FRAGMENT OF BOWL OF GLAZED POTTERY

POTTERY LID

GLAZED POTTERY

DECORATED FRAGMENT OF POTTERY

Considering the large quantity of soapstone fragments, bowls, and other things, the finds of pottery of a good period at Zimbabwe were not many. Noticeably one piece of pottery is exceedingly excellent, worthy of a good period of classic Greek ware. The pattern round it is evidently stamped on, being [[207]]done with such absolute accuracy. It is geometric, as all the patterns on the pottery are. It is not hand-made pottery, for on the back of it are distinct signs of a wheel. Then there are some black fragments with an excellent glaze and bevel, also fragments of pottery lids, and a pottery stopper, pointing to the fact that the old inhabitants of Zimbabwe had reached an advanced state of proficiency in ceramic art. Fragments of one pot with holes neatly bored round the neck remind one of water-coolers still found in the East. Besides the fragments of pots, we found an enormous number of small circular objects of pottery, which may have been used as spindle-whorls, though most of them show no signs of wear, and some of [[208]]them having rude decorations thereon. The only fragment which shows an attempt at the use of pottery for other than domestic purposes is a sow which we found in a kitchen midden just outside the large circular building on the plain, with two phalli near it. This animal compares well with the rude [[209]]attempts to depict animal life found in prehistoric excavations on the Mediterranean. Whether it has any religious significance or not is, of course, only conjecture, but it is curious that Ælian tells us that the Egyptians ‘sacrifice a sow to the moon once a year;’ and Herodotus says ‘the only deities to whom the Egyptians are permitted to offer a pig are the moon and Bacchus.’ All that the pottery proves to us is that the ancient inhabitants of Zimbabwe had reached a high state of excellence in the manufacture of it, corresponding to a state of ceramic art known only to the rest of the world in classical times.

TOP OF POTTERY BOWL

POTTERY WHORLS POTTERY SOW

POTTERY WHORLS

WEAPONS