Great Zimbabwe

A Late Iron Age site in southeastern Zimbabwe, by far the largest and most elaborate of the dry-stone constructions to which the term dzimbahwe is applied. After an Early Iron Age phase of 500-900 AD, the main sequence of occupation began around 1000 when Shona speakers occupied Zimbabwe Hill and began building stone walls around 1300. Great Zimbabwe was the capital of the Shona empire from 1270-1450 AD, which stretched from the Zambezi River to the northern Transvaal of South Africa and eastern Botswana. There was a class system and the kings accumulated wealth through trade, attested by items such as glass vessels and beads, pottery, and porcelain. Gold was the principal export; Great Zimbabwe appears to have been at the center of a network of related sites through which control was exercised over the gold-producing areas. Archaeologically, the culture is called the Zimbabwe Tradition and is divided into Mapungubwe, Zimbabwe, and Khami phases. In the 15th century the site declined with trade and political power shifting to the north near the Zambezi Valley.

This impressive site, located near Fort Victoria in southeastern Zimbabwe, is by far the largest and most elaborate of many late Iron Age dry-stone constructions to which the Shona name Zimbabwe (meaning ‘stone houses’ or ‘venerated houses’) is applied. After an Early Iron Age phase (see Gokomere) the main sequence of occupation began at the commencement of the later Iron Age in about the 11th century ad, when the archaeological material resembles that from Gumanye. Stone wall construction began around ad 1300, but the best work of this type dates to between the 14th and 15th centuries. Despite claims to the contrary, there is no reason to attribute to this architecture an origin other than a purely indigenous one among the ancestors of the recent Shona population. It is reasonable to assume that Great Zimbabwe, at least at the period of its maximum prosperity, was the capital of an extended polity. The large quantity of imported luxury items recovered from the site indicates that trade formed the basis of this prosperity: glass vessels and beads, pottery and porcelain were imported, while gold was presumably the principal export. Great Zimbabwe appears to have been at the centre of a network of related sites through which control was exercised over the gold-producing areas; cattle-herding was the foundation of the domestic economy. Shona oral traditions link Great Zimbabwe with the cult of Mbire, their supreme god. In the 15th century the site declined, trade and political power shifting to a more northerly focus near the Zambezi Valley.