ndebele attempts to manage the Rozvi state they conquered, focusing on their attempts to defend it from attacks.
  460. Find this resource:
  461. Cobbing, Julian R. “The Ndebele State.” In Before and After Shaka. Edited by Jeff B. Peires, 160–177. Grahamstown, South Africa: Institute of Social and Economic Research, 1981.
  462. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  463. Traces the Khumalo origins and development of the Ndebele state in Zimbabwe, as well as the development of their cattle-keeping practices, royal control over young men, and the local consequences of these practices.
  464. Find this resource:
  465. Rasmussen, R. Kent. “Ndebele Wars and Migrations.” PhD diss., University of California, Los Angeles, 1975.
  466. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  467. Narrative of Ndebele history from the core entity’s departure from KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa in 1821 to their permanent settlement north of the Limpopo River in 1839. This history is reconstructed using a range of sources, including oral traditions from groups affected by King Mzilikazi’s Ndebele.
  468. Find this resource:
  469. Archaeology
  470.  
  471. The capital of the Ndebele state was established at KoBulawayo in southwestern Zimbabwe during the 19th century. Very little research has been conducted on the archaeology of this state. Consequently it is not well understood. There are a few notable exceptions. These include Hughes and Muringaniza 2003, an exploration that goes beyond colonial portrayals to show the multiple cultural traditions that shaped Ndebele society. More recently Gaffney, et al. 2005 sheds light on the spatial configuration of the royal space at KoBulawayo.
  472.  
  473. Gaffney, Christopher, Gwilym Hughes, and J. A. Gater. “Geophysical Surveys at King Lobengula’s Palace KoBulawayo, Zimbabwe.” Archaeological Prospection 12.1 (2005): 31–49.
  474. DOI: 10.1002/arp.241Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  475. Report on application of a magnetic survey, primarily using a magnetic susceptibility field instrument, in the royal area of KoBulawayo.
  476. Find this resource:
  477. Hughes, Gwilym, and Joseph Muringaniza. “Kings and Ancestors: Interpreting the Past at KoBulawayo.” In Researching Africa’s Past: New Contributions from British Archaeologists. Edited by Peter Mitchell, Anne Haour, and John Hobart, 124–132. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003.
  478. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  479. Report on the ongoing research at KoBulawayo by the team from the National Museums and Monuments of Zimbabwe and the Birmingham University Field Archaeology Unit.
  480. Find this resource:
  481. Cognitive Models, Ethnography and History
  482.  
  483. Different approaches to theory and the past have been at the core of many of the recent debates about interpretation of the archaeology of the Zimbabwe states. Huffman 1986 advocated a “cognitive approach,” which is rooted in structuralism. In this model a set of cognitive concepts shaped the settlement configuration at sites throughout the Zimbabwe states sequence. This model was challenged as ahistorical in Beach 1998, which instead argued for a contextually specific approach rooted more securely in real historical data. More recently Pikirayi and Chirikure 2011 also questioned Huffman’s “cognitive approach,” suggesting that more data is needed in order to interpret Great Zimbabwe.
  484.  
  485. Beach, David. “Cognitive Archaeology and Imaginary History at Great Zimbabwe.” Current Anthropology 39.1 (1998): 47–72.
  486. DOI: 10.1086/204698Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  487. A comprehensive review and critique of Huffman’s approach to the archaeology of Great Zimbabwe, as well as an attempt to put forward an alternative interpretation based on historical sources.
  488. Find this resource:
  489. Huffman, Thomas N. “Cognitive Studies of the Iron Age in Southern Africa.” In Special Issue: Perspectives in World Archaeology. Edited by I. C. Glover. World Archaeology 18.1 (1986): 84–95.
  490. DOI: 10.1080/00438243.1986.9979990Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  491. Exploration of the link between the worldview and the configuration of Iron Age sites in southern Africa.
  492. Find this resource:
  493. Pikirayi, Innocent, and Shadreck Chirikure. “Debating Great Zimbabwe.” Azania: Archaeological Research in Africa 46.2 (2011): 221–231.
  494. DOI: 10.1080/0067270X.2011.580149Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  495. Review of the archaeology and dating of Great Zimbabwe and Huffman’s interpretation of the site.
  496. Find this resource:
  497. Cultural and Religious Continuities and Archaeology
  498.  
  499. Grappling with continuities and discontinuities in Shona society forms an important part of research into the cultural and religious aspects of the Zimbabwean states. Related to this challenge is the use of contemporary ethnographic sources in the interpretation of Zimbabwean archaeology. Two key areas of contention are the origins and continuity of beliefs in a high god and whether initiation was practiced in precolonial Zimbabwe. Gelfand 1968 argued for some continuity, suggesting that some of the beliefs he observed in the 20th century have older underpinnings. Daneel 1970 examined the Mwari cult, which played an important role in religious beliefs in Southern Zimbabwe and Northern South Africa. He suggested that the Mwari cult had historical origins and that it was consolidated when the Rozvi Empire was at its peak. Ranger 1974 spoke to both these topics, and contended that the name Mwari denotes an earlier initiation-and-high god complex during the Dziva period in southwestern Zimbabwe. Ranger 1999 further investigated the region in which the Mwari cult had been centered. Huffman 1996, cited under General Overviews, has also argued that initiation was practiced at Zimbabwe culture sites, as is done in the present Venda society which developed out of the splintering of the Rozvi state. Huffman 2014 further argues for continuity in religious beliefs and contends that the spatial configuration of ritual activities at Zimbabwe culture sites started at Mapungubwe and materializes sacred leadership. This centralization could lead to the development of the concept of a high god. A few studies have focused on specific elements of Zimbabwean society. These include Bourdillon 1982—an ethnography of Shona society, which included information on kinship, the economy, chieftainship, witchcraft, traditional religion, and death—and Murumbika 1999, which reported on Shona mortuary practices in the later part of the Zimbabwe sequence, and again pointed to long-term continuities between archaeological and ethnographically recorded practices.
  500.  
  501. Bourdillon, Michael F. C. The Shona Peoples: An Ethnography of the Contemporary Shona, with Special Reference to their Religion. Gweru, Zimbabwe: Mambo, 1982.
  502. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  503. Detailed ethnographic account based on one and a half years of fieldwork (1969–1970) in the Mount Darwin area of Zimbabwe.
  504. Find this resource:
  505. Daneel, M. L. The God of the Matopos: An Essay on the Mwari Cult in Rhodesia. The Hague: Mouton, 1970.
  506. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  507. Brief account of the history and nature of the Mwari cult based on fieldwork in Matonjeni.
  508. Find this resource:
  509. Gelfand, Michael. African Crucible: An Ethico-Religious Study with Special Reference to the Shona-Speaking People. Cape Town: Juta, 1968.
  510. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  511. An overview of Shona culture, including information on African traditional faith, Shona material culture, and the role of spirituality in society. This is not an academic study.
  512. Find this resource:
  513. Huffman, Thomas N. “Ritual Space in the Zimbabwe Culture.” Ethnoarchaeology 6.1 (2014): 4–39.
  514. DOI: 10.1179/1944289013Z.0000000008Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  515. Exploration of ritual space in the Zimbabwe culture based on Huffman’s reading of archaeological, ethnographic, and historical data.
  516. Find this resource:
  517. Murumbika, McEdward. “Return of the Dead: The Living, the Dead and the Ancestors: An Archaeological Interpretation of the Late Iron Age Shona Mortuary Practices in Zimbabwe.” MPhil in Archaeology diss., University of Bergen, 1999.
  518. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  519. An investigation that combines ethnography and archaeology to understand and interpret Shona mortuary practices.
  520. Find this resource:
  521. Ranger, Terence O. “The Meaning of Mwari.” Rhodesian History 5 (1974): 5–17.
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  523. An interesting comparison of the meanings of the word Mwari (the name of the Shona high god) in various eastern, central and southern African languages, in order to understand earlier belief sets. This complex includes both male and female initiation.
  524. Find this resource:
  525. Ranger, Terence O. Voices from the Rocks: Nature, Culture & History in the Matopos Hills of Zimbabwe. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1999.
  526. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  527. This book explores the history of the Matopo hills and its people, as well as different understandings of this landscape. The Matopo hills are the location of the Mwari religious tradition, which has been linked by some to the disintegration of the Zimbabwe plateau states.
  528. Find this resource:
  529. Economy and Subsistence
  530.  
  531. The economies of the various Zimbabwean plateau states are not well understood. Significant attempts to grapple with economic questions include Sinclair 1978, which is a study of the economy of the Zimbabwe state. Garlake 1978 contended that cattle played an important role in the Zimbabwean state economy, and that transhumance was a key management strategy. Smith, et al. 2010 showed that transhumance was also an important part of the earlier Mapungubwe system of cattle management. Barker 1978, based on faunal analysis, argued that cattle dominated the Great Zimbabwe animal economy. This interpretation is echoed in Thorp 1979, which showed that cattle were present in a number of Zimbabwean archaeological sites. Cattle, however, were not the only source of sustenance and Matenga 2003 examined the role wild fruits played in subsistence. Focusing on a broader economic scale, Wood 2011 found that southern Africa was integrated into the Eurasian and African economic systems, but trade and sociopolitical developments in southern Africa were distinct.
  532.  
  533. Barker, Graeme. “Economic Models for the Manekweni Zimbabwe, Mozambique.” Azania 13.1 (1978): 71–100.
  534. DOI: 10.1080/00672707809511632Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  535. An investigation of the subsistence-based economy of Manekweni based on an analysis of faunal remains.
  536. Find this resource:
  537. Garlake, Peter S. “Pastoralism and Zimbabwe.” Journal of African History 19.4 (1978): 479–493.
  538. DOI: 10.1017/S0021853700016431Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  539. Research using site distribution, stratigraphy, and patterns in faunal remains to investigate cattle management in the Zimbabwe state.
  540. Find this resource:
  541. Matenga, Edward. “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. Edited by Felix Chami, Gilbert Pwiti, and Marie de Chantal Radimilahy, 118–127. Dar es Salaam, Tanzania: Dar es Salaam University Press, 2003.
  542. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  543. Investigation into the plant economy of Great Zimbabwe based on ethnobotanical research.
  544. Find this resource:
  545. Sinclair, Paul J. J. First Steps Towards the Reconstruction of the Rural Economy of the Zimbabwe State. Maputo, Mozambique: Instituto de Investigacao Cientifica de Mocambique, 1978.
  546. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  547. Report on research into various aspects of the rural Zimbabwean economy, including metalworking and trade.
  548. Find this resource:
  549. Smith, Jeanette M., Julia Lee-Thorp, Steve Prevec, Simon Hall, and Andreas Späth. “Pre-Colonial Herding Strategies in the Shashe-Limpopo Basin, Southern Africa, Based on Strontium Isotope Analysis of Domestic Fauna.” Journal of African Archaeology 8.1 (2010): 83–98.
  550. DOI: 10.3213/1612-1651-10154Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  551. Report on isotopic analysis of faunal remains from sites in the Shashe-Limpopo Confluence area which identified the areas in which cattle were grazing.
  552. Find this resource:
  553. Thorp, Carolyn. “Cattle from the Early Iron Age of Zimbabwe-Rhodesia.” South African Journal of Science 75.10 (1979): 461.
  554. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  555. Report on the study of faunal remains from Zimbabwean archaeological sites.
  556. Find this resource:
  557. Wood, Marilee. “Interconnections: Glass Beads and Trade in Southern and Eastern Africa and the Indian Ocean—7th to 16th Centuries AD.” PhD diss., Uppsala University, 2011.
  558. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  559. A thesis that uses the distribution and origins of glass trade beads to investigate trade patterns in southern Africa, as well as trade and partners during the Mapungubwe and Zimbabwe state periods.
  560. Find this resource:
  561. Mining and Metalwork
  562.  
  563. Mining and metalwork played an important role in the economies of the precolonial Zimbabwean states. Summers 1969 compiled available evidence about mining in Zimbabwe, showing that these mines date to the precolonial period and can be associated with the various Zimbabwean plateau states. Swan 2008 located iron and copper production within its broader economic and resilience context. Chirikure and Rehren 2006 suggested that there might be distinct metalworking practices at sites from different periods in the Zimbabwe sequence. Metal production, however, is not only an economic activity, it also is deeply symbolic. Collett 1993 found that the process and material culture of metalworking, especially smelting, was metaphorically linked to human reproduction. Herbert 1996 explored how metal objects were used to signify power in the Zimbabwe states, and Calabrese 2000 made a similar case about metal and the materialization of ideology in the Shashe-Limpopo Confluence Area.
  564.  
  565. Calabrese, John A. “Metals, Ideology and Power: The Manufacture and Control of Materialized Ideology in the Area of the Limpopo-Shashe Confluence, c. AD 900 to 1300.” In Special Issue: African Naissance: The Limpopo Valley 1000 Years Ago. Edited by Mary Leslie and Tim Maggs. Goodwin Series 8 (2000): 100–111.
  566. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  567. An investigation into the use of metal and its role in the ideology of the Shashe-Limpopo Confluence Area.
  568. Find this resource:
  569. Chirikure, Shadreck, and Thilo Rehren. “Iron Production in Pre-Colonial Zimbabwe: Evidence for Diachronic Change from Swart Village and Baranda.” Journal of African Archaeology 4.1 (2006): 37–54.
  570. DOI: 10.3213/1612-1651-10062Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  571. Archaeometallurgical investigation into iron production remains from Northern Zimbabwe.
  572. Find this resource:
  573. Collett, David P. “Metaphors and Representations Associated with Precolonial Iron-Smelting in Eastern and Southern Africa.” In The Archaeology of Africa: Food, Metals and Towns. Edited by Thurstan Shaw, Paul Sinclair, Bassey Andah, and Alex Okpoko, 499–511. London: Routledge, 1993.
  574. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  575. Investigation into the archaeology and ethnography of metalworking in eastern and southern Africa, focused on the social and cultural understandings of metalworking and production. Collett discusses Karanga furnaces and their symbolic link with women and pots.
  576. Find this resource:
  577. Herbert, Eugenia W. “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 in Harare, Zimbabwe, 16–23 June 1995. Edited by Gilbert Pwiti and Robert C. Soper, 641–647. Harare: University of Zimbabwe, 1996.
  578. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  579. Brief overview of the metal finds at Great Zimbabwe and their social context of production and use.
  580. Find this resource:
  581. Summers, Roger. Ancient Mining in Rhodesia and Adjacent Areas. Museum Memoir 3. Salisbury: National Museums of Rhodesia, 1969.
  582. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  583. Monograph that synthesizes data on precolonial mining in Zimbabwe. It includes geological data and information about known precolonial mines and associated material culture.
  584. Find this resource:
  585. Swan, Lorraine M. “Minerals and Managers: Production Contexts as Evidence for Social Organization in Zimbabwean Prehistory.” PhD diss., Uppsala University, 2008.
  586. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  587. Grapples with the environmental, economic, and social context of precolonial metal production in Zimbabwe.
  588. Find this resource:
  589. The Politics of Archaeology
  590.  
  591. The archaeology of the Zimbabwean plateau states has always been entangled in politics and ideological processes. This entanglement has had several consequences. The first is the development of alternative or fringe interpretations of the past, which include fanciful colonial imaginings. Kuklick 1991 explored how the colonial and later Rhodesian Front governments promoted ideas of non-African occupation of Great Zimbabwe, which are discussed in the Antiquarian and Colonial Imaginings section. Even when African authorship was acknowledged imaginings were still informed by colonialist visions. Garlake 1982 examines how settler ideologies distorted interpretations of the Zimbabwean past. Exotic interpretations continued after Zimbabwean liberation, and Hubbard and Burrett 2012 traced the politics shaping fringe archaeology in Zimbabwe. They link recent interpretations that deny African authorship to colonial and later Rhodesian Front strategies, and also explore the context of Africanist fringe responses that romanticize the African past. Colonial ideas also impacted on the portrayal of heritage and Pwiti and Ndoro 1999 considered the impact of colonialism on the presentation of archaeology and heritage in Zimbabwe. The second consequence is the development of archaeology rooted in the settler paradigm. Hall 1996 summarized the history of representations of precolonial Zimbabwe and how these ideas have continued into the early 21st century. In addition to denying African authorship, African societies were portrayed as tribes in perpetual conflict. Hall 1984a explores how this settler paradigm has been perpetuated in 20th century archaeological research, while Hall 1984b tracks the impact of the idea of tribalism in southern African archaeological research. Mahachi and Ndoro 1997 discusses the impact of these ideas on interpretations of the past at Great Zimbabwe. The third outcome of the entanglement of heritage and politics is the contested nature of Zimbabwean heritage sites in the recent past and present. Ndoro 2001 interrogated the complexities of managing a site with multiple meanings, particularly where the interpretation of local communities is at odds with archaeological understandings. These multiple meanings and conflicting understandings, as well as the associated politics of heritage management in Zimbabwe, are further explored by Fontein 2006.
  592.  
  593. Fontein, Joost. The Silence of Great Zimbabwe: Contested Landscapes and the Power of Heritage. New York: UCL, 2006.
  594. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  595. An exploration of the entanglement of Great Zimbabwe in the politics of heritage in Zimbabwe that also attempts to grapple with the multiple, and at times conflicting, interpretations of the past by communities and heritage practitioners in postindependence Zimbabwe.
  596. Find this resource:
  597. Garlake, Peter S. “Prehistory and Ideology in Zimbabwe.” Africa 52.3 (1982): 1–19.
  598. DOI: 10.2307/1160522Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  599. An overview of archaeological research in Zimbabwe that explores the ideological origins of the models put forward for the peopling and occupation of the region.
  600. Find this resource:
  601. Hall, Martin. “Pots and Politics: Ceramic Interpretations in Southern Africa.” World Archaeology 15.3 (1984a): 262–273.
  602. DOI: 10.1080/00438243.1984.9979905Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  603. An insightful study of the entanglement of ceramic studies in the politics of southern African archaeology, which traces the historical origins and social context of the approaches to ceramic classification in southern Africa.
  604. Find this resource:
  605. Hall, Martin. “The Burden Of Tribalism: The Social Context of Southern African Iron Age Studies.” American Antiquity 49.3 (1984b): 455–467.
  606. DOI: 10.2307/280354Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  607. An overview of the impact of ideas of tribalism in southern African archaeology, focusing specifically on Iron Age studies.
  608. Find this resource:
  609. Hall, Martin. “Heads and Tales.” Representations 54.1 (1996): 104–123.
  610. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  611. A review of colonial portrayals of Great Zimbabwe in travelers’ accounts and fiction, followed by commentary on the contemporaneous display of African archaeological material culture in the Lydenburg museum.
  612. Find this resource:
  613. Hubbard, Paul, and Robert S. Burrett. “A Clash of Ideologies: Zimbabwean Archaeology at The Fringe.” In From Archaeology to Archaeologies: The “Other” Past. Edited by Anna Simandiraki-Grimshaw and Eleni Stefanou, 45–55. BAR International Series 2409. Oxford: Archeopress, 2012.
  614. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  615. An investigation into the roots of contemporary fringe archaeology and its denial of African authorship of Great Zimbabwe. The paper includes an historical review of approaches from the colonial to the postindependence period.
  616. Find this resource:
  617. Kuklick, Henrika. “Contested Monuments: The Politics of Archaeology in Southern Africa.” In Colonial Situations: Essays on the Contextualization of Ethnographic Knowledge. Edited by George W. Stocking Jr., 135–169. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1991.
  618. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  619. An exploration of the history of interpretations of the archaeology of Great Zimbabwe, including the colonial imaginings, scientific challenges to these, and the interventions of the Rhodesian Front government.
  620. Find this resource:
  621. Mahachi, Godfrey, and Webber Ndoro. “The Socio-Political Context of Southern African Iron Age Studies with Special Reference to Great Zimbabwe.” In Caves, Monuments and Texts: Zimbabwean Archaeology Today. Edited by Gilbert Pwiti, 89–108. Uppsala, Sweden: Department of Archaeology and Ancient History, 1997.
  622. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  623. Overview and analysis of colonial and current interpretations of Great Zimbabwean archaeology.
  624. Find this resource:
  625. Ndoro, Webber. “Your Monument Our Shrine: The Preservation of Great Zimbabwe.” PhD diss., Uppsala University, 2001.
  626. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  627. Synthesizes the history of Great Zimbabwe, provides extensive detail on construction techniques, and discusses the complexities of managing the site.
  628. Find this resource:
  629. Pwiti, Gilbert, and Webber Ndoro. “The Legacy of Colonialism: Perceptions of the Cultural Heritage in Southern Africa, with Special Reference to Zimbabwe.” African Archaeological Review 16.3 (1999): 143–154.
  630. DOI: 10.1023/A:1021624632398Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  631. Assesses the complexities of heritage management and public portrayals of Zimbabwean archaeology in the aftermath of colonialism.
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