Module 7 Flashcards
(72 cards)
1
Q
What is controversial about the Great Zimbabwe site? (2)
A
Most ill-used if archaeological sites in Africa (heavily looted and poorly excavated)
The white minority government tried to suppress any evidence about the builders of the sites, which were the ancestors of Indeginous in Zimbabwe
2
Q
What is the timeline of Great Zimbabwe?
A
500-1500 AD
peak of occupation between 1200 and 1500 AD
3
Q
What was the population at its peak?
A
Around 10 000 and 18 000 inhabitants
4
Q
What are the 3 translations of the term “Zimbabwe” and what do they imply?
A
“Larger houses of stone” = A place where people lived.
“Venerated houses” = Royalty lived there.
The court, home, or grave of a chief = Ancestors’ place
5
Q
Who were the Shona?
A
The ethnic group living in/near the Great Zimbabwe
6
Q
Geographic location?
A
Right in the middle of the plateau in Zimbabwe
7
Q
What kind of communities lived on the site? (with timeline)
A
Agricultural communities around plateau between 500 to 600 AD
By 1000 AD, there’s an emergence of complex societies(or capital states) for the next 600~700 years
8
Q
What’s a characteristic of the plateau in Zimbabwe? (for the inhabitants)
A
The residential area was elevated
9
Q
There are two more sites that are pertinent to know for understanding the chronology of the development of Zimbabwe’s culture
A
Khami and Mapungubew (Ma-pung-u-bwe)
10
Q
Name four characteristics of the Mapungubwe site. (timeline related)
A
First Indigenous kingdom in southern Africa between 900 - 1300 AD
Was eclipsed by Great Zimbabwe in 1200 AD
The site is preserved(wildlife preserved…)
Most research was focused on craft production(of ceramic and gold)
11
Q
Name two components of the Zimbabwe architecture
A
Walls built with stone blocks of granite, no mortar
Some decorative styles of varying elaboration
12
Q
How can Zimbabwe traditions be identified?
A
The presence of these walls can help us identify traditions
The temporal and region stylistics distinguish the sites from each other
13
Q
Where were the stones gathered?
A
Locally from the Zimbabwe plateau
14
Q
How were these walls built?
A
There is no material linking the stones together.
What makes them sturdy is their non-parallel arrangement.
Builders used a variety of decorative style
15
Q
If radiocarbon dating is not available for the identification of traditions based on the architecture, what do researchers do?
A
They observed the masonry, which allows researchers to ger a hold of the chronology of the site
16
Q
Name 3 characteristics of the site Khami.
A
The site Khami was home to the Torwa Dynasty from 1450 to 1680 AD
That Kingdom arose after the collapse of Great Zimbabwe
It is related to Great Zimbabwe, but elaborated details about the masonry differ from the 2 sites(e.g. geometric patterns and stone structure)
17
Q
Can you name 2 styles of masonry? (observed in many places including Danangombe otherwise named Dhlo-Dhlo)
A
Naletale, which translates to herringbone
and Chevron
18
Q
What is pertinent about Daga architecture?
A
The structures are made out of mud/clay and thatch (e.g. the houses, floors and benches)
19
Q
What is an inconvenience pertaining to the Daga architecture?
A
Organic material does not preserve well in the archeological record. Researchers have to extrapolate, analyze and estimate the # of the population who lived in the now-ruined area(difficult lol)
20
Q
On what means did the Shona people rely on to subsist?
A
There was no intensive agriculture because no irrigation system was developed. Therefore, they relied on rainfall to make crops grow.
The amount of food surplus was insufficient to feed everyone, which could imply that people paid taxes or were required to work for some time to earn food. (like in Uruk)
21
Q
Other than agriculture, is there any other form of economic activity? What are the data findings to prove it?
A
Herding was a key economic activity, but beef was not the primary food source for most people
Common people ate goat, sheep, etc. because cows were (probably) of special status and important to rituals
Data findings: bones recovered from dumps
22
Q
If cows were of special status, then which kind of people could live near them.
A
Higher status people
23
Q
What are 2 particularities about the Tsetse fly?
A
Because of the high elevation of the residential area(on the plateau), the Tsetse flies could not reach the settlements
Those flies give “sleeping” sickness, which is deadly to the cattle. An outbreak of Tsetse flies can cause famines as their poison(*) is uncurable for the cattle. People lose their source of food, etc.
24
Q
How was the research data collected and from who?
A
- Portuguese accounts of Mwene Mutapa in the 16th and 17th century
- Oral (transmission of) histories
- Ethnographic accounts from the contemporary Shona people
- Archaeology(documented accounts, field survey, excavations, etc.)
25
What is an incorrect assumption that can be made from draw analogies from older documents (or any other data...)?
To assume that people remained unchanged. Duh
26
Was there a writing language at the time of Great Zimbabwe?
No
27
What did oral histories tell?
That Great Zimbabwe was built by the Ancestors of the Shona people
28
What about the Hill complex? (4)
Located in the village of Karanga-inhabited by Shona people
We can suppose that there is a temple relationship with the persons who built the communities and Shona people today. In fact, Chief Mugabe still lived in the Hill complex in modern times.
Mostly likely where the royalty lived
29
Who was Carl Mauch?(5~9)
1837-1875
Was led to the site in 1871
He immediately associated the site with the Queen of Sheba and the lost city of Ophir(in the New Testament; Sheba = foreign Queen who offered gifts to King Salomon)
He was odd, obsessed with biblical stories and eccentric
He "investigated/surveyed" the site in 1871. His work represents the beginning of decades of misunderstandings about Great Zimbabwe.
30
Who was Cecil Rhodes?
1853-1902
British
He perpetuated the misunderstandings about GZ
He had a British-South African mining and railway company that controlled Mashonaland
He supported British Imperialism and was part of the White-minority government
Owns the most famous and representative artifacts of the site(i don't know the name but it's in the PowerPoint).
31
Who did Cecil Rhodes hire to examine GZ? (2 people)
1. Antiquarian Richard Bent, who interpreted the very Indigenous artifacts as non-local, thus perpetuating the misunderstandings about GZ
2. Journalist Richard Hall who excavated and curated the site. Hall sold all of the antiquities he found. Things went downhill with Hall oof.
32
Third person hired by a British South Africa company to salvage some of GZ through more careful excavation?
David Randall-MacIver
He was the first person to suggest that GZ was of African origin. His idea was largely dismissed
33
Who was Gertrude Catron Thompson?
1888-1985
Was a financially independent women
Invited by the British Academy of Sciences to excavate GZ
Assembled an all-female team to bring evidence about the connection between Shona people and the GZ
She found undistributed materials thus creating connections between Shona people and the builders of the site
She was vilified by her colleagues for the theory; theory was considered against the " White-origin of GZ"
Debates about Thompson's findings became more relevant in the 1960s(global civil rights movements)
YET, she downplayed the importance of the site.
34
When did Zimbabwe become independent?
Prince Charles granted independence to Zimbabwe in April 1980 when Mugabe was elected.
The country is now called The Republic of Zimbabwe
35
Two African archeologists redefining the field of archaeology in Africa(homo sapiens research --> African archaeology)
Shadrek Chirikure and Innocent Pikirayi
36
[True/False] The Hill Complex and the Great Enclosure were major African trade center at the time, so a lot of exotic goods pop
up at the site.
True!
37
How elevated is the Zimbabwe plateau
1000 metres above sea-level
38
What facilitated agriculture?
the 2 surrounding rivers
39
What caused the demise of Mapungubwe?
Climate change:
Rain fall decreased and land arounds it couldn’t support
such a high population using traditional farming methods
Population required to disperse and power shifter to
Zimbabwe and later Khami
40
How were the stones collected from granite blocks?
Granite is being continuously baked by stone, so the stone splits into even
slabs very easily
41
What kind of people lived in Daga?
Categories of elite in complex residences
42
What is the name of the wall that separates the Hill Complex?
The Perimeter Wall
43
How was the research at the Hill complex?
Focused on elite sphere and less about
| households
44
What is the size of GZ?
Site as whole is large, broad expansive (8km^2)
45
What are the 3 enclosures who define GZ
hill complex,
valley complex,
the great
enclosure
46
Hypothesis about the Hill complex
the hill complex is where king lived,
great
enclosure for elite, and valley complex in between was for
regular citizens
47
How were the enclosures separated/divided? And what did those separation represented?
All residence were separately enclosed
by city's monumental walls, valley was still surrounded by stone architecture
Probably represented elite and monumental areas but at different times
Division – by broader more perimeter walls
Base of hill complex and one going north south
Is some marking of space, walls contained architecture
Was culturally, socially significant even if we don’t know
what is means
48
Name 8 charateristics about the stone walls
* Rock quarried from hills, easily split along fracture plains – get cuboidal structure
* Very thick large walls (1-5m thick)
* Bases of walls are thicker – very sturdy structure, spreads pressure evenly
* All stone walls constructed without mortar, each layer laid inwardly – makes wall more stable
* Incorporate feature of natural landscape – built around boulders and rocky outcrops
* Walls fitted closely together and evenly along turpentine courses
* No square corners of the structures, circular, elliptically shapes
* 3 major – Hill Complex, the Great enclosure, Valley complex
49
Name 12 characteristics of the hill Complex enclosure?
* Top norther in north east of map
* Includes pair of enclosure on top of high granite hill 100 metres in elevation, which provided prominence to the site for rituals and facilitated defense
* 2 walled enclosures = eastern and western enclosures
• Seems young cattle bones only found inside these stone enclosure
of Hill complex
* Young cattle seems to be part of elite diet
* More residential areas (outside perimeter walls of Great Zimbabwe) find bones of sheep, goat and other wild animals
* STEEP and ancient path up to hill complex leading to western enclosure
* Has earliest stone enclosures(late 800 to 900 AD) = first instance of stone architecture of major construction
* Valley below become more populated as population grows
• Daga buildings all over landscape-many foundations identified in arch survey, results never
published; found within and outside enclosures, and inside and out
of the perimeter wall
50
What about the Great Enclosure? (9 characteristics)
•Single largest historical structure in SA
• Is on outcrop
• Largest structure at Great Zimbabwe
• Circular elliptical shape
• Granite blocks are more than the sum of all the bricks to make all
of other walls combined
• Walls have drains at bases, land was flat and would've flooded in
winter in rainy season
• Set people apart physically and spiritually
• Conical tower shaped like beehive inside
51
What about the main doorways in the Great Enclosure?
Walls not straight, sloping
Entrances isn't square
Rules out defensive, military function – was misinterpreted
as this:
- Doors, drains running counter to needs to protection,
gaps in walls
-Walls symbols of authority associated with royal
power
-Largest enclosures private places for royal and king
and smaller enclosure associated with lesser nobility
-Walls mark elevated status
52
Difference between royals and commoners?
• Restricted access
Narrow passageways, small doors
• Geometric patterning
• Daga houses
Itself isn't marker of status but its location
• Division of people might just be archaeological construct as it’s the
only thing around to study beside artifacts
53
Findings about GZ? (7)
• Exotic artifacts found among common artifacts
• High status material found outside of Great Zimbabwe
• Layout of houses are roughly the same in both areas
• Variability in house consultation and location could relate more to
chronological factors and less elite and non-elite
• Areas outside the walls were last to be occupied
People moving out of hill complex
• More or less desirable to live in different areas at different
times
• Occupied by both commoners and elites just at different times
54
functional verus temporal difference? (10)
:
• These complexes (the hill and great enclosure) represent the
construction of new royal residences associated with the
ascension of successive kings/rulers
• Gaining popularity
• Imply differences between these areas are based on chronology
not function
• Draws on ethnographic/historical accounts of Shona kingship and
royal inheritance patterns
• Each new ruler or each new king has to build new
complex/residence
• Same artifacts found in 3 areas, no evidence for functional/status
difference
• Different enclosures don’t represent different activities, all
enclosures are same activities
• Establishment of new settlement could represent political factions
or tensions
2 competing sons of same dynasty
One would be pushed into country side or valley while
other settle in hill complex
55
hill complex features (7~11)
:
• Fluid architecture with curved walls, integrating the natural
environment into the build environment
Not about levelling/working against natural landscape but
are incorporating
• Built on granite ridge 100m up from underlying valley
• Massive stone walls (10m high)
• Oldest area
• Likely occupied from 9th - 13th century
• Distinct living experience – adding to sense of identity
Enclosed secluded spaces
Separation and isolation
Unlike large courtyards and plaza
No areas of big rituals dramas
56
Map of hill c.
:
• 2 sections (western and eastern enclosures)
• Eastern Enclosure has balcony
• In between is a series of small walled enclosures, separated by
narrow twisting passage ways and boulders from natural
landscape
Many tight spaces to get through one enclosure to the next
The spaces between would be filled with Daga architecture
57
characteristics of the passageways in the Hill complex? (4~5)
• Steep staircases
• If were broader in shoulder stairs would be more difficult
• "medieval fortress"
• Symbolic – represent in between space between major enclosure
Moving through areas meant to impact senses, and reduce
world to small scale until you pass through and enter into
large enclosure (better air flow, brighter)
58
What about the Soapstone Brid Sculpture? (11~14)
Notable feature associated with eastern enclosure area
• 6-7 found in the eastern enclosure of hill complex
• Symbol on current flag of Modern Republic of Zimbabwe
• Excavated around 1900 – context info lost about them
• Some think used to stand on balcony area
• Of the 8 recovered 7 from hill complex and 1 from valley
complex
Another line of evidence that elite lived in valley as well
• Built onto and displayed onto pedestal (roughly same size of
person)
• Combine human and avian elements
Sculpture have beak, have human feet
• Thought to be associated kingly royal power, maybe represent
different kings/ dynasties
• May represent sacred dimension
Melding of human and animal feature have symbolic
meaning
• Precise significance is unknown
59
What about the Balcony at Hill complex? (30
• At eastern enclosure of the hill complex, around where most soapstone birds were found, and where they may have been originally displayed
• Architecture of hill complex had relationship with natural
landscape, was integrated, and incorporated
• Discrete elects of landscape and nature (like birds) associated with supernatural, divine, or sacred component of Zimbabwe
60
Characteristics about the Great Enclosure? (4)
* 250m long, 10m high, 5m thick
* Some décor around top most
* Geometric patterning midway on some walls
* Would have been integrated into overarching valley
61
What about the Great Encloser's outer wall? (9)
• Place for religious and administrative activities?
• Built to accommodate surplus population and religious and administrative activities as population grew
• Where the king was kept in seclusion?
• Contains central palace where king was kept in seclusion
Speculate kings descended hill and carried out
practices and ceremonies within the Great Enclosure
• Might represent building efforts of series of successive kings (was
built later)
• Maybe kings/elite moved down from hill and made new
structure to occupy
Represent later royal lineage
Enclosures within enclosures
Enclosure 1 – fits ~5 Daga huts
• Characterized by other walls marking other areas of Daga
architecture and several courtyards
62
What about the interior passage and the conical tower? (10)
• Conical tower = beehive shaped structure
• Narrow – sun rarely hits
• Temperature is cooler
• Passage ways starts 8ft wide and when reach end and see conical
tower is very very narrow
• Emphasizing secluded isolated space
• Is an in between space
• Conical Tower – interpreted as a granary or where feasting and ritual activities occurred
Shona ruler shows power and greatness through granary,
distributing grain (related to protection and generosity)
Find some pottery and ceramics all over Great Zimbabwe
• Cermaic evidence in great enclosure if limited to just serving
wear (to eat food out of - nothing for cooking)
• Leads to interpreting that cooking practices happened
elsewhere
• Peculiarity arrangement, conical tower make it difficult to explain
the Great enclosure just as mere residence
63
Foreign relationships of GZ? (2)
• Most luxurious artifacts found in great enclosure
• Intercontinental trade network
Connected to large Indian ocean trade routes
Pottery and glass from China (Ming Dynasty)
64
Maps of Great Zimbabwefacts : (6)
• Hill complex is oldest part of site
• Everyone lived in Daga houses, walls around determined social status
• Mini enclosures - Interpreted as private places
Separated people physically and symbolically
• Division between elite and on elite was not clear, not static over time
• Used by both categories at different times
Hill Complex Features:
• Organic character, fluid architecture
65
Great Enclosure facts(6):
* More recent feature at the site
* Used after the hill complex
* Largest structure
* Outer wall is most prominent
* transported to another kind of space/place
* Conical tower
66
Interpretation of the conical Tower
Interpreted as Grainery – storage related to tribute or tax paid to current rule
Linked to kings generosity
Evidence of feasting in the area (ceramic evidence, pottery sherds – serving wears only)
67
Valley Complexes facts (3)
* Series of smaller stone enclosures and ruins
* Ruins named after different explorers
* Several hypothesis about the space (likely not just occupied by commoners)
68
Interpretation about the Valley Complexes (3)
1. These structures were created as Great Zimbabwe increased in population. Inhabitants were of
lower socio-economic status, but those inside the smaller enclosures were probably still nobility.
Over flow pop, enclosures still higher status
King would still be living in hill complex
2. The Hill Complex, the Great Enclosure, and the Valley Complex were all occupied by successive
rulers who had to create new enclosures or structures
During period of GZ's decline
Last site to be abandoned
3. Huffman's "royal wives" hypothesis
Occupied by royal wives during GZ's peak
All royal wives lives lived together under authority of 1st wife
Develop hypothesized using ethnographic analogies
Critiqued
Suggestion from other archeologists that large presence of males in valley complex
69
What about the Maund Ruin(in the Valley complex)? (1)
• surveyed in 70s – not published
70
Economic acivities and trades:
• Main commodities were cold and ivory
• Iron, copper and tin also found in mines
• Granite significant for trade
• Smelters
Ore 9metal out of ground)
When smelt if it becomes metal
Metal refuse (garbage) = slags
Means were metal working
• Iron melting slags from Great Zimbabwe
• Gold melting crucibles from Great Zimbabwe
Crucibles to melt metal further down
People are not only mining for trade but local metal work
Copper and iron goods found around site
• Swahili networks
• Both Arabic and Portuguese docs show trade network
• Sofala = landing pad, large marketplace for trade goods coming from Islamic worlds and places like
China, India, Egypt
Is a trading post/harbor
• From there were brought inward
• Imports brought in = cloth, beads, glass containers, ceramics
Found mainly (but not all) in enclosures around GZ
Imports:
• Beads from India
• Glass from Mediterranean
• Porcelain from Persia and China
• Interpreted as evidence of long distance trade
• No evidence of markets that would have facilitated local buying/trading
• Majority of trade done by barter for benefit of ruling elite
• Access to trades route and knowledge could be leveraged s form of power
• Access to exotic goods might have been reason for commoners to pay tribute
• Once bring exotic good into place it acquires a local meaning
So not all linked to trade
Can change hands within GZ
• Contact with other cultures --> imitation
Imported Glass Beads:
• Picture is of glass beads recovered from the Hill Complex, but very similar and large caches have
been found in the Valley Complex
• Most important evidence found at renders ruins
Ceramic Bead from Hill Complex:
• Interpreted as part of stock of visiting Arab or Persian trader
• Part of jewelry or royal repository
Not less likely to be correct
• Exotic goods characterize enclosures of GZ
• Blue in white Ming dynasty porcelain from Great Enclosure and Valley Complex
Distinct blue and white coloring
• Chinese jade teapot from Renders Ruins
One of most famous finds
Floral motif around top
Hypothesized it was a gift to help facilitate trade
Rather than a luxury, this item may have been to facilitate trade and other relations
with Indian Ocean traders
Gold Mining and Metallurgy:
• Main exports of Great Zimbabwe = gold and ivory (from rhinos and elephants)
• People not just mining to trade, also for engaging in local production of metal objects
• Presence of highly trained craftsmen
• Gold nugget – form when traded
• Gold rhino – found at mapungwe
• Most mining conducted by lower class populations living near mines )in environs outside
perimeter walls)
• Metal work – high class and smelting done farther in, away from perimeter
• Similar builder king narrative
Pottery Production at Great Zimbabwe:
• High degree of standardization, imitation or continuity of potting practices
Vessels for similar functions
In size shape and finish
Maybe means apprenticeship program
• Production was major craft activity at the site
• Cooking, storage, serving
71
What about the soapstone sculpture?
• Soft stone
• Most famous – 8 birds, balcony eastern enclosure hill complex
• Decorative bowls, smalls pendants, column
• Unclear about complexity of division of labor
Could have been part time – not permanent structures present suggesting full time craft
production
72
What contributed to the GZ collapse/
1. Gold deposit began to dry up, the gold trade moved west and Great Zimbabwe was no longer
centrally located
2. The population became unsustainable
Pop equivalent to medieval London
3. Climatic uncertainty – severe drought or very heavy rains. Locusts or other pests. Land was over
exploited.
Environmental data suggests succession of severe droughts caused dispersal overtime
4. Some other reason, like war or violence.
Not much evidence + Minimal weaponry
