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

NO. 10 ENCLOSURE

This enclosure lies on the north side of No. 7 Enclosure. Until August, 1902, nothing was known concerning it, nor could it have been examined during the last fifty years. The Makalanga, as previously stated, whose last occupation of the temple as a kraal was some sixty years ago, had filled it in with stones and rubble and laid a common clay floor over the filling-in, as was their usual practice in almost all the ancient ruins in Rhodesia which they occupied. On this clay floor was built a circular hut of clay. The filling-in completely buried portions of the walls of the enclosure.

In addition to this filling-in, the area had been used as a dumping-ground for soil excavated from neighbouring enclosures, and so much so that the soil heap was at least 6 ft. higher than the filling-in by the Makalanga, and it contained some twenty-five tons of soil, all of which has now been removed.

In form the enclosure has the shape of a quarter of a section of a circle, the square sides being on the south and west.

The south side is 27 ft. 6 in. long, the south entrance to this enclosure being at 20 ft. to 23 ft. from the west end. The south wall is the divisional wall between No. 7 Enclosure and this enclosure. It is massive and very well built, and is still from 6 ft. to 7 ft. in height.

The west side is 31 ft. 6 in. in length. The first 21 ft. from its south end is well built, and is in a good state of preservation save for a reduction in its summit. It is 4 ft. wide at present level of ground. The northern extremity of the 21-ft. length is rounded. The wall at its southern end is 8 ft. high, but for 10 ft. at its northern end it averages only 4 ft. to 5 ft. in height. At 21 ft. to 23 ft. along the west side of the enclosure is the western entrance, the northern side of which is formed by a rounded buttress, now only 2 ft. in height. The rest of the wall towards the north is very dilapidated.

The east side, which curves outwards towards the east, measures 40 ft. along the face of the wall. The length of 27 ft. from the north end is formed by a wall of this length, which is 3 ft. to 4 ft. high and 3 ft. wide. This wall is obviously of poor and late construction as compared with the west and south wall of this enclosure, and crosses in the middle of its length, at right angles, an old substantial foundation running east and west. The foundation of the upper wall is laid on the block and soil débris on the summit of the buried wall. Probably this buried wall was the north side of this enclosure at a lower level, and this would have once made the enclosure square in form. The eastern wall terminates at its south end with an angular buttress 2 ft. 6 in. wide, which protrudes westerly 16 in. into the enclosure, where it terminates abruptly in a broken end. From the 27-ft. point to the sound end of the wall is a very well-built substantial wall 4 ft. 6 in. wide at base, but for 5 ft. from its north end it is 1 ft. only above the present floor, but for the rest of its length it is 6 ft. in height. Where the wall so rises in height it is rounded across the wall, and this may have been the south side of an eastern entrance into the enclosure.

Though this enclosure has been cleared, the coarse red clay of the Makalanga still remains in the centre of the area, but in the angles of this enclosure and along its south side is some yellow granite cement of a far greater age.

On the yellow granite cement a quantity of what appear to have been gold-burnishing tools were found. All these were originally water-worn, but showed signs of having been artificially worn as tools. Five of these showed gold richly on the sides used for burnishing, others also showed gold. This was the only enclosure in this temple where such tools were found, and the number of them discovered at and near one spot suggests that this enclosure was in pre-Kafir occupation days a gold-burnisher’s workshop, just as No. 7 Enclosure was evidently a goldsmith’s workshop, while for corresponding reasons No. 6 Enclosure was a chief place for the smelting of gold. A quantity of pottery made of soapstone clay, the first of such pottery yet discovered, was found in this enclosure.