In Bantu, the stone buildings are called Zimbabwe, hence the name of the site and kingdom. A stone structure, a big fence-a high loop wall and tower-is the largest ancient relic in sub-Saharan Africa. The city's prosperity benefits from agriculture, gold mines and trade networks extending to the East African coast. It began to decline in the15th century, probably because of the exhaustion of its gold resources or overpopulation, and the Shona people moved northward to a new location in Mutapa. Several soap stone statues found in Great Zimbabwe represent a bird, and this creature appears on the national flag of modern Zimbabwe today. Great Zimbabwe was listed as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO on 1986.
Zimbabwe plateau
The kingdom of Zimbabwe, with Greater Zimbabwe as its capital, was founded by the Shona people, a Bantu-speaking people who first migrated to southern Africa in the 2nd century. The exact scope of this kingdom is unknown, except that its center is located in the middle of Mashonaland (northern Zimbabwe). The Zimbabwean Plateau lies between limpopo river in the south and Zambezi River in the north. It is composed of temperate grasslands, without tsetse flies. Although the rainfall is unpredictable, at least one drought has threatened it for ten years.
Gold is easily obtained from surface deposits and shallow mines in Zimbabwe Plateau and Zambezi River tributaries.
In the Millennium before Great Zimbabwe reached its peak, the overall history of the region was as follows. Since the 3rd century BC, there is evidence that sheep, goats and cattle have been domesticated, although this practice did not prevail until 1 century. Of course, a small group of nomadic hunter-gatherers had lived in this area long before Shona herdsmen arrived with their livestock and ironmaking technology. In fact, these two groups will continue to compete for territory until modern times.
From the 7th century to the 9th century, the mode of community construction continued until the arrival of European colonists in the 6th century. People live in mud houses or stone houses. Make simple pottery, make clothes and leather from animal skins, make jewelry from copper and gold, and make weapons and farm tools from iron. These commodities are also traded in this area, and salt is a valuable and needed commodity in Zimbabwe. Glass beads and shells were also found, which are evidence of trade with the coast, even in such an early era.
The accumulated archaeological evidence shows that a city has been engaged in agriculture (especially sorghum, millet, pumpkin and watermelon), animal husbandry, hunting and local trade (using local iron, copper and gold mines) since 10 century. With the prosperity of these communities and the expansion of their trade network to the large-scale trade center along the Swahili coast, they were able to build more impressive stone tablets from the second millennium. Greater Zimbabwe, located about 30 kilometers (65,438+09 miles) southeast of modern Masvingo, is the largest of more than 300 iron age stone ruins in the region, including modern Zimbabwe and Mozambique today.
architectural feature
Hill comprehensive building
Great Zimbabwe is located on a natural hillside 80 meters (262 feet) high, which is not only an important place for holding ceremonies, but also an easy place to defend. The evidence that few people lived in the castle, sometimes called Hill Complex, can be traced back to the 5th century (according to the date of radioactive carbon), but it was interrupted when people reached the Iron Age in the 1 1 to12nd century, and the material culture there was restored with greater intensity, which was different from the previous residents. This complex may play a role as a religious place in the future, and may be used as a cemetery for chiefs. Or, it may always play the role of a religious place, where ancestors are worshipped. However, there are still remains of mud houses based on stones on the Acropolis, which may have been used as royal residences. At some time in the middle of13rd century, the hill complex was surrounded by granite dry stone walls as thick as 19-39 inches. This wall contains natural granite boulders.
Big shell
From about 1000 (if not earlier), the valley below the castle was also inhabited. Dominant is the large oval stone wall of13-14th century, with a partial thickness of 5.5 meters (18 feet) and a height of 9.7 meters (32 feet). The walls are slightly inclined inward to increase stability, and regular passages pass through the bottom to discharge the horizontal internal space. There is also a main entrance facing the Hill Complex and other buildings, which seems to exclude any military or defensive function of the wall.
Inside is the second wall, which leads to a tall stone tablet or tower along the outline of the outer wall, so a narrow corridor is formed in some places. The tower is conical, with a width of 5m (16ft) and a height of10m. The city walls and towers are made of dry granite with precise directions, and are often called the Great Wall.
The Great Wall will become a powerful symbol of the prestige and authority of the rulers of Great Zimbabwe.
The total circumference of this building is 250 meters (820 feet), and its purpose is not clear, but it may be a royal residence, and the tower is used as a granary (grain is a common tribute used by people). The most luxurious handicrafts in Great Zimbabwe are found here, with Hill complex. However, the special arrangement of walls, internal platforms and stone buttresses can hardly be interpreted as just houses. No matter what its exact function is, most scholars believe that the Great Wall will become a powerful symbol of the prestige and authority of the rulers of Great Zimbabwe.
Valley relics
There are many other isolated stone buildings surrounded by high walls nearby, and there are many large round mud houses and the remains of column ovaries (earlier than stone houses). The third area is called valley ruins. The diameter of mud huts is usually 10 m (32.8 ft), so the height of thatched roofs will reach 6 m (19.7 ft) or more.
The number and geographical distribution of these relics show that with the prosperity of the city, the population will increase. Covering an area of 1700 mu (700 hectares), such a huge building must have a ruling elite, and perhaps a central authority, which rules the total population of about 18000 people. This site is similar to the iron bells traditionally associated with rulers found in Sabah and Ingombeiled in the middle reaches of Zambezi River, indicating that they are related to the contemporary culture in this area.
* * * and society
Like other places in southern Africa, Zimbabwean society is dominated by male parents who compete with their peers for power and influence. One of the main ways to gain this power is to own cattle. The number of wives of a man is another indicator of success, because it corresponds to the labor force at his disposal. Women are required to sow, care for, harvest, prepare food and fetch water. Unmarried men hunt, graze and make clothes. A person without his own property can become a family member of a person with property, who allows them to assist in grazing in exchange for food and shelter. This dependence is another sign of the success of men in Zimbabwean society.
The leader of a tribe may be the richest person, although this position is usually hereditary among the Shona people. Chiefs have no army to support his authority, so it is likely that most chiefs try to accommodate the opinions of senior men and subordinate chiefs in the communities they nominally control. Archaeological evidence of fire losses in some places shows that conflicts occasionally occur between competing groups. At least, the stone tablet is evidence of some kind of political authority, but it is unknown what it is made of except that it is rich enough to control enough labor to build such a huge structure.
The boy who herded sheep in the tribe was educated with his peers for several months in isolation from the community. Boys are taught hunting skills, must endure physical hardships and endurance tests, and are taught tribal traditions and customs. At the end of the training period, they were circumcised and given a new name, which means that these boys have become men. Girls also receive collective education to prepare them for their future roles as wives and mothers. The girl got married and left home to live with her husband's family, and her father gave her a dowry.
trade
Even the non-African goods found by businessmen on the East African coast 400 kilometers (250 miles) away prove that Greater Zimbabwe has trade ties with other countries further away. Thanks to gold from the Zimbabwean kingdom, Kilwa and its outpost in modern Mozambique, Sofala, have become the most prosperous Swahili trading posts. This kind of gold is easily obtained from the surface sediments of Zimbabwe Plateau and tributaries of Zambezi River. When these resources are exhausted, the open pit mine is dug to a depth of 30 meters (100 feet). Gold, ivory and copper (usually invested in X-shaped ingots), a special luxury, were exchanged by China for painted pottery from Persia in the Ming Dynasty. There is no market, and this kind of transaction is conducted by barter for the benefit of the ruling elite. Therefore, there is ample evidence that this cross-regional trade has brought wealth to the city not only in the discovery of foreign luxury goods, but also in architecture and art.
art
Unfortunately for future generations, great zimbabwe ruins was systematically plundered as something of value during the activities of European colonists in this area in A.D. 1890. Cultural relics that enter the public domain almost always have no information about the background in which they were found.
Many finely carved soapstone statues have been found, including eight birds perched on a boulder more than one meter (39 inches) high. This kind of bird is called Zimbabwe bird, which is different from any bird in nature. It appears on today's national flag. Handicrafts such as soap stone statues suggest the religious nature of great zimbabwe ruins. Other sculptures include highly stylized images of cows and naked women. Make simple unglazed pottery of very good quality-usually covered with graphite and then polished. There are gourd-shaped vessels decorated with unique shadow triangles, small disks with unknown uses, cabin models and so on.
Decline and subsequent history
The exact reason for the decline of Greater Zimbabwe is unclear, but the most likely explanation is competition from hostile countries and gold mining. Overpopulation may also lead to some problems, such as overuse of land and deforestation, which may fall into crisis due to a series of droughts. Of course, in the15th century, any contact with coastal trade stopped. In the second half of that century, the Shona people migrated hundreds of kilometers to the north, forming a new country-the Kingdom of Mutapa. Therefore, Great Zimbabwe was largely abandoned, and it was not "rediscovered" until the arrival of Europeans in the late19th century. Blinded by racism, they can't convince themselves that such a place may have been built by black Africans. The Phoenicians built a city, thousands of miles away from their hometown, and physically as far away from the ocean as possible. However, archaeological evidence proves that Greater Zimbabwe was built by indigenous African blacks.
The territory that once belonged to Zimbabwe is still inhabited, but it was conquered by Ndebele when the Kingdom of Matabele was founded in the19th century. By the beginning of the 20th century, the area was controlled by British and South African companies. 19 1 1 year, two new states were established: Northern Rhodesia and Southern Rhodesia. The latter country will become a modern country of Zimbabwe in 1980.