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In the heart of southern Africa

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stands the remains
of a once mighty city,

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Great Zimbabwe.

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For hundreds of years

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a mysterious civilization
reigned supreme here

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in the Zimbabwe plateau.

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Then suddenly in the 16th century
it crumbled,

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leaving behind only a riddle:
Who had built these massive walls?

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Obsessed with legends of
a lost white civilization,

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a German explorer
stumbled upon the ruins.

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Was this the legendary city of Sheba,
he thought,

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whose queen captured the heart
of King Solomon?

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Fifty years later,

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an archeologist in her quest
for the truth

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unearthed an even more
remarkable past.

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Had Great Zimbabwe been the center
of a powerful black culture,

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one of the greatest cities
of its time?

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This idea sparked furious debate

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and threatened to overturn
centuries of bias

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about Africans and their history.

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1871. The German explorer Karl Mauch
searches for a legendary city

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he's convinced lies
hidden in wildest Africa.

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Mauch has spent six years in Africa
overcoming poverty, sickness

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and numerous scrapes with death
in pursuit of his obsession.

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Against all odds,

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Mauch discovers immense stone walls
that cover hundreds of acres.

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He is over awed.

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What he has found are the ruins
of an ancient civilization,

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the only one of its kind
in sub Saharan Africa.

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Mauch believes this discovery will be
his crowning achievement.

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Mauch's obsession with Africa
began as a child.

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At that time,
Africa was a land of mystery.

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Fantastic stories hinted
at wondrous landscapes,

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populated by exotic animals
and wild natives.

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At age 10,
while gazing at a map of Africa,

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Mauch vowed to one day
explore its unchartered lands.

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Like many Europeans,

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Mauch's understanding of Africa
was based on legends

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that grew out of the Bible.

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"And she gave the King
120 talents of gold.

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Never again gave such an abundance
as these

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that the Queen of Sheba gave
to King Solomon."

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Solomon, the wisest and richest
Hebrew king from the Bible

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inspired many later legends.

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One told of Solomon's gold mines
at a place in Africa

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called 'Ophir'.

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Others spoke of the enigmatic Queen
of Sheba.

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She was a beautiful seductress
who appeared in Jerusalem,

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paid homage to King Solomon,
became his lover,

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and just as suddenly disappeared back
to her mysterious land

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which lay hidden somewhere in Africa.

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Arab traders pried
the east African coast

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in search of the lands
of Sheba and Ophir.

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The Africans
who traded with these Arabs

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came to believe that Solomon's mines
and Sheba's lost city

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were somewhere in the interior.

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Mauch burned to be the man who would
discover these legendary lands.

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But Mauch was poor,
his options limited.

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Living in very modest circumstances.

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I was bound by my parents to become
a teacher; and I was,

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unfortunately, denied the opportunity
for further studies at a university.

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I've endeavored to obtain knowledge
of medicine

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by talking to doctors
and reading medical journals.

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I have studied the practice
collecting insects,

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birds and minerals.

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Karl Mauch did not come from
a privileged background whatsoever.

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Karl Mauch was a self made man.

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What he did was he taught himself
cartography, geology,

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all the sciences that were needed for
him to be a great explorer

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in Africa like Livingston,
Burton, Speak.

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That's what Karl March came from,
that's what he wanted to be.

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The dream of African exploration
consumed Mauch.

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By practicing gymnastics
and walking six miles a day

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in every season, over any ground,
often without food or drink,

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I've tried to steel my body.

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Mauch wrote to the
German Geographical Institute

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in hope of gaining their support
for an expedition to unexplored Africa.

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The response was harshly negative.

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It warned that African exploration
should be left to the professionals.

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It went without saying

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this meant people of
higher social standing.

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He carried this letter
with him for years.

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Karl Much was not accepted by
the German Geographical Institute

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because really he wasn't a member
of the club.

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He was self taught,
he had never been to university,

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he had no titles,
he had not connections.

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He had no hope, really.

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The German Geographic Institute
had good reason to reject Mauch.

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African exploration was a dangerous
and expensive affair.

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By the time Mauch dreamed of Africa,

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hundreds of European adventurers
and missionaries

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had already died there.

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Most explorers were independently
wealthy or well connected.

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In Africa, they could afford to
hire scores of natives

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who became their laborers, porters,
guides and translators.

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Mauch, however, had nothing.
Not even ship fare to Africa.

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Determined to explore wildest Africa,
Mauch, age 27,

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enlisted as a crew member on
a ship sailing for Durban,

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South Africa in 1864.

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At last the ship reached Africa.

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How I wished for the time when,
for the first occasion,

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I would be able to set foot
on this strange soil.

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But the reality of Durban

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and the many other
European settlements

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in South Africa clashed with
Mauch's dream of an untamed land.

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South Africa, in 1865, was inhabited by,

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of course, a great number of tribes:
The Xhosa, the Zulu, the Sotho.

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By this time, quite a few white,
about a quarter million whites,

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had come settled, immigrated,
whatever you like.

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And, in fact, conquered a bit.

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Mauch wanted to be at the frontier,

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at the edge of the excitement,
the adventure.

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But even in a small forest
near civilized Durban,

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he felt lost in an alien world.

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It struck him all at once

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That Africa might pose a greater
challenge than he could handle.

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I got into denser bush.

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The high trees were somber crowns
growing close to one another.

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Even the small sound could be heard.

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In all honesty,
a feeling of fear got hold of me.

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I felt so terribly deserted
amid the surrounding strange nature.

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He overcame this panic and struck out
on foot for the frontier

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in what is now northern South Africa.

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Mauch walked for three weeks
doing odd jobs at farms

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in exchange for food and shelter.

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He joined one of the wagon trains

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hat carried supplies
to frontier settlements.

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In his spare time, he took notes,
sketched and collected specimens.

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He fell in love with the country,
but not the settlers,

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most especially the Boar,
the Dutch colonists.

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He thought they were uncivilized,

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and their treatment
of blacks a disgrace.

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A 'kafir' or native colored
is in the opinion of the Boar,

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not a man.

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Mauch's trip to the frontier
took months,

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but it carried him to
the threshold of his goal:

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Unchartered Africa.

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Scattered African villages
and European farming towns

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dotted the vast tracks of
open land along the frontier.

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You have now, I could tell myself,
passed the prepatory class

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and entered the high school
of traveling.

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You have become the top of the fall.

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Over the next year,

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Mauch tentatively ventured
from the frontier towns and villages

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to explore what lay beyond.

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Many of the Africans he encountered
were unfriendly.

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White settlers were pushing
from the south,

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and the Africans resisted
further intrusions.

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They were especially suspicious
of anyone making maps

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or surveying the land.

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To disguise his intentions,
Mauch developed a novel plan.

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He feigned a sort of madness.

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It succeeded.

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The Africans pronounced him insane
and left him free to do as he pleased.

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With just a simple compass
and a pen and ink set,

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Mauch created the first maps and
sketches of the South African interior.

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He sent his journals to the
Geographical Institute in Germany,

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the same group that had rejected him.

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They began to publish
Mauch's accounts.

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And, to his great satisfaction,

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portrayed him
as a model German explorer.

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German sponsors even began to send
small sums to support his efforts.

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Mauch's status grew even further

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when he made the first gold discovery
in southern Africa.

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Word quickly spread.

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Prospectors filtered into the area,

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but Mauch never staked a claim
to the field.

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I have before me a choice

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between my gold discoveries
and my explorations.

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Without hesitation
he chose exploration,

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and so gave up
the chance to make a fortune.

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Adventure and respect were what
Mauch had desperately sought

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and was finally achieving.

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He wanted more.

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In 1968, at the age of 31,

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Karl Mauch set off on an expedition
into unexplored Africa.

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I may, without exaggeration,

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call this journey a long fight
against hunger.

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Game were scarce.

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Bands of hostile warriors
stalked Mauch.

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He lived in constant fear.

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While mapping swampy coastlines,
Mauch contracted malaria.

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He went without food for 8 days
and fell into a coma.

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Fevers and ill health would torment
him for the rest of his life.

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Mauch revived when local Africans
told him

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of an abandoned stone city
past the Lompopo River.

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Though still weak,

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Mauch resolved to find the fabled city

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and in January of 1871
six years after arriving in Africa

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he set forth on the adventure
he believed was his destiny.

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When Mauch crossed the Lompopo River,
he entered a land unknown

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to Europeans.

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It was also an alien world

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in which Mauch offered an easy target
for chiefs who demanded gifts.

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His trade goods quickly dwindled.

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In these circumstances
one has to exert patience.

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One has to assume
the right expression on one's face

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when handing out presents.

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As Mauch pushed into the interior,

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villagers who did not own firearms
demanded he hunt for them.

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At one point
he was feeding 40 people a day

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who did no work in return.

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While other explorers bullied
and slashed their way across Africa,

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Mauch tried negotiation
and generosity with his porters.

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A cold wind blew during the night
between the mountains.

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I took pity on their naked skinny
figures shivering in the cold,

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and gave them my own woolen blankets.

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His efforts to win their good
will failed.

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Eight months into the trip,
they disappeared.

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They had sliced open his bags
and stolen much of his goods.

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He felt trapped.

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I could not flee.

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As the second night followed
the first, my position was desperate

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and it was, therefore, not surprising
that the thought occurred to me

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to take my own life
before I succumb to slow torture.

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But Mauch must have known
that his goal was near.

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The next day he snapped out of his
despair and headed to a local village.

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There he hired guides who led him
to a distant mountaintop.

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Mauch beheld ancient walls
in the valley below.

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God be praised!
That is what I have been seeking.

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Only a few days before I was occupied
with great thoughts of death,

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and today I stand before the most
brilliant success of my travels.

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After six hard years of exploration,

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Karl Mauch discovered Great Zimbabwe.

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He was amazed by what he saw.

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Stone walls spread over a square mile
of the valley floor,

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bounded on one end by ruins on a hill.

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At the center of its all stood
an enormous enclosure

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30 feet high
and hundreds of feet around.

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Mauch realized he stood within
the remains of a sprawling city.

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It had been a culture
unique in sub Saharan Africa.

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Thousands had lived in the city,
and remarkably they built in stone.

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Mauch dismissed the possibility of
local Africans having created it.

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Mauch was not immune to European
prejudices about Africa,

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and they guided his thinking.

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In Mauch's mind Africans built
grass huts and lived off the land.

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It was inconceivable to him that

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they could construct
such a magnificent city.

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The local Africans seemed
to share Mauch's views.

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All are absolutely convinced that
white people once inhabited the region.

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Overlooking clear signs
of African occupation

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and ignorant of archeology,

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Mauch turned to the Bible and legend
for his answers.

244
00:22:09,928 --> 00:22:12,294
The whole fantastic site,
Mauch believed,

245
00:22:12,431 --> 00:22:15,764
was the Queen of
Sheba's palaces and temples.

246
00:22:18,470 --> 00:22:22,463
The center of the legendary
'Golden Realm' of Ophir.

247
00:22:46,498 --> 00:22:49,399
Mauch searched for evidence
to support his theory.

248
00:22:49,534 --> 00:22:52,332
He cut splinters from a wooden beam.

249
00:22:54,706 --> 00:22:57,334
The smell which it exudes
is of great similarity

250
00:22:57,476 --> 00:23:00,411
to that
of cedar wood used in pencils.

251
00:23:00,479 --> 00:23:03,209
The color too is the same.

252
00:23:06,251 --> 00:23:09,550
Mauch believed Sheba had imported
the cedar from Lebanon,

253
00:23:09,688 --> 00:23:12,350
a land to the north of ancient Israel.

254
00:23:19,164 --> 00:23:22,964
The local Africans tribes provided
further evidence for Mauch.

255
00:23:23,101 --> 00:23:26,559
He thought their customs of
circumcision and ritual butchering

256
00:23:26,705 --> 00:23:29,003
had been learned
from Sheba generations before,

257
00:23:29,141 --> 00:23:31,439
and passed down through the years.

258
00:23:35,380 --> 00:23:37,041
Mauch was ecstatic.

259
00:23:37,182 --> 00:23:41,118
He believed he had just made one of
the greatest discoveries of all time,

260
00:23:41,253 --> 00:23:45,781
a legendary lost city rescued from
oblivion in Africa.

261
00:23:53,598 --> 00:23:58,535
Mauch's frenzy of excitement crashed
when he again fell sick.

262
00:24:02,908 --> 00:24:03,897
Desperate and alone,

263
00:24:04,042 --> 00:24:08,035
he knew that to stay alive
he would have to return home.

264
00:24:12,784 --> 00:24:15,719
After seven years
of adventure and hardship,

265
00:24:15,854 --> 00:24:21,121
Mauch dragged himself to the coast
and left Africa forever.

266
00:24:24,029 --> 00:24:27,692
Germany had changed radically
during Mauch's time in Africa.

267
00:24:29,301 --> 00:24:32,532
War and politics
preoccupied his countrymen.

268
00:24:33,405 --> 00:24:37,239
And Mauch's earlier exploits
had largely been forgotten.

269
00:24:37,909 --> 00:24:42,175
But the greatest blow fell
when the people Mauch most admired,

270
00:24:42,314 --> 00:24:46,182
scientists and historians,
dismissed his theories about Sheba.

271
00:24:49,421 --> 00:24:51,855
A chemist determined that
the wood Mauch had cut

272
00:24:51,990 --> 00:24:55,482
from the Zimbabwe ruins
was indigenous to Africa

273
00:24:55,627 --> 00:24:58,425
it wasn't cedar brought there
from Lebanon.

274
00:24:59,297 --> 00:25:00,093
Others pointed out that

275
00:25:00,232 --> 00:25:02,860
Mauch's sketches
of Great Zimbabwe's walls

276
00:25:03,001 --> 00:25:06,528
looked nothing like the buildings
of ancient Jerusalem.

277
00:25:09,508 --> 00:25:11,908
And they ridiculed the idea of
black Africans

278
00:25:12,043 --> 00:25:14,341
practicing Jewish rituals.

279
00:25:22,821 --> 00:25:26,052
In his furious attempts
to make sense of Great Zimbabwe,

280
00:25:26,191 --> 00:25:28,625
Mauch became more disoriented than he
had ever been

281
00:25:28,760 --> 00:25:30,921
in the wilds of Africa.

282
00:25:35,300 --> 00:25:40,135
Racked by fevers, he grew increasingly
irrational and unpredictable.

283
00:25:43,408 --> 00:25:45,535
In early 1875,

284
00:25:45,677 --> 00:25:49,169
Mauch fell to his death
from the window of his garret.

285
00:25:50,749 --> 00:25:54,742
The circumstances surrounding
his death are still unclear.

286
00:25:57,088 --> 00:26:00,455
Karl Mauch died at the age of 38.

287
00:26:09,034 --> 00:26:11,127
Despite all that Mauch accomplished

288
00:26:11,269 --> 00:26:14,432
and all that he overcome
to reach Great Zimbabwe,

289
00:26:14,573 --> 00:26:16,006
the only memorial to him

290
00:26:16,141 --> 00:26:19,508
stands in Germany at
a teacher's training college.

291
00:26:25,083 --> 00:26:28,382
His theories about a lost
white settlement did, however,

292
00:26:28,520 --> 00:26:30,317
find an eager audience,

293
00:26:30,455 --> 00:26:34,551
especially in the British colonies
of Rhodesia and South Africa.

294
00:26:36,461 --> 00:26:41,865
The imperial mission in Africa
was really one of racial superiority.

295
00:26:42,000 --> 00:26:45,026
To have it thought that
Africans had constructed

296
00:26:45,170 --> 00:26:47,468
such enormous buildings as these

297
00:26:47,606 --> 00:26:51,303
on such a vast scale
was really unthinkable.

298
00:26:51,443 --> 00:26:52,910
No one could have imagined it

299
00:26:53,044 --> 00:26:54,443
no one could have believed it.

300
00:26:54,579 --> 00:26:57,275
Therefore, for imperialism
it was very important

301
00:26:57,415 --> 00:27:00,384
that these building were thought
to be built, by outsiders,

302
00:27:00,452 --> 00:27:01,680
people other than Africans.

303
00:27:01,820 --> 00:27:03,651
Almost anyone would do.

304
00:27:08,526 --> 00:27:11,825
South African and Rhodesian settlers
would fight to the last

305
00:27:11,963 --> 00:27:14,932
for their vision
of a white Great Zimbabwe.

306
00:27:15,066 --> 00:27:18,297
They countered any challenge
to the myth of white superiority

307
00:27:18,436 --> 00:27:21,200
with a storm of vitriol and ridicule.

308
00:27:21,806 --> 00:27:25,833
Only a formidable character
would withstand this onslaught.

309
00:27:32,617 --> 00:27:35,313
Fifty years later in 1929

310
00:27:35,453 --> 00:27:37,580
one of the worlds
foremost archeologists,

311
00:27:37,722 --> 00:27:39,280
Gertrude Caton Thompson,

312
00:27:39,424 --> 00:27:43,758
scoured the ruins of Great Zimbabwe
for clues to its origins.

313
00:27:45,997 --> 00:27:47,897
Years of hard work and struggle

314
00:27:48,033 --> 00:27:51,628
had won Gertrude grudging respect
in a male dominated field,

315
00:27:51,770 --> 00:27:55,797
but Great Zimbabwe posed
her greatest challenge yet.

316
00:28:00,712 --> 00:28:03,545
All evidence of the identity
of the city's builders

317
00:28:03,682 --> 00:28:06,207
appeared to have been erased.

318
00:28:07,619 --> 00:28:10,417
But failure was not an option
for Gertrude.

319
00:28:10,955 --> 00:28:12,684
Tireless in her pursuit of the truth,

320
00:28:12,824 --> 00:28:15,725
Gertrude would search
until she found what she needed:

321
00:28:15,860 --> 00:28:19,956
The key to unlock the mystery
of Great Zimbabwe's origins.

322
00:28:26,404 --> 00:28:29,567
Few would have predicted such a life
for Gertrude.

323
00:28:29,708 --> 00:28:33,838
She was born in 1888
into a privileged English family.

324
00:28:33,978 --> 00:28:36,003
But it was also unstable.

325
00:28:36,147 --> 00:28:39,913
Her father died when she was young;
her mother was sickly.

326
00:28:40,485 --> 00:28:44,444
From an early age, Gertrude
learned to rely only on herself.

327
00:28:54,065 --> 00:28:57,125
Travel was one of the few constants
in her life.

328
00:28:58,303 --> 00:29:02,899
Something of value had been gained
from the travels of my early childhood.

329
00:29:03,041 --> 00:29:06,272
Pompeii and Rome stand out in memory

330
00:29:06,411 --> 00:29:11,508
because I felt the first stirrings
of interest in past civilizations.

331
00:29:12,417 --> 00:29:16,285
But it would take time for these
stirrings to become passion.

332
00:29:26,498 --> 00:29:30,696
In her twenties, Gertrude's existence
was a nameless one.

333
00:29:35,240 --> 00:29:37,367
Life at home was pleasant
for a well

334
00:29:37,509 --> 00:29:41,206
to do family during that pampered
pre war period.

335
00:29:41,346 --> 00:29:45,180
Visits to relatives and friends
were leisurely things,

336
00:29:45,316 --> 00:29:49,719
constant amusement at games, parties,
dances and theaters

337
00:29:49,854 --> 00:29:52,584
followed each other endlessly.

338
00:29:55,326 --> 00:29:59,888
She became attracted to a young solider,
Carlion McFarland.

339
00:30:00,398 --> 00:30:04,300
In 1914, just after the outbreak
of the first world war,

340
00:30:04,435 --> 00:30:07,700
Carlion received a short leave
from the fighting in France.

341
00:30:07,839 --> 00:30:09,739
He visited Gertrude.

342
00:30:15,046 --> 00:30:16,479
Time flew.

343
00:30:16,614 --> 00:30:21,517
And apart from the war we talked
nostalgically of the carefree past.

344
00:30:22,187 --> 00:30:26,351
I faced the fact that I loved him
with my whole being.

345
00:30:31,930 --> 00:30:35,093
For the next two years
as Carlion fought in the trenches,

346
00:30:35,233 --> 00:30:38,202
Gertrude threw herself
into the war effort.

347
00:30:46,110 --> 00:30:51,480
In 1916, news arrived that turned
Gertrude's life upside down.

348
00:30:51,616 --> 00:30:56,280
On September 16th
Carlion was killed in an ambush.

349
00:30:59,691 --> 00:31:02,489
Gertrude never recovered
from his death.

350
00:31:03,027 --> 00:31:07,259
Almost 25 years later,
she visited McFarland's mother.

351
00:31:08,499 --> 00:31:11,696
When I left to say good bye
she was in bed.

352
00:31:11,836 --> 00:31:13,497
After a parting embrace,

353
00:31:13,638 --> 00:31:18,268
I noticed for the first time
Carlion's swords and medals.

354
00:31:18,409 --> 00:31:24,006
She said in a tone of assertion,
not of query, "You loved him.

355
00:31:24,148 --> 00:31:29,017
"I replied,"He was loved by
everyone who knew him."

356
00:31:31,890 --> 00:31:35,348
For Gertrude the option of marriage
and a family of her own

357
00:31:35,493 --> 00:31:38,394
died with Carlion McFarland.

358
00:31:39,297 --> 00:31:41,925
And it wasn't a subject
that she talked about much,

359
00:31:42,066 --> 00:31:43,693
or hardly at all.

360
00:31:44,235 --> 00:31:47,500
But it must have had a huge influence
on her career.

361
00:31:47,605 --> 00:31:53,407
If she had become being married,
probably been an ambitious

362
00:31:53,544 --> 00:31:54,636
soldier's wife,

363
00:31:54,779 --> 00:31:57,714
she might never have gone in
for the things she did.

364
00:32:03,288 --> 00:32:06,985
Gertrude withdrew from
almost all personal relationships.

365
00:32:07,125 --> 00:32:08,285
In the later years,

366
00:32:08,426 --> 00:32:10,724
one of the few deep friendships
she formed

367
00:32:10,862 --> 00:32:13,330
was with the de Navarro family.

368
00:32:15,500 --> 00:32:18,298
Gertrude helped raise their son
Michael.

369
00:32:18,436 --> 00:32:19,835
His memories are of a woman

370
00:32:19,971 --> 00:32:22,633
whose strong character
intimidated others.

371
00:32:22,774 --> 00:32:26,039
But to him she was warm and devoted.

372
00:32:27,745 --> 00:32:31,010
She was a formidable person.

373
00:32:31,149 --> 00:32:35,245
Somebody of the type
that you don't have now, I think.

374
00:32:35,386 --> 00:32:37,946
Very much somebody of her age.

375
00:32:38,957 --> 00:32:43,894
Passionate in support of
the things she believed in.

376
00:32:44,595 --> 00:32:47,291
Obstinate.

377
00:32:47,432 --> 00:32:52,062
No lover of fools,
and certainly no patience with them.

378
00:32:52,203 --> 00:32:55,900
Yet very loving and affectionate
to those very close to her,

379
00:32:56,040 --> 00:32:58,600
to those lucky enough to have been.

380
00:33:05,216 --> 00:33:08,674
In 1920, Gertrude sought to escape
the easy trappings

381
00:33:08,820 --> 00:33:10,515
of her earlier life.

382
00:33:10,655 --> 00:33:13,021
She volunteered at
an archeological dig

383
00:33:13,157 --> 00:33:15,182
in the South of France.

384
00:33:17,929 --> 00:33:22,525
During the visit
I made a new interest: Pre history.

385
00:33:24,235 --> 00:33:26,931
With the determination
that marked the rest of her life,

386
00:33:27,071 --> 00:33:32,236
Gertrude, now 32,
pursued her new passion: Archeology.

387
00:33:35,780 --> 00:33:39,614
Archeology was still a new
and rapidly expanding field.

388
00:33:39,751 --> 00:33:44,245
Demand for specialists created
opportunities for professionals.

389
00:33:48,059 --> 00:33:50,653
The discipline and precision
of modern archeology

390
00:33:50,795 --> 00:33:54,731
suited Gertrude's
exacting perfectionist nature.

391
00:33:59,837 --> 00:34:02,032
Her dedication brought her
to the dedication

392
00:34:02,173 --> 00:34:06,337
of one of the world's
top Egyptologists, Sir Flinders Petrie.

393
00:34:10,281 --> 00:34:13,307
He asked her to assist him
on a dig in Egypt.

394
00:34:19,791 --> 00:34:23,283
Sir Fliders Petrie was a demanding
and often difficult teacher,

395
00:34:23,428 --> 00:34:25,623
but Gertrude excelled.

396
00:34:27,932 --> 00:34:29,365
In 1924,

397
00:34:29,500 --> 00:34:32,469
Sir Fliders Petrie helped her obtain
a small grant

398
00:34:32,603 --> 00:34:34,833
for her own dig in Egypt.

399
00:34:36,641 --> 00:34:38,541
It was a great success.

400
00:34:38,676 --> 00:34:40,906
Her conclusions pushed back the date

401
00:34:41,045 --> 00:34:45,573
for the origin of
Egyptian civilization 5,000 years.

402
00:34:47,118 --> 00:34:48,847
Although they have since
proved correct,

403
00:34:48,986 --> 00:34:51,978
they contradicted
Sir Petrie's own theories.

404
00:34:52,123 --> 00:34:54,318
He severed all support.

405
00:34:54,459 --> 00:34:57,622
Gertrude raised the funds herself
and continued.

406
00:34:57,762 --> 00:35:00,731
She would never relent to
threats or bullying.

407
00:35:08,172 --> 00:35:10,868
An Anglo Rhodesian foundation
approached Gertrude

408
00:35:11,008 --> 00:35:14,136
about conducting a dig
at Great Zimbabwe.

409
00:35:14,278 --> 00:35:17,441
The hoped to uncover clues
about the mysterious civilization

410
00:35:17,582 --> 00:35:19,948
that once flourished there.

411
00:35:21,018 --> 00:35:23,748
Gertrude Caton Thompson
was a formidable woman.

412
00:35:23,888 --> 00:35:26,857
She had worked under the
most impossible conditions

413
00:35:26,991 --> 00:35:32,156
and under the most impossible
archeologists in Egypt,

414
00:35:32,296 --> 00:35:36,926
and in the end running large scale
excavations of her own.

415
00:35:37,068 --> 00:35:41,801
She was carefully chosen to
undertake the work at Great Zimbabwe.

416
00:35:41,939 --> 00:35:43,998
She was ideally suited to it.

417
00:35:49,480 --> 00:35:53,849
The Foundation set one condition
that Gertrude present her conclusion

418
00:35:53,985 --> 00:35:55,680
about Great Zimbabwe's origins

419
00:35:55,820 --> 00:35:58,721
to the British Association
for the Advancement of Science

420
00:35:58,856 --> 00:36:00,983
in only eight months time.

421
00:36:01,125 --> 00:36:04,617
This was a tight deadline
under the best of circumstances.

422
00:36:04,762 --> 00:36:07,492
Undaunted, Gertrude accepted.

423
00:36:19,343 --> 00:36:25,680
Gertrude arrived in Bera
just ahead of a raging cyclone.

424
00:36:27,852 --> 00:36:30,150
The noise of the collapsing town,

425
00:36:30,288 --> 00:36:33,257
the many ships in harbor dragging
their chains

426
00:36:33,391 --> 00:36:37,987
and crashing into each other
hooting wildly was dramatic.

427
00:36:38,529 --> 00:36:41,726
Mercifully, I am not easily alarmed.

428
00:36:42,833 --> 00:36:45,666
She rode out the storm
with typical calm,

429
00:36:45,803 --> 00:36:49,398
but found that the cyclone
had destroyed the rail lines.

430
00:36:53,811 --> 00:36:55,870
Gertrude drove towards Rhodesia,

431
00:36:56,013 --> 00:36:58,447
but the rain season
turned the roads to mud

432
00:36:58,583 --> 00:37:01,416
and the rivers to churning torrents.

433
00:37:13,130 --> 00:37:14,427
After weeks of delay,

434
00:37:14,565 --> 00:37:18,126
she finally reached Salisbury,
the capital of Rhodesia.

435
00:37:18,269 --> 00:37:20,737
Rhodesia was named for the
great industrialist

436
00:37:20,871 --> 00:37:23,305
and imperialist, Cecil Rhodes.

437
00:37:27,678 --> 00:37:31,205
Rhodes master minded British expansion
throughout southern Africa,

438
00:37:31,349 --> 00:37:34,580
personally controlling thousands of
square miles of land

439
00:37:34,719 --> 00:37:38,382
as he created one of the
world's greatest fortunes.

440
00:37:48,899 --> 00:37:53,563
In the capital of Salisbury,
Gertrude paused to gather supplies.

441
00:37:54,171 --> 00:37:55,365
In just 40 years

442
00:37:55,506 --> 00:37:59,840
white settlers had created a bustling
farm community in Salisbury,

443
00:38:00,378 --> 00:38:03,472
but it had been built
at the expense of black Africans.

444
00:38:03,614 --> 00:38:06,947
Whites lived well,
overseeing farms and mines,

445
00:38:07,084 --> 00:38:09,814
while blacks were relegated
to menial jobs

446
00:38:09,954 --> 00:38:14,448
with subsistence wages,
poor housing and no education.

447
00:38:18,229 --> 00:38:20,197
The white mindset
of racial superiority

448
00:38:20,331 --> 00:38:24,290
was pervasive, poisoning
every aspect of life.

449
00:38:26,504 --> 00:38:29,667
When one prominent white woman asked
if her sons might help with

450
00:38:29,807 --> 00:38:31,297
the upcoming excavation,

451
00:38:31,442 --> 00:38:35,640
Gertrude said they could if they
would dig alongside the native workers.

452
00:38:36,380 --> 00:38:40,714
Just as Gertrude expected,
the request was promptly withdraw.

453
00:38:42,153 --> 00:38:43,245
At dinner one night

454
00:38:43,387 --> 00:38:46,618
the governor promoted the idea
that Great Zimbabwe's ruins

455
00:38:46,757 --> 00:38:50,124
were of ancient and thereby
white origin.

456
00:38:50,995 --> 00:38:54,726
Gertrude countered that her job
required objectivity.

457
00:38:57,601 --> 00:39:01,298
I replied that I had no idea
one way or the other,

458
00:39:01,439 --> 00:39:04,636
and only hoped I might get an answer.

459
00:39:11,549 --> 00:39:14,017
The team Gertrude brought to
Great Zimbabwe

460
00:39:14,151 --> 00:39:17,314
reflected her willingness
to flaunt convention.

461
00:39:17,888 --> 00:39:19,947
It was an all women team.

462
00:39:20,458 --> 00:39:23,723
I think very deliberately
she always worked with women

463
00:39:23,861 --> 00:39:28,662
and was one of the first feminists
in archeology.

464
00:39:29,233 --> 00:39:33,499
It was one of the first all female
archeological teams in all history.

465
00:39:39,310 --> 00:39:41,972
Gertrude and the others
examined miles of ruins

466
00:39:42,113 --> 00:39:43,910
in their first days there.

467
00:39:51,956 --> 00:39:54,948
Normally, a site this size offers
numerous options

468
00:39:55,092 --> 00:39:56,787
for an archeologist,

469
00:39:56,927 --> 00:39:59,589
but many others have been there
before Gertrude.

470
00:39:59,730 --> 00:40:02,392
She was stunned by
what they had done.

471
00:40:06,137 --> 00:40:10,437
Generations of treasure hunters
and previous archeologists

472
00:40:10,574 --> 00:40:13,941
had laid bare practically
all that had remained.

473
00:40:14,078 --> 00:40:19,072
In brief, fulfillment of my task
seemed dubious.

474
00:40:21,519 --> 00:40:23,146
For Gertrude Caton Thompson

475
00:40:23,287 --> 00:40:25,847
the site at Great Zimbabwe
had changed enormously

476
00:40:25,990 --> 00:40:27,082
since Mauch's time.

477
00:40:27,224 --> 00:40:30,057
What had happened in fact was
a whole bunch of people

478
00:40:30,194 --> 00:40:33,595
had decided they could would find
gold here at Great Zimbabwe,

479
00:40:33,731 --> 00:40:36,564
and they had literally pillaged,
plundered,

480
00:40:36,700 --> 00:40:39,396
pulled the walls down,
done everything.

481
00:40:39,904 --> 00:40:42,566
Prospectors formed the Rhodesian
Ancient Ruins Company

482
00:40:42,706 --> 00:40:44,537
to extract gold.

483
00:40:44,675 --> 00:40:47,405
They dug numerous trenches
and undermined walls,

484
00:40:47,545 --> 00:40:49,604
but found little gold.

485
00:40:49,747 --> 00:40:53,148
What they did loot was
of great archeological value.

486
00:40:53,284 --> 00:40:56,549
They'd melted it down
and sold it as bullion.

487
00:40:57,154 --> 00:41:00,021
Priceless artifacts
were lost forever.

488
00:41:05,663 --> 00:41:09,394
Early treasure seekers
also uncovered stone birds.

489
00:41:13,137 --> 00:41:17,301
Cecil Rhodes bought two
to mark the entrance to his estate,

490
00:41:18,075 --> 00:41:21,135
and hired men to search
Great Zimbabwe for evidence

491
00:41:21,278 --> 00:41:24,338
that it had been built
by a white civilization.

492
00:41:28,118 --> 00:41:32,214
In their rush to prove that
Zimbabwe was of white origin,

493
00:41:33,324 --> 00:41:36,691
excavators moved tons of topsoil,
destroying artifacts

494
00:41:36,827 --> 00:41:38,852
of African origin.

495
00:41:39,697 --> 00:41:41,858
The damage was irreparable.

496
00:41:41,999 --> 00:41:45,196
As for evidence of white occupation
or construction,

497
00:41:45,336 --> 00:41:47,770
nothing was ever unearthed.

498
00:41:56,280 --> 00:41:59,272
The devastated condition of the ruins
left Gertrude

499
00:41:59,416 --> 00:42:01,407
at an apparent dead end.

500
00:42:03,354 --> 00:42:05,845
She and her team dug
at several sites,

501
00:42:05,990 --> 00:42:09,448
and she paid the laborers
bonuses for their hard work.

502
00:42:12,630 --> 00:42:15,428
Still, she found nothing conclusive.

503
00:42:18,969 --> 00:42:20,766
Time was running out.

504
00:42:20,905 --> 00:42:23,772
The British Association
meeting loomed.

505
00:42:28,279 --> 00:42:30,008
Gertrude arranged for a plane

506
00:42:30,147 --> 00:42:33,878
so that she could inspect the ruins
from a new perspective.

507
00:42:37,655 --> 00:42:40,146
She became one of
the first archeologists

508
00:42:40,291 --> 00:42:42,885
to use aerial observation.

509
00:42:45,396 --> 00:42:47,796
As she swept past the hill ruins,

510
00:42:47,932 --> 00:42:52,835
Gertrude spotted a path that from
the ground was obscured by vegetation.

511
00:42:52,970 --> 00:42:55,564
It led to terraces
beneath the hill walls,

512
00:42:55,706 --> 00:42:59,039
and had clearly not been used
in hundreds of years.

513
00:43:02,146 --> 00:43:06,640
Treasure seekers had overlooked
the seemingly inaccessible terraces.

514
00:43:16,961 --> 00:43:21,421
The next day, Gertrude moved her team
onto the hill terraces.

515
00:43:25,603 --> 00:43:27,594
There they uncovered
a wealth of objects

516
00:43:27,738 --> 00:43:30,901
untouched by anyone but
the original inhabitants.

517
00:43:34,778 --> 00:43:40,273
Everything that Gertrude Caton
Thompson found was clearly African.

518
00:43:41,085 --> 00:43:45,078
There were changes in the pottery
and the pottery designs,

519
00:43:45,222 --> 00:43:46,746
but always African.

520
00:43:46,890 --> 00:43:50,883
The only foreign material she found
were glass beads

521
00:43:51,028 --> 00:43:53,656
and Far Eastern ceramics,

522
00:43:53,797 --> 00:43:55,389
Near Eastern ceramics,

523
00:43:55,532 --> 00:44:00,765
but these were firmly dated to
about the 13th century.

524
00:44:00,904 --> 00:44:05,273
So they, in fact,
reinforced the African material

525
00:44:05,409 --> 00:44:10,039
that this was a 13th century
local culture

526
00:44:10,180 --> 00:44:13,081
that had trade connections overseas.

527
00:44:19,857 --> 00:44:23,691
Gertrude determined that Great Zimbabwe
had been a black African city

528
00:44:23,827 --> 00:44:26,352
from the 9th to the 14th centuries,

529
00:44:26,497 --> 00:44:30,490
a major hub in a huge sophisticated
trade system.

530
00:44:35,572 --> 00:44:38,973
Great Zimbabwe had straddled
the trade route Africans followed

531
00:44:39,109 --> 00:44:43,205
as they carried ivory and gold
from the interior to the coast.

532
00:44:44,682 --> 00:44:46,946
Their trade partners were
Arab merchants,

533
00:44:47,084 --> 00:44:48,210
who were the great middlemen,

534
00:44:48,352 --> 00:44:51,844
dealing in goods from as far away
as India and China.

535
00:45:02,099 --> 00:45:04,659
Gertrude compiled her findings
just in time

536
00:45:04,802 --> 00:45:07,168
for the British Association meeting.

537
00:45:20,718 --> 00:45:25,121
She expected a hostile reaction
to the idea of a black Great Zimbabwe,

538
00:45:25,255 --> 00:45:28,782
but headed into the controversy
with her usual poise.

539
00:45:33,697 --> 00:45:36,427
Gertrude presented her findings
to an overflow crowd

540
00:45:36,567 --> 00:45:40,594
in Johannesburg
on August 2nd, 1923.

541
00:45:41,105 --> 00:45:42,868
Her presentation was meticulous.

542
00:45:43,006 --> 00:45:45,566
Her conclusions, crystal clear.

543
00:45:49,279 --> 00:45:53,375
Instead of a degenerate offshoot
of another civilization,

544
00:45:53,517 --> 00:45:56,145
you have here a native civilization

545
00:45:56,286 --> 00:45:59,813
showing national organization
of a high kind

546
00:45:59,957 --> 00:46:03,324
originality and amazing industry.

547
00:46:06,430 --> 00:46:10,992
She portrayed a living, vibrant,
black African city

548
00:46:14,404 --> 00:46:18,568
in which the walls formed
a series of interlocking courtyards

549
00:46:18,709 --> 00:46:22,440
where women cooked,
children played, men worked.

550
00:46:24,748 --> 00:46:26,511
In one extraordinary paper,

551
00:46:26,650 --> 00:46:30,279
Gertrude killed the myth
of a lost white civilization.

552
00:46:30,888 --> 00:46:34,984
In its place, she described
a thriving black metropolis.

553
00:46:35,526 --> 00:46:39,018
It was estimated to house ten
to fifteen thousand people,

554
00:46:39,163 --> 00:46:42,564
a city as large as many
in Europe at the time.

555
00:46:50,040 --> 00:46:51,735
Many were scandalized.

556
00:46:51,875 --> 00:46:53,308
They remained convinced that

557
00:46:53,443 --> 00:46:57,971
Africans were simply incapable of
creating such a civilization.

558
00:46:59,917 --> 00:47:02,317
Several stormed from the room.

559
00:47:02,452 --> 00:47:04,977
Even the normally calm Gertrude
was shaken

560
00:47:05,122 --> 00:47:07,886
by the fury her conclusions
triggered.

561
00:47:09,226 --> 00:47:13,094
Gertrude Caton Thompson's work
gave her the highest reputation

562
00:47:13,230 --> 00:47:15,255
among the academics and scientists.

563
00:47:15,399 --> 00:47:23,431
It did nothing to persuade the
settler to overcome his prejudices.

564
00:47:24,241 --> 00:47:27,768
And nothing that anyone could do
either Caton Thompson

565
00:47:27,911 --> 00:47:32,871
or in the fifty years subsequent
to her were going to convince people

566
00:47:33,016 --> 00:47:39,387
with such strong racial prejudices
that Great Zimbabwe was not exotic.

567
00:47:46,096 --> 00:47:48,929
She bade farewell
to her African work.

568
00:47:49,066 --> 00:47:51,534
Her sense of irony surfaced
when she recalled

569
00:47:51,668 --> 00:47:54,159
how the foreman asked
to come with her.

570
00:47:54,838 --> 00:47:58,035
I explained that he would not
be happy in our cold country

571
00:47:58,175 --> 00:48:01,633
with no one to talk to
in his Bantu language.

572
00:48:02,145 --> 00:48:04,875
'Are there no black men in England? '
He asked.

573
00:48:05,015 --> 00:48:08,507
I replied,
'No, we are all white.

574
00:48:08,652 --> 00:48:13,487
'After a puzzled reflection he said,
'No blacks?

575
00:48:13,624 --> 00:48:15,649
Then who does the work? '

576
00:48:18,629 --> 00:48:22,429
Gertrude left for England
in late 1929,

577
00:48:22,566 --> 00:48:26,263
but the controversy surrounding
Great Zimbabwe followed her.

578
00:48:28,038 --> 00:48:31,337
In 1930, Gertrude's findings
from Great Zimbabwe

579
00:48:31,475 --> 00:48:34,137
were exhibited at
the British Museum in London.

580
00:48:36,280 --> 00:48:39,340
I undertook to be present
three days a week

581
00:48:39,483 --> 00:48:42,919
to answer questions
and be long suffering to the many

582
00:48:43,053 --> 00:48:46,614
who continued to believe in
the Queen of Sheba.

583
00:48:46,757 --> 00:48:49,817
In the exhibit's wake came letters
in the press

584
00:48:49,960 --> 00:48:53,452
and lively correspondence
from strangers.

585
00:48:54,264 --> 00:48:57,791
I refrained from being drawn
into these.

586
00:48:59,303 --> 00:49:01,897
But she kept a special file.

587
00:49:03,473 --> 00:49:06,738
Caton Thompson was a
very professional scientist.

588
00:49:06,877 --> 00:49:11,780
She could be quite cold and quite
clinical in the things she did.

589
00:49:11,915 --> 00:49:15,282
She put the quality of her work
above all else,

590
00:49:15,419 --> 00:49:17,683
and she could not
tolerate fools.

591
00:49:17,821 --> 00:49:18,753
And to her,

592
00:49:18,889 --> 00:49:24,225
many of those who speculated on
Great Zimbabwe were nothing but fools.

593
00:49:29,833 --> 00:49:33,701
Gertrude's combative nature worked
against her in 1938

594
00:49:33,837 --> 00:49:36,067
on her last major dig.

595
00:49:36,206 --> 00:49:40,267
She traveled to South Arabia
with another all female team,

596
00:49:40,410 --> 00:49:43,743
but she fought constantly
with an associate over everything

597
00:49:43,880 --> 00:49:47,008
from the food to the
expedition's purpose.

598
00:49:47,484 --> 00:49:49,076
Gertrude hoped to find connections

599
00:49:49,219 --> 00:49:52,450
between South Arabia
and Great Zimbabwe.

600
00:49:53,323 --> 00:49:54,654
Perhaps the Arab traders

601
00:49:54,791 --> 00:49:58,352
who had brought goods to the African
coast from India and China

602
00:49:58,495 --> 00:50:01,862
had influenced
Great Zimbabwe's builders.

603
00:50:03,500 --> 00:50:07,231
Gertrude looked for common
architecture, art, stone masonry,

604
00:50:07,371 --> 00:50:10,306
anything that might link
the two place.

605
00:50:10,907 --> 00:50:11,896
She encountered Arab's

606
00:50:12,042 --> 00:50:15,341
who still practiced traditional stone
building techniques,

607
00:50:15,479 --> 00:50:18,937
but their ties to
Great Zimbabwe were unclear.

608
00:50:24,121 --> 00:50:28,182
Towards the end of the expedition,
she became gravely ill.

609
00:50:28,325 --> 00:50:31,988
Sick and exhausted,
she returned to England.

610
00:50:32,696 --> 00:50:35,426
She began to suffer from
spells of lightheadedness

611
00:50:35,565 --> 00:50:38,432
that plagued her
for the rest of her life.

612
00:50:39,536 --> 00:50:42,869
A doctor diagnosed a distended heart.

613
00:50:45,042 --> 00:50:49,274
Now 50 years old, Gertrude settled
into a quiet life with her friends

614
00:50:49,413 --> 00:50:52,177
the deNavarros
and their young son, Michael.

615
00:50:52,682 --> 00:50:55,947
They became the stable family
she'd never had.

616
00:50:56,820 --> 00:51:01,985
But in the end she moved in with us,
and that was a very happy arrangement.

617
00:51:02,125 --> 00:51:04,616
It was like having an extra and
honorary aunt

618
00:51:04,761 --> 00:51:07,252
living as part of the family.

619
00:51:11,601 --> 00:51:14,126
Gertrude's greatest legacy
was to reveal that

620
00:51:14,271 --> 00:51:18,207
high civilization arose
in sub Saharan Africa.

621
00:51:20,977 --> 00:51:26,040
White settlers could no longer claim
Great Zimbabwe as their own.

622
00:51:28,351 --> 00:51:32,788
When the black majority in Rhodesia
gained control in 1979,

623
00:51:32,923 --> 00:51:35,448
they renamed their country 'Zimbabwe'

624
00:51:35,592 --> 00:51:39,528
to identify themselves
with Africa's glorious past.

625
00:51:44,000 --> 00:51:48,198
The ruins which once illustrated
the folly of prejudice and bias

626
00:51:48,338 --> 00:51:52,035
not stand for an independent,
dynamic Africa.

627
00:51:55,912 --> 00:51:58,107
As Gertrude Caton Thompson said,

628
00:51:58,248 --> 00:52:03,481
"Great Zimbabwe lies in the
still pulsating heart of Africa."