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

In 1902–3 the author unearthed the upper portion of the fractured bird (Pl. I., fig. 1), the lower portion of which was found on the Acropolis in 1890, together with a section of the beam upon which it once stood. The head, neck, and shoulders of this bird are 9½ in. long. Up the neck, front, and back is a carved protruding rib. This portion of the bird is in an extremely good state of preservation, and the carving shows more artistic skill than do any of the birds on beams in the Cape Town Museum.

In 1903 the author discovered the tenth carved soapstone bird on beam. This was found in Philips Ruins, the most interesting buildings outside the Acropolis and Elliptical Temple. The bird and beam, which are still intact, were found on the east side of a high and massive wall and at the south side of a small conical tower in the North-East Enclosure of these ruins, being buried in soil and block débris to a depth of 3 ft. It was upside down, with the base resting against the side of the cone, from the summit of which it most probably had fallen, as the cone, which is approached by two steps and a platform on its east side, was covered with granite cement, while the base of the beam bears marks of its having once stood embedded in granite cement. All the birds at Zimbabwe found standing, with one exception, had the bases of the beams fixed in excellent granite cement. This bird and beam are undoubtedly not only in the best state of preservation of any yet found at Zimbabwe, but show evidence of more artistic workmanship having been bestowed upon them than any of those previously discovered. Up the face of the beam is carved a crocodile 16 in. long, and round the cestus beneath the bird’s feet, which is 3 in. deep, is carved work—on one side a large double row of chevron pattern, similar to the pattern on the east wall of the Elliptical Temple, and on the opposite side a single row of chevron, surmounted by two large embossed circular discs; the back edge of the beam is plain, and the front edge above the crocodile has two small embossed circular discs. The bird stands 11 in. high, the total height of the beam and bird being 5 ft. 5 in., its width 8 in. on the flat sides, and 2½ in. on its end edges.

Miniature soapstone birds on pedestals have been found by other explorers of Zimbabwe, but the writer discovered only a portion of one of such birds.

In Mr. Bent’s work are given the opinions of several of the best-known scientists of Europe, who, by means of the birds and associated relics found at Zimbabwe, connect the worship carried on there with that of the ancient Sabæan people of South Arabia, who worshipped the goddess Almaquah (Venus), the Morning Star. See Preface, also pages 181–87 of The Ruined Cities of Mashonaland.

The best-made soapstone bowls are found on the lower granite cement floors of the ruins and far below any native clay floors, the southern side of the Acropolis, the eastern half of the Elliptical Temple, and Philips Ruins yielding these in quantities. The fragments of bowls with carved processions of horned animals, of which a dozen pieces have recently been discovered, and which fragments represent different sized bowls, were found only on the lowest floors, and these only on the Acropolis. This was also the experience of Mr. Bent. But there is an exception to this rule, viz. that the ancients, or some people of a period prior to the Makalanga, had, on the bowls becoming broken, thrown the fragments over the west and south edges of the Acropolis Hill, where fragments may still be found among and under the wall débris which has fallen down the precipitous sides of the hill. Probably before these fragments became, at a later date, completely covered by further falls of wall débris, native people of a remote age converted some of these into slabs for the isafuba game, and cut the sets of game-holes on their flat bases and on the inside of the higher rims, while they have also rudely scratched the usual native designs on the opposite side to the carving—crude designs which are obviously in striking contrast to the artistic work of the original makers of the bowl. Such portions, and but a few only, have been found on very old native clay floors on the Acropolis.

FRONT AND SIDE VIEWS OF SOAPSTONE BIRD ON BEAM, DISCOVERED BY AUTHOR AT PHILIPS’ RUINS, ZIMBABWE, IN 1893

The fragments of the soapstone bowls recently found vary in style, size, and carving, and these fragments represent at least thirty different bowls. Mr. Bent also found fragments representing some ten different bowls, and as there still remain large areas of lower floors to be opened out, there may be still further evidences of even more extensive use of these articles by the ancients of all periods at Zimbabwe. The diameters, judged by the radii of the segments, vary from 1 ft. 1½ in., which is the smallest size yet found, to 1 ft. 3¾ in., the largest so far discovered. The heights of the outside of the rims range from 2 in. to 3½ in., the majority being about 2¾ in. The rims, which are all without flange, except in one instance, are from 1⅛ in. to 1⅝ in. in thickness. The bases of the bowls have about the same average thickness, but in a few cases they are somewhat thinner. The insides of the bowls from rim to rim are always beautifully flat and smooth. The bottoms are thickly covered with fine scratches, as if the bowls had been constantly pushed along the top of stone or fine cement work. The insides of some of the bowls show signs of having been subjected to very great heat previously to the breaking of the article. It may well be imagined that bowls of these dimensions, cut out of solid soapstone, itself an exceedingly heavy stone, must have been of great weight, and that without considering any contents they might have held.

A few bowls only were plain—that is, with no decorative pattern on the outside—though all are finely worked, and the plainest has rounded sides which slightly project at the top of the rim. The designs on the relics vary, and include procession of horned animals (Pl. I., fig. 4), zebras, dogs, a bird, and a man. The decorations on the majority of the bowls comprise (1) herring-bone, plain; (2) herring-bone on cords, i.e. two parallel cords with their respective lines of strands inclining opposite ways, and thus together forming a herring-bone pattern; (3) cord pattern, the strands of the parallel cords both inclining in the same direction. These cords in (2) and (3) are found both vertically and horizontally. In the case of cord pattern of any sort the cords are carved in lengths, the lengths being divided by plain protruding squares at intervals; (4) circular discs sunk into the surface, the discs being either plain or covered with rings within rings till the centre is reached; (5) a chain of diamond-shaped panels with centres completely filled up with lines parallel to the outer lines.

A pattern (6) (Pl. I., fig. 5), new in Zimbabwe relics, was recently found on the rim of a soapstone bowl discovered in Maund Ruins in the Valley of Ruins. This consists of two wave bands crossing and recrossing each other throughout their length, and thus making a continuous line of perfect circles. This is very correctly carved, and the artistic merit of its workmanship is equal, if not superior, to that of any soapstone relic yet found at Zimbabwe.[34]