Iron picks are found on older native floors, and these vary in make and design, and may be classified as follows:—
(a) Double-pointed picks made of a short, thick piece of iron tapered at each end, the middle part of which is held by a short iron handle (Pl. II., fig. 11). These have also been found in old workings in both Matabeleland and Mashonaland, and especially in the Mazoe and neighbouring districts. Several of the early writers on this country state that these picks had been supplied to their native labourers by the mediæval Portuguese, but it is impossible at present to state whether this belief be correct or otherwise. Certainly these picks have been mostly found in districts once occupied by the Portuguese. There is a character in the design, class of iron used, and the make that does not suggest a native origin.
(b) An iron pick (Pl. III., fig. 3), similar to the one shown on page 217 of Mr. Bent’s book, but in a better state of preservation, was recently found at Zimbabwe. It is almost certain that this class of pick once had wooden handles up the middle of which was a hole, and through it passed the iron bar which bound the pick and the handle firmly together.
(c) The pick (Pl. II., fig. 11) is formed by a bar of iron which is bent back a few inches from the top, and in the front of the bend is a hole running up the centre inside the bent-back portion, and into this hole the haft of the pick is fixed. These have been found complete.
All three classes of picks are found on intermediate and upper clay floors, yet the local natives affirm that they have never known them to be made, though they are aware of their purpose.
Included in the finds of iron articles was a well-made iron spoon with a long handle squared at the end. This was found among the Arab belongings in Renders Ruins, also an iron spearhead (Pl. II., fig. 16) with peculiarly designed spaces in its edges as if for inflicting a more than usually serious wound. An ornamented spearhead (Pl. II., fig. 15) with its point decorated with bead-like bevels diminishing in size from base to point. An iron lamp-stand (PI. II., figs. 17 and 18) with eight bent-up arms (with which was found 12 ft. of fine copper chain in lengths of about 18 in. with pottery affixed at intervals) was also found with the Arab articles.
Iron bangles, both solid and of wire-work, are found on upper floors in the black surface mould and among grass roots. Some of these must be exceedingly old, and in the wire bangles the fibre or zebra hair (this, in some instances, being found intact), round which the wire was twisted, has completely disappeared. In many instances some traces more or less distinct of the fibre or hair still remained. Twisted iron wire-work, evidently imported wholesale, has been found at one spot only, and in great quantities in the form of coils, and not cut up into lengths for use as bangles. The coils, which are now fused, must have contained very many feet of this twisted wire. The same applies to coils of twisted brass wire in large coils found also at the same spot, which, as is shown later, was evidently an old Arab trading station.
Iron nails (Pl. II., figs. 2 and 4) are not limited to any particular floor, and are found almost everywhere in the ruins. But these vary considerably in make. The oldest form of nail and the best designed is that found at greatest depth. This is wedge-shape headed. Another form of exceedingly old class of nails is that where the head is formed by doubling the nail back for about half an inch. But the head is not welded, the bottom part of the bent-back portion being slightly tapered where it meets the side of the nail. These nails in several instances were made difficult of extraction from the wood by being barbed and notched, and in some cases, especially of a rivet class of smaller nails, the nails, when the iron was hot, were twisted in the centre only, and a rude sort of screw was thus made with protruding edges. It can be seen that several twisting operations were required to form these spiral bandings, and that these separate twistings do not connect together as in a perfect screw. The larger nails are from 4 in. to 6 in. long, the rivet class varying from 1½ in. to 4 in.
Iron shoes and collars once having served as bands round wooden posts, possibly to keep them from splitting, especially in a climate where there are daily such rapid changes from heat to cold, and which plays such havoc with the modern imported timber. These bands, which average almost an inch in width, generally passed twice round the post, and the shapes of the circumference of the post are square, oblong (these are the most frequent), or circular, but always perfectly exact, showing that the ancients and older inhabitants of the ruins used wood that had been specially shaped with tools, and not the rough, unworked poles used by old and present natives, many of which can be still seen never to have been touched with any tool save in cutting it from the tree and in lopping off small branches. These shoes and collars are found on very old floors, their greatest length or diameter being 4¾ in.
One important fact is clearly demonstrated by the presence in quantities on the older floors of nails and shoes, and it is that the original builders and their more immediate successors extensively employed woodwork in the fittings of all the enclosures, some of it being of large dimensions, and in all probability worked with tools, and not used in the rough state. The general distribution of these nails and shoes throughout the enclosures, and at some depth, convinces one that substantial wooden fittings once existed in these enclosures, for the large sizes of the older forms of nails and the make of the shoes and collars preclude any suggestion of many of them having been used in woodwork which could have been easily removed.