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)
History
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
Ruins. Rounded. Angular.
Elliptical Temple 23 1
(One other entrance is partly
rounded and partly angular.)
Acropolis 31 4
(One of the angular entrances is
of obviously later construction.)
No. 1 Ruins 10 1
(One entrance is partly rounded
and partly angular.)
Valley Ruins 33 4
BUTTRESSES
Ruins. Rounded. Angular.
Elliptical Temple 24 Nil.
(Two buttresses are partly angular
and partly rounded)
Acropolis 19 3
No. 1 Ruins 8 Nil.
Valley Ruins * *
* All rounded except three as so far discovered.
All ends of walls which are still intact are rounded, there being only
a few examples so far discovered of angular-ended walls.
[Illustration: North Entrance N^o. 7 ENCLOSURE Elliptical Temple
W. _Divisional Walls_ B. _Buttresses_ s.s _Steps_ P. _Portcullis
Grooves_]
The above figures show conclusively that these rounded features,
excluding the ends of walls which are almost always rounded, are in a
far greater proportion than 146 to 13 which are angular, and at least
three of the latter, if not others, for reasons explained elsewhere,
can be shown to have been erected at a much later period, one being
built upon a floor of common Makalanga daga, and another débris
containing ordinary Kafir articles of no very great age.
All the entrances in the main outer walls, save one, are rounded, the
few angular entrances being found, with two exceptions, in slighter
walls, mainly divisional, some of which were erected later possibly to
suit the immediate convenience of later occupiers, for divisional walls
had been removed, reconstructed, or entirely fresh ones erected in new
directions in almost every ruin, and in some instances the foundations
of the later walls cross at right or oblique angles over the reduced
summits of older divisional walls.
Walls of the earliest period widen out as they near entrances. This
feature is not present in plumb and angular walls of later construction.
There is no evidence whatever in the rounded entrances that they were
ever covered over, but in two angular entrances on the Acropolis the
butts of the broken slate lintels still remain in the side walls.
Although there are not sufficient proofs to enable one to definitely
determine whether the rounded entrances as a rule were once covered
over, some of the evidences to negative the covering in of rounded
entrances may be noted:—
(_a_) Had such entrances been roofed in, the collapse of the lintels
must have brought down far more of the walls than have fallen.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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