ANCIENTS AND CAVES AND ROCK HOLES

There are innumerable rock holes, chasms, and large fissures among the cliffs and boulders of the Acropolis Hill, but there is only one—the Balcony Cave—that actually deserves the title of cave, though this name is bestowed upon them all by several writers. Perhaps Balcony Cave approaches nearest to the general conception of what is a cave. But the holes under beetling boulders which constitute these “caves” are as a rule shallow, low, and narrow.

There are no evidences in any of these holes, so far as they have been examined, that the ancients cut into the rock or quarried to make or improve these holes, the faces of the rock being all natural, and devoid of any traces of their having been worked. Sir John Willoughby makes a similar statement as to the rock never having been cut. It is also noticeable that small spurs of formation rock jutting up through the floors of enclosures have never been cut away. But the ancient builders were very clever in artificially improving the fronts of the rock holes, so as to add extra space to the size of the holes. This was done in at least two instances, though there are traces of its having been done elsewhere. A wall was built at some feet immediately in front of the hole, and this was carried up so high that its summit was connected with the cliff or boulder which rose above and arched outwards in front of the hole. This is seen at South Cave, where a wall was carried up to the over-arching boulder, thus more than doubling the area of the cave (see descriptions of each cave).

There are a series of such rock holes on the north-east side of the hill and on the south of Rock Holes Path. The covered holes between the large boulders look very romantic, and their appearance suggests the probability of there being large caves here, but the appearance is most deceptive. The greatest number of such hollows are to be found at the east end of the Acropolis Hill, and some few of these are worth visiting, but the irregular and rugged contour of that face of the hill makes climbing there a most difficult matter, besides which our labourers have recently killed two tiger-cats at these holes, and they state that there are more of such animals there.

Some few only of the caves near the main ruins of the Acropolis have had cemented floors, the formation rock being in most instances sufficiently smooth and level to make it unnecessary to lay cement floors. Platform Cave has at least three levels of cement flooring one above another.

The purposes for which these caves have been used cannot be determined, for the finds made in them were very meagre and common, most being Makalanga hoes, spearheads, brass wire bangles still containing hair or grass, and fragments of pottery of poor and modern make. The only caves which yielded anything of antique character were Platform and Balcony Caves. In the former were sections of soapstone monoliths and fragments of soapstone bowls. In the latter were about a dozen large slate beams and plain soapstone beams. The soil in this cave has often been panned by visitors, as there has always been an idea that gold dust was once stored here. Almost all the pannings showed faint traces of gold, and one or two rather richly. Theodore Bent, Sir John Willoughby, and also many searchers for relics, have practically cleared the most important of these caves of all finds.

A cave hole under an immense boulder on the south side of the Gold Furnace Enclosure is about 15 ft. square, but one has to crouch low down to move about in it. Here have been found quantities of quartz, copper ore, and ironstone, pieces of beaten copper and copper wire, sections of gold crucibles, and pottery whorls. No industry could have been carried on in this low-roofed area, but gold-, copper-, and iron-smelting were evidently conducted in the adjoining and higher Gold Furnace Enclosure, and this hole or chasm, as Bent calls it, was used for depositing the debris from such furnaces.

Nearly all the rock holes on Zimbabwe Hill had been used for some purposes—up to four years ago by the Makalanga as burial-places, the hill abounding in such graves. Now the local Makalanga are prohibited burying on this hill, and at the same time their kraal was removed from the Acropolis. The bodies were placed in the corners of these rock holes and piled over with stones; the pot, assegais, knobkerries—and in one instance a large bark-string hunting-net, 5 ft. high and about 30 yds. long—which belonged to the deceased, were laid upon the top of the stones.

There are no Bushman paintings in any of these caves, nor on the immense rocks which are strewn all over the hill. Nor does the district round about possess any of these paintings. Almost every kopje within a few miles of Zimbabwe has very recently been carefully examined for walls, relics, caves, and paintings, several of the hills having been within the last few months ascended several times from various points. Natives, farmers, and prospectors state that these are altogether absent from this portion of the Victoria district.

But caves and rock holes are very numerous on some of the kopjes which are within an easy walk of the ruins, and if some of these were cleared out some discoveries might possibly be made. It will be recalled that both the ancient cylinder with rosettes, the wooden platter with the signs of the zodiac, and the notorious pot “Fuko-ya-Nebandge” were all found in caves at some little distance from Zimbabwe.