The Great Zimbabwe - Research Paper

Introduction

Great Zimbabwe is a city made of stone-walled structures at the south end of the Zimbabwean plateau and is 700km south-east of the Victoria Falls. The site sits between Limpopo and Zambezi rivers covering an area of about 1800 acres with long curved stone walls and conical-shaped towers with no mortar support or join. During the Iron Age, Great Zimbabwe is Zimbabwe kingdom's capital. The administration of the site is by National Museums and Monuments of Zimbabwe (NMMZ). Great Zimbabwe surroundings is by hills, and the rains are higher than surrounding regions and frequently occur due to continuous southeasterly winds. Also, the hills offer easy to till soils for farmers and plenty of timber and firewood due to its sandy soils between the hills (Ndoro, 2005). This paper will seek to describe the nature of the monument regarding archaeological background, architectural details, and dry stones and Dhaka structures; the monument's heritage; preservation of the monument and using the art historical concepts of style and cultural biography to evaluate the monument.

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Nature of the Monument

Archaeological Background

Archaeological evidence suggests that the site was a center for trade internationally for gold and ivory. Domestically, however, the rulers of the kingdom brought in stone and artistic masonry skills from Mapungubwe province in Zimbabwe. Great Zimbabwe is an archaeological site with the term Zimbabwe derived from a Shona language 'dzimba dzembabwe' meaning a house of stone. The monument began construction in the 11th century up to 15th century, and the occupants were the Shona, the largest ethnic group in Zimbabwe until 1450. Seemingly, the Great Zimbabwe site grows in population which links with the decline of Mapungubwe due to the availability of gold and climate change in Great Zimbabwe. However, the population in Great Zimbabwe begins to decline by the end of the 15th century due to the decline in trade, gold mines been complete, water shortages, and emerging of Mutapa and Torwa states. Also, Nyatsimba Mutota, a ruler from Great Zimbabwe establishes a dynasty namely, the kingdom of Mutapa which overshadows Great Zimbabwe by 1450 (Pikirayi & Chirikure, 2011). Figure 1 below shows the conical towers of Great Zimbabwe while figure two shows an aerial view of the Great Zimbabwe monument (Demerdash, n.d).

Figure 1 showing conical towers of Great Zimbabwe

Figure 2 showing an aerial view of Great Zimbabwe, Zimbabwe

Architectural Details

The build and design of the Great Zimbabwe stones involve the consistent use of Dhaka and curvilinear structure. Dhaka, a staple for Zimbabwe architecture, is a mix-up clay soil for binding naturally weathered stone, granite and gravel mass. The structures were however altered throughout two centuries to meet the tastes and needs of the occupants. Also, the stones structures lean on each other and not interlock, and the Dhaka use ensures blending of the stones into the landscape. Great Zimbabwe is categorized into four areas namely the Great Enclosure, the Valley Ruins, the Hill Ruins and peripheral settlement ("Great Zimbabwe [ushistory.org]," 2018). The Hill ruins, on completion in 1250, is a cave which is a sacred site and at a point accommodation for the ruler of the kingdom and his family. In 1450, the Great Enclosure was completed which consists of a 32 feet high wall with a small inside wall which a narrow passageway which leads to the conical-shaped towers. The Valley Ruins offers evidence that the site was a commercial hub for exchange and long-distance trade with broken pieces of porcelain from China, coins from Arabia, and beards from Asia found at the site (Massie, 2017). The peripheral settlements are within and outside the monument have terraces and Dhaka structures where most of the population, nearly 90 %, lives (Ndoro, 2005). Figure 3 shows the Great Enclosure entrance of Great Zimbabwe and figure 4 below show the narrow passage between the walls in the Great Enclosure (Demerdash, n.d.)

Figure 3

Figure 4

Dry-Stone Structure and Dhaka Structures

The dry-stone walls are constructed using timber, dolerite, granite, and Dhaka .the walls provide boundary walls and retaining walls for terracing purposes. The foundation of the some Great Zimbabwe walls is on granite bedrock which slopes downwards from the face wall while others are on Dhaka which is used as a footing level. Four classes of wall styles are used by the size and shape of face blocks. The classes include class P walling for irregular face blocks forming the wall, class Q walling of rectangular-shaped face blocks, class R walling for a combination of class P and Q blocks with irregular and triangular shaped stones, and class PQ walling is an intermediate style which has characteristics of both class P and Q. when wet, Dhaka, a clay soil, was used to in construction of round houses with shaped fittings on the floor and walls. The structures are beneath the ground covered by vegetation and soil debris enclosed by dry stone walls to divide the available spaces which form the courtyards (Ndoro, 2005).

Monument's Heritage

Great Zimbabwe is a symbol of national unity country through banknotes, the country's flag and the coat of arms. In 1888, the British settled and begin colonizing Zimbabwe while making efforts to suppress beliefs that it is the Africans who constructed Great Zimbabwe. However, Paul Sinclair, an archaeologist writes," "I was the archaeologist stationed at Great Zimbabwe. I was told by the then-director of the Museums and Monuments organization to be extremely careful about talking to the press about the origins of the Zimbabwe state. I was told that the museum service was in a difficult situation, that the government was pressurizing them to withhold the correct information. Censorship was a daily occurrence. Once a member of the Museum Board of Trustees threatened me with losing my job if I said publicly that blacks had built Zimbabwe" (Demerdash, n.d.). The monument acts as a symbol of resistance and a struggle for freedom from colonial rule throughout the war years in the 1960s and 1970s until Zimbabwe, known as Rhodesia then, becomes independent in 1980 figure 5 illustrates the banknote of Zimbabwe which features a conical tower at Great Zimbabwe and figure 6 shows the national flag of Zimbabwe.

Figure 5-banknote of Rhodesia, now Zimbabwe in 1995

Figure 6- Zimbabwe flag

Preservation of the Monument

Factors such as tourism and the Dhaka structures continue to deteriorate the monument's integrity which overall affects the landscape presentation and fails to present the monument as a unified entity (Fontein, 2016). In 1986, a monitoring system of the dry-stone wall was introduced to identify and record areas threatened with collapse, identify causes of the deterioration and measuring movements and structural instabilities at the site. The system involves the installation and fixing of glass wires to the suspected areas to detect movements in the in-plane upon which a wall's stability was evaluated through the absence or presence of broken wires. The system has the advantage of little skill required and its easy usage but has the disadvantages of the inability to easily compute movement magnitudes and false movement readings when animals and tourists break the glass wire. Research carried out at the site by the University of Zimbabwe through funding by NMMZ in 1989 reveals that buttress entrances require immediate attention as it showed movements. Alternative solutions were taken namely use of concrete steps to provide stability for constructing steps, dismantling and restoring the buttress entrances, use of horizontal steps to prevent the wall from sliding on the granite outcrop, and the use of dowelling blocks which are fixed on the granite to create a stable base (Ndoro, 2005).

Style Concept

Styles P and Q associates with architectural features of Great Zimbabwe. Style P involves irregular blocks in size and shape that lay horizontally from the longer dimension, common in rocky and sloppy terrains with a ratio of 3:5 for the height/ base width, free-standing walls, and foundation with no trenches. Style Q, on the other hand, which is a common wall class involves rectangular even block walls, walls ends are round, ration exceeds 2:5 for height/base width, common in low-lying ground, consistent batter with more markings upwards, enclosure walls that are prevailing and free-standing, and frequent trenching and its leveling(Ndoro,2005).

Cultural Biography Concept

Trade and artifacts unearthed make Great Zimbabwe a symbol of African culture development. Through trade, the monument is seen as an important link to countries such as China and Arab countries for international trade in gold and ivory. Also, wealth accumulation is through cattle and livestock production, and it is evidenced that the culture spreads to the western parts of Zimbabwe to where production of pottery is present . The artifacts unearthed, which create a distinction of Great Zimbabwe from other iron age sites, a distinctive sculpture of a group of soapstone birds sitting atop three-feet tall and are 14-inches high. The birds have each a different mark which is not locally identifiable. The sculptures are used in rituals to hold and mark tallies of the dead thus showing numerous ancestors using it (Ndoro, 1997). Conclusively, continuous protection and preservation of the site by the Zimbabwe government and NMMZ should be done and implemented as it is a national treasure and a symbol of struggle for freedom and independence from the British colonial rule while unifying the country by being included in the bank notes, court of arms and the national flag of Zimbabwe.

Glossary

Style Concept

According to the oxford dictionary, style refers to "a form of artistic expressions such as writing or painting or architecture. "Style results from choices of a maker which cannot be avoided by artists. However, natural objects do not have a style. The artists currently are careful and conscious of their styles unlike in the past as the artists were described as "unselfconscious" critical analysis of visual art suggest art work treatment from its iconography (collection of portraits and illustrations). Regarding individual style, Chinese style, for example, allows expression through art on social and political views while East Asia portrays calligraphy (executing of visual art through tip instruments or brush).

Cultural Biography Concept

The culture biography concepts express the element of culture in art history through painting, furniture, ceramics, and architecture. Also, art can be expressed in culture through music, spoken word, poems, and film creativity and imagination, through culture, art is seen as a source of pride, communication, and immortality. There is beauty in the art which helps inform the culture of the people, acts as a national resource, and shows evidence on the effect of art on a country's society, education, health, and wellbeing. For example, Great Zimbabwe is a national resource and a cultural heritage which acts as a symbol of remembrance of freedom from colonial rule.

References

Demerdash, N. Great Zimbabwe - Smarthistory. Retrieved from https://smarthistory.org/great-zimbabwe/

Fontein, J. (2016). The silence of Great Zimbabwe: Contested landscapes and the power of heritage. Routledge.

Great Zimbabwe [ushistory.org]. (2018). Retrieved from http://www.ushistory.org/civ/7d.asp

Innocent Pikirayi & Shadreck Chirikure (2011) Debating Great Zimbabwe, Azania: Archaeological Research in Africa, 46:2, 16-34 DOI: 10.1080/0067270X.2011.580149

Massie, G. A. (2017). Frobenius' archaeological photography at great Zimbabwe: activating the archive as a creative space of engagement (Doctoral dissertation).

Ndoro, W. (1997)...