1. SOAPSTONE ARTICLES
SIR JOHN LUBBOCK once observed that one antiquarian relic found by itself was no testimony as to any particular ancient occupation of the spot at which it was discovered, but that the discovery of many identical relics in one place, and under identical conditions, might be considered as evidence of such occupation. Single specimens are known to have been transported from one hemisphere to another during the course of three or four thousand years.
At Great Zimbabwe it is not, except in a few instances, with single relics that we have to deal, but with those found in tens and scores, practically in identical and corresponding locations, and under exactly similar conditions. So regularly are these relics situated on certain floors that, with a few exceptions explained later, one is always certain as to the class of relics which will be met with on any particular floor which is being cleared. Of course, these relics and “finds” are not distributed generally on their respective floors, and frequently the realisation of one’s hopes of meeting with them were greatly deferred, while on other occasions half an hour’s work yielded them in quantities. Still, when once found, they were generally abundant—at least, on those floors that were expected to yield them.
SOAPSTONE BEAMS WITH BIRDS, ZIMBABWE
South African Museum, Cape Town
A small quantity of articles having claim to some antiquity were found out of relative position to the bulk of similar relics. For instance, phalli, which were found in quantities on certain floors in the eastern half only of the Elliptical Temple, also at the Eastern and Western Temples on the hill, and at Philips Ruins in the Valley of Ruins, have, in some few instances, been found singly, but most frequently fractured or damaged, in positions which could not have been those occupied by any of the ancient inhabitants. Single specimens are sometimes found in the débris piles immediately outside the entrances to the three temples and Philips Ruins. Those found lower in such piles were no doubt thrown out by old native peoples who would not be aware of their purpose. Some of these have been converted into amulets or charms, while others are known to have been used for making daha (hemp) pipe-bowls. Those phalli found in the higher portions of such débris piles are shown by the stratification of the débris to have been brought out by the numerous relic hunters by whom the excavated soil from the interiors was deposited on these débris heaps outside. This experience extends also to almost all the more antique relics found at Zimbabwe.
Section of Floors of part of
No 15 ENCLOSURE
Elliptical Temple
looking North-West & shewing locations of “Finds” 11902–31.
The phalli found at Zimbabwe must now amount to at least one hundred, of which more than half have been found recently. It is very probable that on further examination of the lower floors of these four ruins other specimens will be met with. The phalli found vary in size and design. The largest (Pl. I., fig. 6) stood 7½ in. high, was perfectly plain, but highly polished. The smallest were seven-eighths of an inch long, but each had its base bevelled and a ring carved round the summit. Except where the base is fractured, all stand erect on any tolerably flat surface. The bases show signs of extensive scratchings, as if they had been constantly moved. The average heights of the phalli are from two to four inches. Round the bases of many of the recently discovered phalli are small bevels, sometimes in two circles. The majority were unadorned, but their identity was unmistakable. The more ornate specimens bore the “female breast and furrow” pattern, one had chevron pattern round its bevelled base, several showed the circumcisional markings, and on the top of one (Pl. I., figs. 12 and 13) were carved in relief rosettes formed of a circle completely surrounded by eight small circles, the latter a pattern which is frequently found on soapstone beams and bowls, and is also used to form the eyes of one of the soapstone birds found at Zimbabwe.
Worked and decorated soapstone beams have been found only in four localities within the ruins’ area, viz. (1) the Elliptical Temple, on the summit and at the bases of the main east and south-east wall within the limits of the chevron pattern; (2) also in quantities on the summit and at the base of the circular granite cement platform which lies to the north of the Conical Tower; (3) on the summit and at the bases of the north wall of the Western Temple on the hill; (4) on the summit and at the bases of the arc wall of the Eastern Temple, decorated with dentelle pattern and facing east; (5) on or near the two granite cement platforms in the interior, and on the site of Mr. Bent’s “altar,” also in the same temple; and (6) on the summit and at the bases of the arc wall facing east at Philips Ruins, the fragments of beams found at this latter place being exceedingly numerous. Splinters of soapstone beams are found in the soil in the larger ruins, showing that some of the beams fell from their position and became fractured after the filling in with soil which took place at least one hundred and fifty years ago. Few, if any, worked soapstone beams were found in any of the Valley Ruins, save at Philips. All beams have been worked, and the marks of the tools and their sizes can still be seen on many; some are also carved, the chevron pattern predominating.
PLATE 1.
Methuen & Co
— “Relics & Finds” —
Great Zimbabwe 1902–3
A portion of a soapstone beam, 2 ft. 6 in. long and 1 ft. 5 in. in circumference, formed part of what is known to have been a very tall and slender pillar, which was once surmounted by a bird. This stood on the north wall of the Western Temple on the Acropolis, and was found in 1902. The beam is completely covered with most delicately carved chevron pattern.
A carved soapstone beam, 11 ft. high, which showed signs of once being taller, stood on the platform of the Western Temple on the Acropolis. It fell about 1890, and broke into two parts, and these Mr. Bent removed.
A section of a soapstone beam (Pl. I., fig. 3), carved into rounds resembling a chain of connected balls and decorated with spiral lines, was found in No. 15 Enclosure of the Elliptical Temple, on the lowest floor and 2 ft. below the foundation of the north-east wall of that enclosure.
A curiously carved piece of soapstone (Pl. I., fig. 2), evidently a portion of a beam, was found close to the circular platform in the Platform Area at the Elliptical Temple, among the numerous soapstone beams found at some depth at that spot. The fragment has so broken that it resembles a slipper with a band across the instep. The whole face of it is covered with small raised circular knobs.
Eight carved soapstone birds and birds on beams[33] are known to have been removed from the ruins prior to 1902, and they were mostly found on the Acropolis. Two, it is known, were taken to Johannesburg in 1890, and about the same time the lower portion of a bird (of which the upper portion was found by the author in 1902) was removed and sold to Mr. Rhodes. In 1891 Mr. Bent removed four birds on beams and also the lower portion of another bird, but he did not discover any of them, as the position of all these was well known to settlers both before the occupation and previously to this visit, many attempts having been made to buy these relics from the Mogabe Chipfuno, who persistently refused to part with them. These four birds on beams and another beam on which had once been a bird were standing more or less erect and fixed in granite cement on the Eastern Temple on the Acropolis, which for years previously had been used as a cattle kraal, and the holes and places in which they once stood, and from which Mr. Bent removed them, can be seen to-day. But on the authority of very early visitors, and of the Mogabe Handisibishe, there are still two birds unaccounted for. Possibly the mention of this fact may lead to their recovery. There is a general belief that one of these birds is in a certain museum in Austria, and this is quite possible, seeing that at least two Austrian scientists have visited this country. The total number of birds known to have been found at Zimbabwe prior to 1902 was eight.
FRONT, SIDE AND BACK VIEWS OF SOAPSTONE BIRD, ZIMBABWE
In 1902–3 the author unearthed the upper portion of the fractured bird (Pl. I., fig. 1), the lower portion of which was found on the Acropolis in 1890, together with a section of the beam upon which it once stood. The head, neck, and shoulders of this bird are 9½ in. long. Up the neck, front, and back is a carved protruding rib. This portion of the bird is in an extremely good state of preservation, and the carving shows more artistic skill than do any of the birds on beams in the Cape Town Museum.
In 1903 the author discovered the tenth carved soapstone bird on beam. This was found in Philips Ruins, the most interesting buildings outside the Acropolis and Elliptical Temple. The bird and beam, which are still intact, were found on the east side of a high and massive wall and at the south side of a small conical tower in the North-East Enclosure of these ruins, being buried in soil and block débris to a depth of 3 ft. It was upside down, with the base resting against the side of the cone, from the summit of which it most probably had fallen, as the cone, which is approached by two steps and a platform on its east side, was covered with granite cement, while the base of the beam bears marks of its having once stood embedded in granite cement. All the birds at Zimbabwe found standing, with one exception, had the bases of the beams fixed in excellent granite cement. This bird and beam are undoubtedly not only in the best state of preservation of any yet found at Zimbabwe, but show evidence of more artistic workmanship having been bestowed upon them than any of those previously discovered. Up the face of the beam is carved a crocodile 16 in. long, and round the cestus beneath the bird’s feet, which is 3 in. deep, is carved work—on one side a large double row of chevron pattern, similar to the pattern on the east wall of the Elliptical Temple, and on the opposite side a single row of chevron, surmounted by two large embossed circular discs; the back edge of the beam is plain, and the front edge above the crocodile has two small embossed circular discs. The bird stands 11 in. high, the total height of the beam and bird being 5 ft. 5 in., its width 8 in. on the flat sides, and 2½ in. on its end edges.
Miniature soapstone birds on pedestals have been found by other explorers of Zimbabwe, but the writer discovered only a portion of one of such birds.
In Mr. Bent’s work are given the opinions of several of the best-known scientists of Europe, who, by means of the birds and associated relics found at Zimbabwe, connect the worship carried on there with that of the ancient Sabæan people of South Arabia, who worshipped the goddess Almaquah (Venus), the Morning Star. See Preface, also pages 181–87 of The Ruined Cities of Mashonaland.
The best-made soapstone bowls are found on the lower granite cement floors of the ruins and far below any native clay floors, the southern side of the Acropolis, the eastern half of the Elliptical Temple, and Philips Ruins yielding these in quantities. The fragments of bowls with carved processions of horned animals, of which a dozen pieces have recently been discovered, and which fragments represent different sized bowls, were found only on the lowest floors, and these only on the Acropolis. This was also the experience of Mr. Bent. But there is an exception to this rule, viz. that the ancients, or some people of a period prior to the Makalanga, had, on the bowls becoming broken, thrown the fragments over the west and south edges of the Acropolis Hill, where fragments may still be found among and under the wall débris which has fallen down the precipitous sides of the hill. Probably before these fragments became, at a later date, completely covered by further falls of wall débris, native people of a remote age converted some of these into slabs for the isafuba game, and cut the sets of game-holes on their flat bases and on the inside of the higher rims, while they have also rudely scratched the usual native designs on the opposite side to the carving—crude designs which are obviously in striking contrast to the artistic work of the original makers of the bowl. Such portions, and but a few only, have been found on very old native clay floors on the Acropolis.
FRONT AND SIDE VIEWS OF SOAPSTONE BIRD ON BEAM, DISCOVERED BY AUTHOR AT PHILIPS’ RUINS, ZIMBABWE, IN 1893
The fragments of the soapstone bowls recently found vary in style, size, and carving, and these fragments represent at least thirty different bowls. Mr. Bent also found fragments representing some ten different bowls, and as there still remain large areas of lower floors to be opened out, there may be still further evidences of even more extensive use of these articles by the ancients of all periods at Zimbabwe. The diameters, judged by the radii of the segments, vary from 1 ft. 1½ in., which is the smallest size yet found, to 1 ft. 3¾ in., the largest so far discovered. The heights of the outside of the rims range from 2 in. to 3½ in., the majority being about 2¾ in. The rims, which are all without flange, except in one instance, are from 1⅛ in. to 1⅝ in. in thickness. The bases of the bowls have about the same average thickness, but in a few cases they are somewhat thinner. The insides of the bowls from rim to rim are always beautifully flat and smooth. The bottoms are thickly covered with fine scratches, as if the bowls had been constantly pushed along the top of stone or fine cement work. The insides of some of the bowls show signs of having been subjected to very great heat previously to the breaking of the article. It may well be imagined that bowls of these dimensions, cut out of solid soapstone, itself an exceedingly heavy stone, must have been of great weight, and that without considering any contents they might have held.
A few bowls only were plain—that is, with no decorative pattern on the outside—though all are finely worked, and the plainest has rounded sides which slightly project at the top of the rim. The designs on the relics vary, and include procession of horned animals (Pl. I., fig. 4), zebras, dogs, a bird, and a man. The decorations on the majority of the bowls comprise (1) herring-bone, plain; (2) herring-bone on cords, i.e. two parallel cords with their respective lines of strands inclining opposite ways, and thus together forming a herring-bone pattern; (3) cord pattern, the strands of the parallel cords both inclining in the same direction. These cords in (2) and (3) are found both vertically and horizontally. In the case of cord pattern of any sort the cords are carved in lengths, the lengths being divided by plain protruding squares at intervals; (4) circular discs sunk into the surface, the discs being either plain or covered with rings within rings till the centre is reached; (5) a chain of diamond-shaped panels with centres completely filled up with lines parallel to the outer lines.
A pattern (6) (Pl. I., fig. 5), new in Zimbabwe relics, was recently found on the rim of a soapstone bowl discovered in Maund Ruins in the Valley of Ruins. This consists of two wave bands crossing and recrossing each other throughout their length, and thus making a continuous line of perfect circles. This is very correctly carved, and the artistic merit of its workmanship is equal, if not superior, to that of any soapstone relic yet found at Zimbabwe.[34]
Among other soapstone “finds” made recently at these ruins are two fragments of two double claw-hammer-shaped ingot moulds (Pl. I., figs. 7 and 8), each fragment being the major portion of such mould. These were cut into the broken section of an ornamented beam. Moulds of this shape are not, therefore, necessarily ancient, though the form may have been handed down from ancient times. Mr. Selous, some years ago, discovered considerable quantities of copper ingot moulds in actual use by the natives of Katanga, and these were almost the identical shape of the ingot mould discovered by Mr. Bent at Zimbabwe. The Administrator of North-Eastern Rhodesia reported in March, 1900, that ingots of copper in the form of a St. Andrew’s Cross were common articles of trade in the Katanga district. It must also be recollected that three such ingots have been found in Southern Rhodesia. Though old, their appearance does not in any instance suggest antiquity. The author, taking these points into consideration, does not believe that the ingot mould discovered by Mr. Bent can be any evidence of the occupation of this country by the Phœnicians, and this opinion is further confirmed by the locations of the moulds found. (See The Ancient Ruins of Rhodesia, pages 128 and 141; also Appendix thereto, [Note C].)
A straight bar mould (Pl. I., fig. 9) which shows signs of considerable use has also been found, but on an upper clay floor. It is believed that this was used for moulding copper bars. The natives of Kafue, the Molembo people of modern times, and the local Barotse, all these being races of skilful copper workers, are known to have made identically shaped copper bars.
Other soapstone articles include a ball, a few whorls, amulets, and daha pipe-bowls, the latter being of Makalanga make, while it would be extremely difficult to say to which period the other articles belonged.
2. GOLD ARTICLES[35]
Gold in almost every form has been found in quantities on several of the lower floors of the ruins, and from its locations must have been produced and worked, not only by ancients, but by very old Kafir people, possibly under Moslem Arab supervision, for concave fragments of Kafir pottery of a very far back period (and so pronounced by Dr. Hahn and other experts) have been used as crude scorifiers, and the gold can still be seen on them in the flux, while other undoubted Kafir remains, some of which are claimed to be Makalanga of an exceedingly old make, are found associated with the scorifiers. The mediæval Makalanga, as early Portuguese records show, not only produced gold but manufactured it, especially into gold wire. It may be conjectured that this style of metal work was due to Arab influence, for the earliest Portuguese records frequently testify that the Arabs possessed important colonies in the country of the Monomotapa, colonies sufficiently influential to mould the policy of successive Monomotapas, especially as against the incursion of Portuguese, and that the main purpose of the Arab intruders in the country was to obtain gold and ivory. Until the last decade, when the cheap and ready-made European goods became obtainable by the natives, the Makalanga can be conclusively shown to have been a nation of metal smiths capable of producing most excellent work, and of drawing very fine wire, while to-day their art of making wire bangles and covering articles with work in correct patterns is such that the difference between the quality of the native work and that produced by machinery in Europe can hardly be detected. It must be remembered, too, that previously to, and for some time after, the occupation, it was possible to buy gold beads from the natives in Mashonaland. These might to a large extent have been found in ancient ruins, but the majority of such articles so bartered for from the natives consisted of Kafir-made copper and iron bangles with gold beads at intervals round the circle.
Gold and gold articles of the more delicate and artistic manufacture belong mainly to the period of the ancients, but gold, as shown by tradition, history, and “finds,” was also a product of mediæval Makalanga, as can be further demonstrated by any excavator of very old Makalanga floors, and of this the proofs exist abundantly.
The small gold crucibles of granite clay similar to those described on page 221 of Mr. Bent’s work, and found on the lowest floors and in rock holes and fissures used for depositing débris, where they must have been thrown away as rubbish after the small cakes of gold had been removed, although they still contained in the flux large beady pieces of gold. A large number of these have been found in positions where the Kafir clay scorifiers are not met with. It would be well in considering the “finds” of crucibles not to treat them with the pottery gold scorifiers, for, so far as discoveries lead, they undoubtedly appear to belong to entirely different ages.
Several sizes of gold beads have been found. There is no doubt that some places in certain enclosures of the older ruins will yield a fair quantity when the soil on the lower floors is systematically treated. Several beads are perfectly round, others are round but with flat ends, others again show two facets encircling them and meeting at the widest point.
Beaten gold to the amount of about 6 ozs. was found on the lower floors. This was discovered in the form of plates usually about 1½ in. to 2 in. by 1 in., each plate having small holes round the edges, in many of which holes the gold tacks still remained. One piece was wider at one end than at the other, and this is believed to have been a sheathing encircling a section of a piece of ebony found with it, the ebony stick being thick at the top and tapered towards the end. There were remains of embossed designs on two pieces of beaten gold, one of diamond pattern and the other a plain circle with curved radiating marks.
Gold tacks were most usually found with the beaten gold. These are of microscopic size. The majority have wedged-shaped heads, and the others flattened heads. It is believed that these tacks served to fasten the gold sheathing on to wooden articles used by the ancients.
Bar-gold and gold-cake were found on the lowest floors in the Elliptical Temple and North-East Passage respectively. Gold dust is found in certain enclosures only, but on the lowest floors. Over two hundred pannings of the soil in various enclosures have been made. The soil of some enclosures is absolutely destitute of any trace of gold, so also is the veld soil brought into the ruins by native people over one hundred and fifty years ago. In some places outside the ruins pannings show gold, and pieces of beaten gold and gold wire have been found in such places.
One complete gold bangle of twisted wire, most artistically wrought and weighing 2½ ozs., was found on the bed-rock in an enclosure on the Acropolis Hill. Another complete gold bangle was found on the lowest floor of No. 15 Enclosure of the Elliptical Temple. Short pieces of twisted gold wire of various gauges have been found at several ruins. Most of such pieces are parts of broken bangles.
Gold scorifiers of native pottery were found in quantities on an intermediate floor in No. 6 Enclosure of the Elliptical Temple, together with a pair of iron pincers and Arabian glass. The report made by Dr. P. Daniel Hahn, ph. d., m.a., Professor of Chemistry, South African Chemical and Metallurgical Laboratory, Cape Town, on these scorifiers, is as follows:—
“The several fragments of scorifiers sent for analysis did not all contain sufficient flux to be removed without being mixed up with the substance of the scorifier. A fair quantity of flux could, however, be separated in sufficient purity for analysis.
“The flux was composed of:—
| Silica | 77.616% |
| Ferrous Oxide | .464% |
| Aluminic Oxide | 6.703% |
| Lime | 7.095% |
| Magnesia | 7.421% |
| Gold | .363% |
| Sodic Oxide | .210% |
| Potassic Oxide | .106% |
“No Borate or Fluoride was found in the flux.
“The composition of this flux is remarkable, inasmuch as the alkalies are present in very small proportion only, while the alkaline earths prevail. Also the amount of silica is very high.
“The flux melted readily when it was heated on a platinum lid in a muffle furnace at the temperature required for expelling auriferous lead.”
Dr. Hahn has further informed the author that pieces of scorifiers are fragments of native pottery similar to that found in different parts of South Africa, and he adds, “They are certainly not European but native pottery.”