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ZIMBABWE

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Originally appearing in Volume V28, Page 981 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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ZIMBABWE , a See also:

Bantu name, probably derived from the two words zimba (" houses ") and mabgi (" stones "), given to certain ruins in See also:South-See also:East See also:Africa. Its use is not confined to See also:Southern See also:Rhodesia and should not properly be restricted to any one particular site. For, as the See also:medieval Portuguese stated, it is merely a generic See also:term for the See also:capital of any considerable See also:chief, and it has been applied even by them to several distinct places. From about 1s50 onwards the Zimbabwe generally referred to by Portuguese writers was at a spot a little See also:north of the Afur See also:district, not far from the See also:Zambezi. There is some See also:reason, however, to suppose that before this the capital of the See also:Monomotapa was situated much farther south, and it may plausibly be identified with the most extensive ruins as yet known, viz. those near See also:Victoria (Mashonaland) to which popular usage has now attached See also:par excellence the name of Zimbabwe. These ruins were discovered by See also:Adam Renders in 1868 and explored by Karl Mauch in 1871. They became well known to See also:English readers from J. T. See also:Bent's See also:account of the Ruined Cities of Mashonaland, but the popularity of that See also:work disseminated a See also:romance concerning their See also:age and origin which was only dispelled when scientific investigations undertaken in 1905 showed it to be wholly without See also:historical See also:warrant. Even before this it had been clear to archaeologists and ethnologists that there was no See also:evidence to support the popular theory that Zimbabwe had been built in very See also:ancient days by some See also:Oriental See also:people. See also:Swan's measurements, which had misled Bent into accepting a See also:chronology based on a supposed See also:orientation of the " See also:temple," had been shown to be inexact. There was no See also:authentic instance of any inscription having been found there or elsewhere in Rhodesia.

Numerous See also:

objects had been discovered in the course of excavations, but not one of them could be recognized as more than a few centuries old, while those that were not demonstrably See also:foreign imports were of See also:African type. The explorations conducted in 1905 added See also:positive evidence. For it was proved that the medieval objects were found in such positions as to be necessarily contemporaneous with the See also:foundation of the buildings, and that there was no super-position of periods of any date whatsoever. Finally from a See also:comparative study of several ruins it was established that the See also:plan and construction of Zimbabwe are by no means unique, and that this site only differs from others in Rhodesia in respect of the See also:great dimensions and the massiveness of its individual buildings. It may confidently be dated to a See also:period not earlier than the 14th or 15th See also:century A.D., and attributed to the same Bantu people the remains of whose See also:stone-fenced kraals are found at so many places between the See also:Limpopo and the Zambezi. There are three distinct though connected See also:groups of ruins at Zimbabwe, which are commonly known as the " Elliptical Temple," the "See also:Acropolis" and the "Valley Ruins." The most famous is the first, which is doubly misnamed, since it is not a temple and its See also:contour is too unsymmetrical to be de-scribed properly as elliptical. It is an irregular enclosure over 800 ft. in circumference, with a maximum length of 292 ft. and a maximum breadth of 220 ft., surrounded by a dry-built See also:wall of extraordinary massiveness. This wall is in places over 30 ft. high and 14 ft. wide, but is very erratic in outline and variable in thickness. The most carefully executed See also:part is on the south and south-east, where the wall is decorated by a See also:row of See also:granite monoliths beneath which runs a See also:double See also:line of See also:chevron See also:ornament. The interior has been much destroyed by the ravages of See also:gold-seekers and See also:amateur excavators. Enough, however, remains to show that the See also:scheme was a See also:combination of such a stone See also:kraal as that at Nanatali with the plan of a fort like those found about Inyanga. The only unique feature is the occurrence of a large and a small conical See also:tower at the southern end, which Bent and others considered to be representatives of the human phallus.

Their See also:

form, however, is not sufficiently characteristic to warrant this See also:identification, though it may be noted that the nearest approximation to phallic See also:worship is found amongst the most typical of African peoples, viz. the See also:Ewe-speaking natives of the See also:West See also:Coast. The See also:floor of the enclosure is constituted as in the other Zimbabwe buildings by a thick See also:bed of See also:cement which extends even outside the See also:main wall. This cement See also:mass is heightened at many places so as to make platforms and supports for huts. Groups of these dwellings are enclosed by subsidiary stone walls so as to form distinct See also:units within the larger See also:precinct. The " Acropolis " is in some ways more remarkable than the great kraal which has just been described. It is a See also:hill rising 200 to 300 ft. above the valley, fortified with the minutest care and with extraordinary ingenuity. The principles of construction, the use of stone and cement are the same as in the " elliptical " kraal; there is no definite plan, the shape and arrangement of the enclosures being determined solely by the natural features of the ground. Between this and the " elliptical " kraal are the " Valley Ruins," consisting of smaller buildings which may have been the dwellings of those traders who bartered the gold brought in from distant mines. Zimbabwe was probably the distributing centre for the gold See also:traffic carried on in the See also:middle ages between subjects of the Monomotapa and the Mahommedans of the coast. Compare also the articles RHODESIA: See also:Archaeology, and M ON OMOT APA. See D. See also:Randall-Maclver, Mediaeval Rhodesia (See also:London, 1906) See also:Journal of Anthrop.

Inst., vol. See also:

xxxv. ; Geog. Journal (1906); Mauch's See also:report in Ausland (1872) is now only of See also:bibliographical See also:interest, while Bent's Ruined Cities of Mashonaland (1892) and R. N. See also:Hall's Great Zimbabwe (1905) are chiefly valuable for their illustrations.' (D.

End of Article: ZIMBABWE

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