Zimbabwe Ruins free essay sample

Known as the place of the Sun People, the Great Zimbabwe Ruins have long been attributed to a Lost Civilisation who, according to High Sanusi Credo Mutwa, were a remnant of a sophisticated seafaring civilization. Lying in the interior of tropical southern Africa are hundreds of stone ruins Zimbabwe has the greatest concentration of prehistoric rock art in the world; fine paintings of animals and people in everyday life, ritual and myth, are scattered about the granite formations that pepper the country, seen most easily at Matopos Hills. The stone ruins from the ancient states that once held domain on this great plateau – Great Zimbabwe is just the best known of several hundred complexes. The largest of them, situated near Masvingo (previously called Fort Victoria), were known in the 16th century as Symbaoe; later they were called the Zimbabwe Ruins. They consist of a fortress on a hill, nicknamed the Acropolis, and an elliptical temple now referred to as Great Zimbabwe. All buildings were unroofed, and were constructed using dry-stone walling techniques, i. e. ithout any cement or mortar, meaning that the granite bricks had to be carefully shaped and trimmed so as to fit together like a jigsaw puzzle. The Great Zimbabwe Ruins are some of the largest and most ancient structures in sub-Saharan Africa. Estimates are that the city housed as many as 18,000 inhabitants at its peak. Built entirely of stone, the main ruins span more than 7km2. Its all in the name †¦ In the first theory, the word Zimbabwe could be a short form for ziimba remabwe or ziimba rebwe, a Shona (dialect: chiKaranga) term, which means the great or big house built of stone boulders. In the Karanga dialect of the Shona language, imba means a house or a building and ziimba, or zimba, mean a huge/big building or house. The word bwe or ibwe (singular, plural being mabwe) in the Karanga dialect means a stone boulder. Thus, a linguistic analysis of the word Zimbabwe clearly indicates that the origin of the word refers to the ancient city of Great Zimbabwe whose huge buildings were built of stone boulders. The Karanga-speaking Shona people are found around Great Zimbabwe in the odern-day province of Masvingo and have been known to have inhabited the region since the building of this ancient city. A second theory is that Zimbabwe is a contracted form of dzimba woye which means venerated houses in the Zezuru dialect of the Shona language. This term is usually reserved for chiefs houses or graves. It should also be noted that the Zezuru-speaking Shona people are found to the North-East of Great Zimbabwe, some 500 km away. A third theory is that Zimbabwe comes from the Shona dzimba dza mabwe meaning houses of stone, referring to the ruins of Great Zimbabwe Human culture goes back tens of thousands of years. Prehistoric contacts with southeast Africa It is beyond dispute that the Indian Ocean, including much of its African coastline, has been travelled for two thousand years or more. For instance, there is a record of Phoenicians circumnavigating Africa in about 600 BC. Evidence that a mass migration from the East Indies to Madagascar took place many centuries ago is provided by the relationship between Malay and a main language of that island. Arab traders were visiting Zanzibar and Dar-es-Salaam before the beginning of the Christian era, and around 60 AD the Periplus of the Erythraean Sea (in Greek) was compiled as a guide to East African, Arab and Indian sailors. In particular, it has been argued that the Fire Islands mentioned there, could well have been the volcanic Comoro group, because they are placed at the entrance to the Channel. The description in the Periplus continues further southwards, although names of rivers and harbours can no longer be identified with certainty. The gold of ancient Zimbabwe Many thousands of prehistoric gold-workings are scattered round the former territory of Southern Rhodesia over an area, in fact, similar to that containing the ruins. Some calculations indicate that more than 20 million ounces were extracted. Exploiters of such riches often prefer not to disclose their source, so it is quite credible that most of it ended up in the northern hemisphere. In fact, in the sixth century AD, Cosmas Indicopleustes of Alexandria referred to gold acquired by trade with southeast Africa (where winter occurred during northern hemisphere summer); so did Masudi and Ibn Al Wardy in the tenth century when it was apparently being exported from an Arab trading post at Sofala (on the coast, east of the Zimbabwe Ruins: the modern resort there still carries the old name). That gold could easily have been first detected in alluvial mud at the mouth of the Zambezi river, and perhaps also in the Sabi. Background Civilization in ancient Zimbabwe attained a level far superior to that of other areas occupied by Bantu-speaking peoples. Some walls were ten metres high; many incorporated chevron, herringbone or chequered patterns. A set of steps leading into the main temple constitutes a true work of art: each course curves out of the flanking walls into the entrance, with the penetration of the curves increasing as the steps are ascended. The city walls were constructed using dry-stone techniques, with granite stones being carefully shaped for a precise fit. The story goes that the thirteenth century mambo (king), was responsible for these famous mortarless walls. It was to him that the people paid tribute in stone and added bit-by-bit to the defensive structures. Consequently, the king was nicknamed the stone man and upon his death a spirit medium carved a stylised bird image out of stone. This has become a national symbol of modern day Zimbabwe and is seen in every roadside curio collection. The original seven carved birds excavated from the valley enclosures, can now be seen at the museum. The city consists of three distinct structural groups and was declared a World Heritage Site in 1986. The three complexes are: the Acropolis (or Hill Complex), the Valley Enclosures and the Great Enclosure. The Acropolis on the hill was the royal enclosure. In all probably this structure was built first and there is evidence suggesting that it was occupied for three hundred years The most prominent portion is the Great Enclosure and speculation has it that this was the royal harem, a fact that makes the structure all the more impressive, even if only amorally so. The inhabitants of early Zimbabwe were skilled water engineers, constructing dams feeding conduits and irrigation channels. Regularly spaced terraces, which can still be viewed today, were carved into hills in the northeast of Zimbabwe (where rainfall is comparatively high, making this region suitable for agriculture). The ancient gold mines, too, required a measure of engineering skill, containing horizontal as well as deep vertical shafts. Furnaces, crucibles and tools found at various sites indicate that the gold ornaments and jewellery accompanying them, were produced locally. Geography Great Zimbabwe has a nice moderate climate and fine fertile soil, with a habitable environment. The city is located in south eastern Africa between Botswana, Zambia and Mozambique. There are rivers flowing through Great Zimbabwe as well as caves with San paintings which are similar to cave paintings. There is an acropolis and the Hill complex. The Valley Enclosures and the Great Enclosures are also situated in Great Zimbabwe. The People The people of Great Zimbabwe were a tribe of Shona people. There were also Bantu people who were either Khoisan settlers or immigrants from Central Africa. Their religion was that they believed in two kinds of spirits Shave spirits and Vadzimu spirits. The Shave spirits are connected with neighboring people and the Vadzimu spirits are considered to be like ancestor spirits. The people also believed in good and bad spirits. The bad spirits have to do with witchcraft while the good spirits may inspire individual talents along with healing, music, or artistic ability. They believed that they could summon the spirits of their ancestors by doing something like witchcraft. They also did traditional dances. The highest of Great Zimbabwes walls soar 32 feet above the surrounding savanna. Structures and Buildings The magnificent structures were built by the Shona people of Great Zimbabwe. The Great Enclosure is the most impressive of all the stone buildings. All the stone structures in Great Zimbabwe were constructed with granite blocks and amazingly without the use of mortar. This complex of ruins from which the modern nation of Zimbabwe took its name is derived from the Shona word dzimba dza mabwe meaning houses of stone. There is an Upper Enclosure and a Lower Enclosure. The large stone walls were built for the king and also for defense. There were also stone monoliths (stone towers) in the Upper Enclosure. Each of the monoliths once bore a carved Zimbabwe bird, which symbolized power. Soapstone Birds In addition to architecture, Great Zimbabwes most famous works of art are the eight birds carved of soapstone that were found in its ruins. The birds surmount columns more than a yard tall and are themselves on average sixteen inches tall. The sculptures combine both human and avian elements, substituting human features like lips for a beak and five-toed feet for claws. Excavated at the turn of the century, it is known that six of the sculptures came from the Eastern Enclosure of the Hill complex, but unfortunately their precise arrangement can only be surmised. Scholars have suggested that the birds served as emblems of royal authority, perhaps representing the ancestors of Great Zimbabwes rulers. Although their precise significance is still unknown, these sculptures remain powerful symbols of rule in the modern era, adorning the flag of Zimbabwe as national emblems. Archaeologists In the 19th century, a young German archaeologist named Carl Mauch visited the ruins of Great Zimbabwe. In 1881, he was eager to find the fabled ruins of Ophir. During August, Carl Mauch met a German trader who told him of large stone ruins which he thought could not have been built by the blacks. A few months later, some local tribesmen led Mauch to the site. He was convinced that the ruins of Great Zimbabwe were not built by Africans. He said that the structures were great stone buildings with not even a single straight line in them. He also described I do not think that I am far wrong if I suppose that the ruin on top of the hill is a copy of Solomons temple or a copy of Queen of Sheba while she stayed there. In 1928, a British archaeologist called Gertrude Caton Thompson excavated the ruins of Great Zimbabwe, not believing that these stone buildings were built by Africans. The Great Enclosure This is a model of the Great Enclosure which lies 17 miles from Masvingo and is the remains of an extensive town that was built near 1200 AD. It has an outer layer that rises about 32 feet above its surrounding ground and nearly 17 feet thick at the bottom. Almost 1 million blocks of granite were used in its construction. History The civilization of Great Zimbabwe was a large Iron Age settlement that began around the 11th century and ended in the 16th century. In the 11th century, the Shona people established a small village on a hilltop. People originally got their wealth from cattle herding, but in the 12th century, the hilltop village discovered and started mining gold on the plateau which is now central Zimbabwe. During the 13th century, the hilltop village developed into a major gold trading centre. The village grew larger and into a city and its Shona rulers, profiting from the gold trade, raised a large army to expand their power and built complex stone structures that gave the city its name. By the 14th century, Great Zimbabwe had dominated a state north of the Limpopo River. When the 15th century began, Great Zimbabwe had about 10,000 to 20,000 inhabitants and was at its cultural height. In the early 16th century, the Europeans arrived for their desire of gold and demolished this trade.