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

It might at first sight be supposed that the food supplies were drawn chiefly from the extensive agricultural settlements of the Inyanga territory, on the northern slopes of Mashonaland, which drain through the Ruenga and its numerous affluents to the right bank of the Zambesi. This Inyanga district may be roughly described, from the archæological point of view, as an area of old aqueducts, of old terraced slopes, and of old ruins of a less imposing type than the Zimbabwe remains. In a notice of The Ancient Ruins of Rhodesia contributed to the Geographical Journal for April, 1902, I first drew attention to the surprising analogy, or rather identity, between these terraces and those of the South Arabian uplands visited by General E. T. Haig in the eighties. So close is the parallelism that Haig’s description might almost change places with Mr. Telford Edwards’ account of the Inyanga works quoted in The Ancient Ruins, p. 353 sq., as thus:—

TERRACED SLOPES (SOUTH ARABIA)	TERRACED SLOPES (SOUTH AFRICA)
“In one district the whole mountain side, for a height of 6,000 ft., was terraced from top to bottom. Everywhere, above, below, and all around, endless flights of terraced walls meet the eye. One can hardly realise the enormous amount of labour, toil, and perseverance which these represent. The terraced walls are usually from 4 to 5 ft. in height, but towards the top of the mountain they are sometimes as much as 15 or 18 ft. They are built entirely of rough stone laid without mortar. I reckoned on an average that each wall retains a terrace not more than twice its own height in width, and I do not think I saw a single breach in one of them unrepaired” (Haig, Proceedings Geographical Society, 1887, p. 482).	“The extent of these ancient terraces is astonishing, and there is every evidence of the past existence of hundreds of thousands of inhabitants. It would be quite impossible to convey any idea of the immensity of labour implied in the enormous number of these ancient terraces. I saw at least 150 square miles composed of kopjes from 100 to 400 ft. in height literally strewn with the ruins. A contemplation of the enormous tonnage of stones and earth rudely built into these terraces left me amazed. It appears to be abundantly clear that the terraces were for the purpose of cultivating cereals of some sort. The terraces as a rule rise up in vertical lifts of about 2 or 3 ft., and extend backwards over a distance of mostly 7 to 12 ft. The terraces are all made very flat and of dry masonry, not of hewn stone.”

TERRACED SLOPES
(SOUTH ARABIA)

TERRACED SLOPES
(SOUTH AFRICA)

“In one district the whole mountain side, for a height of 6,000 ft., was terraced from top to bottom. Everywhere, above, below, and all around, endless flights of terraced walls meet the eye. One can hardly realise the enormous amount of labour, toil, and perseverance which these represent. The terraced walls are usually from 4 to 5 ft. in height, but towards the top of the mountain they are sometimes as much as 15 or 18 ft. They are built entirely of rough stone laid without mortar. I reckoned on an average that each wall retains a terrace not more than twice its own height in width, and I do not think I saw a single breach in one of them unrepaired” (Haig, Proceedings Geographical Society, 1887, p. 482).

“The extent of these ancient terraces is astonishing, and there is every evidence of the past existence of hundreds of thousands of inhabitants. It would be quite impossible to convey any idea of the immensity of labour implied in the enormous number of these ancient terraces. I saw at least 150 square miles composed of kopjes from 100 to 400 ft. in height literally strewn with the ruins. A contemplation of the enormous tonnage of stones and earth rudely built into these terraces left me amazed. It appears to be abundantly clear that the terraces were for the purpose of cultivating cereals of some sort. The terraces as a rule rise up in vertical lifts of about 2 or 3 ft., and extend backwards over a distance of mostly 7 to 12 ft. The terraces are all made very flat and of dry masonry, not of hewn stone.”

But Mr. Hall, who visited the Inyanga territory in May, 1904, now finds that the terraced slopes,[4] the so-called “slave-pits,” and the other remains, although “old,” are not “ancient.” That is to say, they date not from Himyaritic times, but probably from the eleventh or twelfth century of the new era, when parts of Rhodesia were reoccupied by large numbers of Moslem Arabs from Quiloa and their other settlements along the east coast. Hence, although the terraced slopes still form a connecting link between South Africa and South Arabia, the South Arabia here in question is that, not of pre-, but of post-Koranic times.

Of course, the ruined houses and ruined aqueducts are too much obliterated to supply any clear points of comparison. But their mere presence, and especially the vast extent of ground covered by them, will suffice to confirm Mr. Telford Edwards’ estimate of the vast numbers of civilised peoples who inhabited the rich Inyanga valleys in prehistoric times, and whom we may now call Sabæans, Minæans, and others Himyarites.

Were the houses still extant, we should expect to find them covered with the same decorative mural motives as are still seen both on the Zimbabwe monuments and on the public buildings of Sana, present capital of Arabia Felix. Manzoni, who visited this city three times between the years 1877 and 1880, figures a mansion six stories high, which is richly ornamented with two such motives—the chevron and the vertical block pattern—closely resembling those everywhere occurring on the more ancient Rhodesian walls. The chevron, which is seen both in single and double courses exactly as on the great walls of the Elliptical Temple, is absolutely identical, while the block design differs only in being quite vertical at Sana, whereas it is slightly tilted, or else two rows of blocks converge to produce the herring-bone pattern on the Rhodesian walls, as at Little Umnukwana and many other places. The reader will find Manzoni’s mansion reproduced in Mr. D. G. Hogarth’s The Penetration of Arabia, 1904, p. 198, and he will there notice that the various motives fill up all the space between two parallel horizontal lines, as is so often the case in Rhodesia.[5] Here, therefore, style, motive, general treatment, everything corresponds between the Rhodesian remains and the decorative fancies still flourishing in Sana, heir to the cultural traditions of the neighbouring Mariaba and of the other ancient Himyaritic capitals in South Arabia.

COIN OF BYBLOS, PHŒNICIA, SHEWING CONICAL TOWER

(FIG. I)

WOODEN BOWL WITH SIGNS OF ZODIAC FOUND NEAR ZIMBABWE