ANCIENTS AND CAVES AND ROCK HOLES
There are innumerable rock holes, chasms, and large fissures among the cliffs and boulders of the Acropolis Hill, but there is only one—the Balcony Cave—that actually deserves the title of cave, though this name is bestowed upon them all by several writers. Perhaps Balcony Cave approaches nearest to the general conception of what is a cave. But the holes under beetling boulders which constitute these “caves” are as a rule shallow, low, and narrow.
There are no evidences in any of these holes, so far as they have been examined, that the ancients cut into the rock or quarried to make or improve these holes, the faces of the rock being all natural, and devoid of any traces of their having been worked. Sir John Willoughby makes a similar statement as to the rock never having been cut. It is also noticeable that small spurs of formation rock jutting up through the floors of enclosures have never been cut away. But the ancient builders were very clever in artificially improving the fronts of the rock holes, so as to add extra space to the size of the holes. This was done in at least two instances, though there are traces of its having been done elsewhere. A wall was built at some feet immediately in front of the hole, and this was carried up so high that its summit was connected with the cliff or boulder which rose above and arched outwards in front of the hole. This is seen at South Cave, where a wall was carried up to the over-arching boulder, thus more than doubling the area of the cave (see descriptions of each cave).
There are a series of such rock holes on the north-east side of the hill and on the south of Rock Holes Path. The covered holes between the large boulders look very romantic, and their appearance suggests the probability of there being large caves here, but the appearance is most deceptive. The greatest number of such hollows are to be found at the east end of the Acropolis Hill, and some few of these are worth visiting, but the irregular and rugged contour of that face of the hill makes climbing there a most difficult matter, besides which our labourers have recently killed two tiger-cats at these holes, and they state that there are more of such animals there.
Some few only of the caves near the main ruins of the Acropolis have had cemented floors, the formation rock being in most instances sufficiently smooth and level to make it unnecessary to lay cement floors. Platform Cave has at least three levels of cement flooring one above another.
The purposes for which these caves have been used cannot be determined, for the finds made in them were very meagre and common, most being Makalanga hoes, spearheads, brass wire bangles still containing hair or grass, and fragments of pottery of poor and modern make. The only caves which yielded anything of antique character were Platform and Balcony Caves. In the former were sections of soapstone monoliths and fragments of soapstone bowls. In the latter were about a dozen large slate beams and plain soapstone beams. The soil in this cave has often been panned by visitors, as there has always been an idea that gold dust was once stored here. Almost all the pannings showed faint traces of gold, and one or two rather richly. Theodore Bent, Sir John Willoughby, and also many searchers for relics, have practically cleared the most important of these caves of all finds.
A cave hole under an immense boulder on the south side of the Gold Furnace Enclosure is about 15 ft. square, but one has to crouch low down to move about in it. Here have been found quantities of quartz, copper ore, and ironstone, pieces of beaten copper and copper wire, sections of gold crucibles, and pottery whorls. No industry could have been carried on in this low-roofed area, but gold-, copper-, and iron-smelting were evidently conducted in the adjoining and higher Gold Furnace Enclosure, and this hole or chasm, as Bent calls it, was used for depositing the debris from such furnaces.
Nearly all the rock holes on Zimbabwe Hill had been used for some purposes—up to four years ago by the Makalanga as burial-places, the hill abounding in such graves. Now the local Makalanga are prohibited burying on this hill, and at the same time their kraal was removed from the Acropolis. The bodies were placed in the corners of these rock holes and piled over with stones; the pot, assegais, knobkerries—and in one instance a large bark-string hunting-net, 5 ft. high and about 30 yds. long—which belonged to the deceased, were laid upon the top of the stones.
There are no Bushman paintings in any of these caves, nor on the immense rocks which are strewn all over the hill. Nor does the district round about possess any of these paintings. Almost every kopje within a few miles of Zimbabwe has very recently been carefully examined for walls, relics, caves, and paintings, several of the hills having been within the last few months ascended several times from various points. Natives, farmers, and prospectors state that these are altogether absent from this portion of the Victoria district.
But caves and rock holes are very numerous on some of the kopjes which are within an easy walk of the ruins, and if some of these were cleared out some discoveries might possibly be made. It will be recalled that both the ancient cylinder with rosettes, the wooden platter with the signs of the zodiac, and the notorious pot “Fuko-ya-Nebandge” were all found in caves at some little distance from Zimbabwe.
CHAPTER IX
THE ELLIPTICAL TEMPLE
Main Walls—Plan—Construction—Measurements—Summit—Foundations—Chevron Pattern—Ground Surface of Exterior.
PLAN of main wall.—Though popularly spoken of as the “Circular Temple,”[46] the building is of elliptical plan, “a form of temple,” says Bent, “found at Marib, the ancient capital of the Sabæan kingdom in Arabia, and at the Castle of Nakab al Hajar, also in that country.” The resemblance between the temple at Marib and the Elliptical Temple at Zimbabwe is remarkable, and several scientists of repute, who have considered the plans of both these ruins, emphasise the remarkable resemblance, not only in the plan, but in the forms of worship practised by the ancients, as evidenced also by the relics discovered at both temples. For instance, Professor Müller, of Vienna, the great South Arabian archæologist (Burgen und Schlösser, ii. 20.) compares these two ruins as follows:—
| Marib. | Zimbabwe. |
|---|---|
| Plan, system of curved walls, geometrical building, orientation. | Practically the same. |
| Inscription on Marib is in two rows, and runs round a fourth of the circumference. | Two rows of chevron pattern run round a fourth part of the circumference. |
| Half of elliptical wall, on side of inscription, is well built and well preserved, but opposite side is badly built and ruined. | The same at Zimbabwe, where the pattern side of the wall is well built. The other portion is rough. |
| Temple was dedicated to the goddess Almaquah—the star Venus, which is called in the Himyaritic tongue Ialmaquah, or Almaq = illuminating. | Highly probable that Zimbabwe was a Sabæan Almaquah temple, as it is orientated and geometrically built for astronomical purposes, as in all cases of such buildings used for the worship of Almaquah. Sacred birds found at Zimbabwe are said to represent Venus the “Morning Star.”[47] |
Herr Brugsch believes the images of the birds found at Zimbabwe emphasised a Sabæan occupation, while M. Naville is especially of opinion that there exists a strong connection between Venus, the star of the Sabæans, and the goddess worshipped at Zimbabwe. The evidences pointing to the close connection of the South Arabian temples and Zimbabwe are almost inexhaustible. On this point Bent and Schlichter are at one with each other (see Petermann’s Mitteilungen 1892; also The Gold of Ophir by Professor A. H. Keane; and M. Arnaud’s plan of the temple at Marib).
Professor Müller also states that the elliptically formed wall appears to have been always used in the temple buildings of ancient Arabia, and states that at Sirwah the Almaquah temple is built in an oval form. In these old temples, he says, sacred inscriptions to the deities were set up on stylæ (stone beams). At Zimbabwe some scores of carved soapstone beams have been discovered in the three temples, also ten birds perched on tall soapstone beams and three other birds detached from their beams, also four miniature birds on pedestals carved out of soapstone.
The Elliptical Temple at Zimbabwe is a much larger building than that at Marib, having a circumference of about 833 ft. as against the 300 ft. of the Marib temple.
On entering the building it is at once seen that the most massive and excellently constructed portions of the main wall extend from slightly north of the North Entrance to the east and south and south-west, and that the other portions, particularly the north-west and west, are slighter, and though showing fairly good workmanship, it is not nearly so well built as the other portion of the wall, the average width of the summit of the poor wall being barely a third of the average width of the better-built portion. The general line of the summit is also fairly level, but it averages some 5 ft. to 8 ft. less in height than that of the northern and eastern walls. The distinct character of the two portions of the main wall is very plainly noticeable on viewing the temple from the summit of the Acropolis Hill.
Methuen & Co.
THE ELLIPTICAL TEMPLE
Great Zimbabwe
But this temple does not stand alone in showing its main wall massive and exceptionally well built at one point of its circumference and slighter built on the other part. This feature is common to many ruins in Rhodesia, excepting, of course, ruins of forts and those ruins built upon the angular plan and terraced. Bent was fully aware of this feature, and cites instances of its occurrence. Mr. Swan does the same, and so does Schlichter. At some time or another before the north-west and west wall was built that portion of the original wall had become dilapidated, and the temple had become “half-moon,” “section of a circle,” or “crescent” shaped, these being the terms applied by all writers, without exception, to such of the circular ruins in the First Period Ruins’ Area,[48] where portions of the main wall had fallen down. The published plans of ruins demonstrate this fact. Probably Zimbabwe will again become a “section of a circle,” for it stands to reason that the weaker wall will be the first portion to disappear.
The massive and well-built portions of the ruins, built upon a system of curves, almost always bear the mural pattern of the oldest types, while the slighter portions are without pattern. It is so at Marib, it is so at Zimbabwe, and it is so in some score of ruins built upon the same principles, as shown in the Elliptical Temple. This has been found to be so invariable a rule that on sighting a building of this class of ruin even at some distance one can almost fix the position of the pattern, that is, if the wall is not so reduced in height that the decoration, if originally any, has not disappeared. Assuming no principle of orientation to attach to such ruins, there yet remains something to be done in explaining the directions of the massive curved and decorated walls of the circular ruins, for the existence of so many scores of parallelisms can hardly be explained away as being but so many coincidences.
It has now (June, 1903) for the first time been shown by ocular demonstration that the slighter wall, though ancient, is a reconstruction of a still more ancient wall which curved outwards more to the north and north-west. Recently some thirty tons of granite blocks which lay in the gap on either side of it were removed, and the foundations at this spot uncovered, showing the meeting in a mis-joint at an oblique angle of two distinct walls, the foundations of the massive north wall being 9 ft. 10 in. wide, and that of the later wall 6 ft. wide, while the class of building in the two walls is obviously distinct. The face of the end of the north wall was extended further outwards towards N.W. 40 ft., and the line of its foundation, according to its curve, points in that direction, where, it is believed, the old extended foundation has been come upon at 36 ft. outside the later wall. The slighter wall approaches the massive wall from W. 80. The bases of the foundations are practically on the same level.
Though the later wall is not so well constructed as the older wall, it must not be taken as poorly built. (See “Construction of main wall,” later.)
The wonderful feature is that no joint in the wall has so far been discovered in its south-west portion. Practical builders who have examined the wall on this side for such a joint are perplexed at not being able to discover it, and some consider, from certain circumstances noticeable, that it must have been at the West Entrances where this later wall was commenced, in which case no such joint would in all probability be found.