Great Zimbabwe, Mashonaland, Rhodesia: An account of two years' examination work in 1902-4 on behalf of the government of RhodesiaHall, R. N. (Richard Nicklin)
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Great Zimbabwe, Mashonaland, Rhodesia: An account of two years' examination work in 1902-4 on behalf of the government of Rhodesia
Hall, R. N. (Richard Nicklin)
Great Zimbabwe (Extinct city); Zimbabwe -- Antiquities
(3) On still lower levels were found the floors and lower portions of
the sides of huts made of a red-coloured cement without poles fixed in
the cement sides. This is not ordinary daga. The inside faces of the
walls, as well as the floors which are beautifully smooth, have been
baked with fire, and fragments will ring almost like metal, portions
having become white with the heat. This cement has in most instances
been faced with a thin yellow glaze. On the floors are quantities of
small rims very neatly bevelled, with three or four parallel faces on
the top, the ends of the rims being rounded off. The bevelled rims
are from 1½ in. to 4 in. wide. The roofs of these buildings were
supported by poles inserted in the cement floors outside the huts at
the distance in many instances of 1 ft. The posts round the outside of
the huts were from 1 ft. 6 in. to 2 ft. 4 in. apart, and, judging by
their butt-ends, which have been preserved by the cement, were made of
hard woods, including mahobohobo, which is plentiful at Zimbabwe. The
best examples of these huts, of which some score can be seen, are in
No. 1 Enclosure in the Elliptical Temple, in the North-West Enclosure,
Acropolis, and on the cleared section of floor in the Western Temple.
These huts stand on cement platforms without stone foundations, and the
platforms are about 1 ft. high, and the top edges are neatly bevelled.
In two of these remains at Zimbabwe have been found gold dust, iron
spring pincers with flux on the top, pottery, gold scorifiers, and the
crudely-shaped soapstone moulds.
Old pioneers assert that these buildings are of Makalanga construction.
The Makalangas themselves claim these as having been built by their
people in a very remote past. Similar buildings, but without traces
of gold-smelting, are known to have been built by the Makalanga in
different parts of Southern Mashonaland.
Mr. Alfred Drew, Native Commissioner for Victoria district, who
arrived in this country in 1890, and is a recognised authority on old
Makalanga buildings, expresses his entire agreement with the above
descriptions of old native clay huts, also with the conclusions arrived
at concerning them.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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