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

TERRACED ENCLOSURES ON NORTH-WEST FACE OF ZIMBABWE HILL

About forty or fifty ledges protrude in step form up the north-west face of Zimbabwe Hill from the valley below up to the front of the west main wall of the Western Temple, and these projections are not only upwards in terrace form, but broadways, extending across the entire length of the north-west face of the hill.

The best view of these ledges is obtained from Makuma Kopje, on which is Mogabe’s kraal. From this point it is seen that these projections must have been artificially made. So great has been the fall of wall débris, and the washing of soil for many centuries by heavy sub-tropical rains down the hillside, that even the outer faces, or retaining walls, of many of these projecting ledges or platforms are completely buried, and their outline can but barely be traced owing to the absence of any outcrop of walls. In fact, the whole of this face of the hill for over 300 yds. upwards, and the same distance broadways, is but a chaos of fallen blocks, and the visitor, while walking over this area, sees infinitely less of their arrangement and plan than can be seen at a distance of a third of a mile from the opposite kopje.

These terraces are not disposed in lines across the hill as are the Hill Terraces of Inyanga, but each is independent of the other. Nor do they in any point resemble the terrace system of the retaining walls so often met with in ruins of the Second Period of Zimbabwe architecture.

Several of these projecting areas on the steep face of the hill have recently been cleared of the débris which has in so many instances completely covered them, and rendered their form but a mere suggestion of an outline. The outer faces of some of the terrace walls have been laid bare, and their construction is seen to be of true Zimbabwe building of the First Period, all features of the Second Period, so far as examinations have extended, being altogether absent.

The walls are not built on straight lines but on curves, some of the curves being laid on bold lines, in some instances amounting to a semi-circle. The angular wall is absent. The construction of most of the walls is superior to that of Second Period walls. There is no promiscuous filling-up of the interiors of the walls. The walls are as well built on the inside as they are on their outside faces, and they possess the true Zimbabwe batter-back, and such entrances as have been discovered are excellently rounded.

The spaces between the outside edge of the summits of these walls in front and the rising surface of the hill behind them have been levelled by falling débris, but there is no lack of evidence to show that, where not wholly filled in naturally in the course of time, the work of their complete filling-in has been systematically carried out by people who were not the original builders. On clearing the irregular surfaces of these ledges of débris it was found that the areas were rudely covered with red clay or daka, and on this flooring were the clay foundations of Makalanga huts, with piles of buck bones and quantities of charcoal and bits of iron slag. Mogabe’s headmen state that these hut foundations are not those of Makalanga of their time, as Mogabe’s kraal, and that of Mokomo before him, though on the north side of the hill, were situated much higher up the hill and much nearer to, or even among, the main ruins. Nor do they belong to Makalanga of sixty years ago, for Mogabe’s people say that when Chipfuno arrived as a boy some seventy years ago this portion of the hill was then in the same state as is seen to-day. Judging by the weathered blocks piled and strewn upon these areas, it is very possible that these rough clay floors and hut foundations are at least seventy years old, if not considerably older. Portions of iron assegais and Makalanga hoes found on these floors are so eaten by rust that they have become thin, and are almost as brittle as glass.

But the most interesting feature of these terraced areas lies in the fact, obvious to anyone who inspects the areas cleared out in July and August, 1902, that these areas were not originally terraces but ordinary enclosures, with floors from 4 ft. to 10 ft. lower than the present reduced summits of the outer walls. Some people of times later than those of the original builders had deliberately taken the blocks from the outer or down-side walls of the enclosures and thrown them inside till the interiors were filled up level with the reduced height of the walls, and over such filling-in had spread a clay floor, and so made these enclosures into terraced platforms and dry vantage ground on which to build their huts, lay their corn-drying, threshing, and winnowing floors, and also their small daka granaries, which, occupying these well-drained and soilless positions, would be free from the ravages of white ants.

By clearing the outer faces of these walls from block débris, which has fallen or rolled down from higher positions on the hill—and these falls have in some instances utterly ruined the walls beneath—and following the curve of wall round to its opposite side on the face of the hill, the rounded entrances into some of these enclosures have been unburied, the floor of such entrances being on an average 5 ft. to 9 ft. below the débris. These entrances, so far as discoveries have been made, are all at the rear of the enclosure and close to the face of the hill. These entrances are narrow, 1 ft. 10 in. and 2 ft. 2 in. being a fair average width, and once the line of floor which is level with the floor of the entrances is cleared, it is seen that there are no steps inside the enclosures, though outside the entrances there are in a few instances steps leading up to the entrances only, but never steps leading upwards from inside the entrances. The floor of the entrance, in each case, is the level of the floor of the enclosure. Inside is seen a mass of dry blocks without soil, and many of these blocks show a face that was once exposed to the weather and become time-eaten if not greatly decomposed, which shows that they once formed part of the face of an ancient wall.

In removing this block débris from these enclosures no pick or spade was necessary. The blocks were picked up and handed outside, and when the enclosures had been emptied there was not 12 in. depth of soil, and what was there was mainly fine granite chippings caused by the throwing in of the blocks, and of decomposed daka, which had formed the floor, and which, being of poor quality, constant rainfalls had practically rotted into sand. It was on these cleared-out floors that portions of large carved soapstone bowls were discovered in July and August, 1902. The “finds” on the bottom and original floors bore undoubted evidences of antiquity, and were totally different in character from the unmistakable Makalanga objects found on the daka floor some feet above.

As before stated, these terraces of enclosures are in some points independent of each other—that is, they extend across the face of the hill most irregularly. The second enclosure may be 20 ft. or 30 ft. in front of the level of its neighbour on either hand, the third 20 ft. or 30 ft. to the rear of the level of the first enclosure, and so on. But the enclosures are built very nearly one behind the other up the face of the hill, the front wall of one being the back wall of the next below. Between these ascending lines of enclosures are narrow sunken passages, the existence of which, until August, 1902, was altogether unsuspected, as such passages showed no outcrop of their side walls. Two of these passages are now known to be at least 350 ft. long, and one of them has been cleared out for this length. They were exceedingly narrow, so that at many points only one person could pass at a time. The widths average 2 ft., and their floors are from 3 ft. to 12 ft. below the present débris-strewn surface of the slope of the hill. Into these passages the entrances to enclosures on either side open.

Evidently the same people who filled in the enclosures and converted them into platforms likewise deliberately filled in the passages for the foundations of old Makalanga huts, and granaries were laid across the filled-in passages. The “finds” on the floors of these passages and those found on their “filled-in” tops showed as great differences in every respect as were presented by the objects found on the original floors of the enclosures and those on the later clay floors above them.