Great Zimbabwe, Mashonaland, Rhodesia / An account of two years' examination work in 1902-4 on behalf of the government of Rhodesia

by R. N. Hall

9. GLASS POTTERY AND CHINA

These finds are so numerous and diversified that they require a special work for their proper treatment. Some two hundred specimens selected from the bulk have been collected, and these with particulars as to their locations and associated articles, with specimens found elsewhere in Rhodesia, will be laid before an expert for technical classification, when another avenue of research with regard to the ancient and mediæval occupiers of this country, both native and foreign, will certainly be opened up. Meantime a brief reference to the finds, or some of them, will here suffice.

Two portions of glass prisms, fragments of Venetian glass of dark green colour, being as thin and sometimes thinner than an ordinary watch-glass, have quite recently been found. Sections of two bowls of Arabian glass[37] covered with very fine and delicately engraved tracery of scroll-work of flowers and tendrils. The engraving is so minute that it can only be seen in a strong light.

Over and across the engraved designs are hand-painted flowers of primrose shape, each flower outlined in white, light blue, and pink, the buds being pink and white, and the stems a dark red. The shape of the bowls was that of the modern finger-glass. All these were discovered at considerable depths.

Arabian Glass

Most of the pottery was found in hundred-weights in débris heaps and scattered throughout all the clay floors in all the ruins with the exception of some enclosures in the Valley of Ruins. But such pottery can be shown to be of native make. To anyone casually inspecting the pottery it may appear as of one and the same make, save perhaps in the colour of the clay of which it is made. But there are wide differences in the pottery, both in the clays, the make, designs, ornamentation, colourings, and also in their locations and in their manufacturers, just as among the present natives.

The Barotse pottery, for instance, is of a more substantial make than is that of any known period or tribe of Makalanga. The patterns are large, bold, and entirely geometrical, and are coloured yellow, red, or black, with the designs painted in strong contrast to the general colour of the pot. Thus black patterns are laid on yellow and red grounds, red patterns on yellow and black, and yellow patterns on black and red. A collection of Barotse pottery made by Major Corydon from north of the Zambesi is a facsimile in make and design of the Barotse pottery found at Thabas Imamba, Khami, Zimbabwe, and other ruins known to have been occupied by Barotse up to seventy years ago. A collection of pottery from Khami which was brought for comparative examination to Zimbabwe was at once claimed by the local Barotse as being of Barotse make, while the local Makalanga not only emphatically denied that it was of their class of make and design, but added that it was the work of the Barotse people. The encircling bands of ornamentation on Barotse pottery vary from 1½ in. to 3 in. or more in depth.[38]

Thus Makalanga pottery has its own peculiar characteristics which are easily discernible on examination. It is generally found to be black with a highly polished surface. The bowls and pots have a lighter and more delicate appearance, and the excellent quality of clay used, and its thorough manipulation, enables it to be much thinner in make yet equally as strong as those of coarser make; the coloured decoration also is altogether absent, while the pattern is more neatly executed, and is enclosed in encircling bands of from only half an inch to one inch in depth. Further, the Makalanga have always decorated their pottery with protruding bosses of shapes and designs peculiar to themselves, the female breast pattern predominating. There are at least fifty different sorts of such protruding designs already found on undoubted Makalanga floors, and these have been selected for examination. The pot shown in the illustration facing page 90 of The Ancient Ruins of Rhodesia is of very old Makalanga work, of which many scores are found represented at Zimbabwe.

Finds of native pottery bear no traces of the potter’s wheel. All native pottery is made by hand.

Very common sun-burnt earthenware, more earth than clay, and very light, is found in great quantities everywhere in the ruins, most of this having no decoration.

Old Makalanga smeared the body of a pot with several thin coats of different-coloured clays, and sections of such pottery show the lines of smearings very distinctly.

The best quality of pottery was found on one of the lowest floors in the Elliptical Temple. The fragments are very heavy for their size, and the surface is coated with soapstone clay, giving them a light greenish-grey colour. These must be exceedingly old if not ancient.

The china discovered includes Nankin china identical in every particular with the Nankin china discovered at these ruins by Mr. Bent and others, and with that found in Mazoe and so many other districts where there still exist distinct evidences of occupation by the early Portuguese. The china, or porcelain, is covered completely with a highly rich glaze of bright blue and sea-green shades, and the articles when pieced together resemble in shape, an ordinary soup-plate. The edges are bevelled in sections of circles, the bevels extending in fluted form to the base, where can be seen evidences of the use of the potter’s wheel. The fragments found represent three different plates. These were discovered at some depth, but not on any ancient floor.

One find made among the Arab belongings in Renders Ruins consists of excellent china of a light brown colour, about a quarter of an inch thick, and covered with a high glaze of blue, white, and gold enamel, the white forming the background. There are at least four bands of pattern encircling what was a large open bowl with upright edges. The conjectured Arab lettering is laid on with blue enamel and is outlined with fine scroll-work tracery in gold. The inside is glazed white, and has lines of faint blue enamel artistically drawn without being of any set pattern. The pattern on the lowest band is of palm fronds in brown paint and in outline only.[39]

Some very thin pottery covered with white enamel some inches only down from the rim towards the outer and inner base, with thick perpendicular bars of dull blue glaze. Excellent pottery of brown clay, very thickly covered with glaze of sea-green and deep lake colours, was found near the same spot.