CHAPTER VII

NOTES ON ANCIENT ARCHITECTURE AT GREAT ZIMBABWE[40]

Introduction—Durability of Walls—Dilapidations—Makalanga Walls within the ruins—Remains of Native Huts found in Ruins—Passages—Entrances and Buttresses.

Since 1892, when the late Theodore Bent published his work on _The Ruined Cities of Mashonaland_, and 1893, when Sir John Willoughby issued his monograph on _Further Explorations at Zimbabwe_, though much has been discovered concerning the varying architectural types of ancient ruins throughout Southern Rhodesia, little has been added to our previous meagre store of information concerning the important group of ruins at Great Zimbabwe.

But in the work now in progress of preserving these ruins from preventable decay and dilapidation, and of clearing away the block débris from the faces of the walls and the huge piles of soil débris deposited within the ruins by a long succession of explorers, both authorised and unauthorised, there have been within the last two years rescued from oblivion many important architectural features, the existence of which was altogether unsuspected by previous writers. Many of the interiors of the ruins are now exposed to view, thus enabling examinations, comparison, and measurements to be taken which before had been altogether impossible. Within the last eighteen months Zimbabwe has revealed many of the long-buried secrets of the ancient architects which were hidden from the eyes of Bent, Schlichter, and other scientific explorers of the ruins.

Zimbabwe is stored with surprises for archæologists and antiquarians. Absorbing romance is buried deep below its floors. Its soil is richly charged with long-ungazed-at gold and prehistoric relics of high intrinsic value. The mysteries of the absence in Zimbabwe of any definite records in the form of inscriptions,[41] and also of the non-discovery within the Zimbabwe area of the burial-places of the ancients, have yet to be solved.

It has quite recently been held by scientists at home that the late discoveries of ancient ruins in Rhodesia, with their classifications into types and probable time-sequences and periods of distinct forms of architecture, have so advanced investigations in this country that, until similar work has been carried on among such of the ruins of Southern Arabia as are believed to synchronise with, or be the architectural prototypes of, the earliest of the Rhodesian monuments, it would be idle to speak dogmatically as to the lands of origin of the succession of ancient builders and gold miners who toiled so industriously in this portion of South-East Africa.

Still, but so far only as authentic discoveries have been made, the suggested occupation by the Sabæo-Arabians as outlined in chapter iii. of _The Ancient Ruins of Rhodesia_ affords for the present a good working hypothesis for the student in Rhodesia whose aim should be to closely watch the operations of archæologists and antiquarians in the land of ancient Yemen, while at the same time recording with the utmost exactness and fullest detail all and every possible architectural feature of such of the ruins in Rhodesia as may fall within the description of the First Period of Zimbabwe

Architecture, of which the Great Zimbabwe is undoubtedly a most perfect example. This work will awaken the most piquant interest and fascination, for in this direction may be found the definite solution of our local problem as to which particular wave of the Semitic migrations is responsible for the erection of certain of our ruins.

That the Great Zimbabwe will be found to be pregnant with clues to solve the mystery is undoubted. Notwithstanding two years’ work in clearing the ruins of fallen walls and silted-in soil, nine-tenths of the ruins still remain practically buried. Sir John Willoughby, after spending two months in exploring the Elliptical Temple with a large staff of labourers, writes that it would take at least two years to complete the exploration of that building, and this without touching anything ancient or piercing ancient floors, but simply leaving the building clear of all débris and just in the same condition, save for dilapidations, as the last race of ancient occupiers knew it. If, therefore, the Elliptical Temple would require this amount of time to be spent upon it—and this is a fair estimate of work yet to be done—then the Acropolis ruins must require at least a further three years to be spent upon them, and this calculation does not include the large number of ruins in the Valley of Ruins, which, if situated elsewhere in the country, would be considered of major importance. But the area of the Zimbabwe ruins, as known to Sir John Willoughby, was only 945 yds. by 940 yds. To-day, after carefully searching the surrounding kopjes, kloofs, and valleys, other ruins and walls, and traces of ancient walls, can be found at a distance of a mile from the Elliptical Temple. The Bentberg has its northern face covered with walls. Rusivanga Kopje shows foundations of walls and débris. Near Bingura’s kraal, a mile to the south-west, is a ruin, while extensive beds of imported gold quartz—the nearest reef being some miles distant—with piles of ancient blocks are to be discovered after a grass fire in almost all directions within the distance of a mile, and fresh traces of old peoples, other than those early Makalanga, are to be met with in the course of almost every walk. Thus the probabilities of new and important discoveries are incalculably great.

• • • • •

_Degree of durability of walls._—(_a_) As may be seen by anyone inspecting the walls, as well as on perusing the published description of many ruins of the earliest types, the elliptical and curved form of building has proved the most durable. In many instances the elliptical structures are more or less intact, while the angular and less skilfully built additions, extensions, and alterations of a later period have largely become ruinous and chaotic.

(_b_) This is accounted for by the more excellent workmanship in the construction of the ruins of the elliptical type, which have far broader foundations, are more massive, have a decided batter-back both inside and outside, bonded courses, the blocks of each course being more carefully selected, and the summits tied with “throughs,” while the angular type of ruins, with their plumb walls built on straight lines, with independent faces either side and carelessly filled-in interiors, and a less superior workmanship, have caused these walls to suffer more than the older type of ruins.

(_c_) Walls built on curved lines are in a far better state of preservation than those built on straight lines, the curves having served to strengthen the walls.

(_d_) Rounded ends of walls and rounded buttresses have proved to be far more durable than angular ends or squared buttresses, though most of these latter erections are obviously of a later date.

(_e_) The portions of divisional walls near main walls are in a better state of preservation than the other portions which are in the open parts of the ruins. This is owing to the protection and support of the larger walls. Many of the divisional walls are practically independent, and therefore more liable to collapse, but if not independent the number of entrances passing through them practically makes them such.

• • • • •

_Dilapidations._—At Zimbabwe both the ravages of time, as well as preventable damage during the last decade, have brought about the wholesale destruction of walls as seen to-day in their dilapidated condition. This is the plaint of all who have known the ruins since the time of the occupation. These all bemoan the fact that on each renewed visit to the ruins some wall is found to have disappeared, or some new bulging out of the massive structures threatens serious and immediate destruction, which no amount of lateral support or pinning up can now possibly prevent. Many such visitors complain that the decorative patterns are becoming less perfect. Photographs show this to be the case. In fact, so much dilapidation has taken place within the last few years that it is a common remark of pioneers that “the ruins are becoming less and less every year,” while intense disappointment and vexation are expressed by “old hands” when they revisit the temple after an interval of a few years at the serious reduction in the height of the Conical Tower. Photographs of the tower taken as recently as 1896 represent the summit as being higher than is seen to-day, while almost every photograph taken within the last two or three years of any single part of these ruins shows portions, if not the whole, of walls, with their distinctive features that have completely disappeared. To those who venerate these ancient edifices nothing can be sadder than a comparison of the ruins as seen to-day with the ruins as they were some years ago.

But before dealing with the dilapidations of later years it might be well to examine the history of such of the dilapidations as can be read in the wall débris heaps which line the bases of every wall, for these débris heaps can be read with the same facility as one can read a book. These dilapidations are what might be termed legitimate, being the natural results of the ravages of time, which no means taken could possibly have avoided, and which have extended for very many centuries on end since the latest of the ancient occupiers disappeared.

In Tintern, Melrose, and many another old building at Home we have ruins even now incomplete, owing to the dilapidations of but a few hundred years. But the most ancient ruins of Great Britain, excepting, of course, Stonehenge, the round towers of Ireland, the Druidical circles of Wales, the stone circles and cloven stones of the Isle of Man, and the reputed pagan temples found elsewhere, and certain of the Roman remains of which at present little is known, possess histories, and _Domesday Book_, and even much later records, state the names of the actual builders of these castles and abbeys. These buildings have a stamp upon them of modernity which is altogether absent at Zimbabwe, in comparison with the age of which the term “ancient,” as applied to those at Home, elastic as it is, sounds strangely inappropriate. And yet after a comparatively short period of non-occupation of these castles and buildings only sections of them can now be seen. Guides will state that the walls have been quarried for material for farm buildings, most probably for the erection of the adjoining mansion, and that portions were destroyed by lightning.

But Zimbabwe, with its minimum age of some three millenniums, stands far more firm, more intact, and complete than any one of the comparatively few-centuried old ruins to be found anywhere at Home. Planted in South-East Africa at over two hundred miles inland from the coast, in the midst of populations that know nothing whatever of its origin, Zimbabwe’s massive and imposing walls reveal even to the most casual and indifferent of visitors the plan, purpose, and design of the original builders. Yet has it been subjected for three millenniums to the destructive agency of lightning storms, the frequency and severity of which in South-East Africa are well known. Severe earthquakes must have shaken its foundations, but the massive walls remain practically intact. Arab tradition speaks of violent earthquakes in South-East Africa during the fifth century, while the condition of some of the ruins in Rhodesia, where the walls have fallen _en bloc_ sideways on to the ground, testifies to frequent, general, and violent earth-movements and earth-strains having taken place. The South-East African cyclones passing over it during thirty centuries probably have caused further dilapidations. Still, though so many walls at Zimbabwe remain more or less intact, it would be impossible to estimate the extent to which many walls may have suffered, or what have possibly disappeared altogether from the effects of earthquakes, for it would be difficult to suppose that these extensive ruins—some walls being built on the actual brink of precipices—have escaped all the destructive effects of earth-movements and storms which have occurred during the last three thousand years.

The action of sub-tropical rains for centuries has destroyed whole lengths of walls. For instance, a trench which occupied half a dozen labourers two days to excavate was, after a heavy shower lasting but an hour, completely filled up by mud streams from a higher level. There is hardly a wall on the Acropolis Hill that has not had to bear some added weight of silted soil from higher levels, and these in places have been so extensive that when accumulated on the upper sides of walls the effect has been to push the wall bodily over. In this way the terraces of enclosures round the north, west, and south faces of the Acropolis have in most instances been entirely filled up and buried, while in others the outer and down-side wall has been burst through and destroyed. Streams of water during storms of real African violence have worn deep channels along the bases of some of the walls, exposing the foundations which bridge across the holes, the water causing the decomposition of the cement bed of the foundations and making the wall throughout its complete height to sway downwards and to bulge threateningly outwards. Some of these water-made holes up against the bases of the walls contained damp and moisture all through the dry season, especially those on the south side of walls where the holes were protected from the sun. In as many cases as possible for the time engaged on the preservation work (1902–4) these spots were levelled, and catchment areas were made, so that for the future no rain-water can lodge there, but the waving lines of the courses in the walls still show where these holes existed.

In a similar way block débris falling from higher levels has lodged behind lower walls and eventually pressed them over. In some instances on the Acropolis a mass of walling has fallen from a great height and completely demolished walls below. These were no gradual dilapidations, but instances where sections of the higher wall had gone completely over _en masse_. Such falls almost entirely explain the damage done to the outer walls of the South-East Ancient Ascent, lengths of which have evidently been made good by Kafirs of a very old period, as the well-built ancient foundations can be seen below the later walls.

But some walls have also been seriously damaged by falls of huge slabs and boulders from the faces of the granite cliffs, buttresses have been broken, entrances and passages completely blocked up if not utterly demolished. These falls, though later than the times of the ancients, occurred very long ago, for the depressions in the cliffs from which these slabs and boulders fell are now become weather-stained, but the shapes of the depressions and of the slabs and boulders still agree. It is conjectured that the gap in the central portion of the main wall of the Eastern Temple was caused by the fall of an immense boulder from the summit of the sixty-foot cliff on the north side of the temple. By the moving forward of a boulder for six feet from the position it occupied at the time of the ancients—and they had utilised this boulder in forming the west entrance of the same temple—the entrance was completely blocked up.

But there is a process of dilapidation going on continually, a process which, judging by the débris piles, has been operating for many centuries. When walking near a wall one has to be very careful not to walk under any of the overhanging blocks on the summit of the wall. Some of these blocks are very delicately poised on the edges of the walls, so much so that it seems as if a shout would cause them to fall. Wherever possible these blocks have been drawn back flush again with the face of the wall, but in very many cases the walls are so ruined that it would be dangerous work to do this. It is one of the unfortunate effects of this ancient dry masonry that when one block topples over a small cascade of blocks usually follows it. Such falls, followed by cascades of blocks, are continually taking place. One hears them night and day, especially after rains, and frequently these cascades, especially those from walls above the precipice on the Acropolis, will continue uninterruptedly for some minutes together. There are many points in walls so threatening to collapse that no builder’s art of shoring-up could possibly prevent their fall, for sooner or later they must come down with a crash. Natives give the information that from the time of their childhood they always remembered these falls taking place when no one was near the walls. Probably the noise of falling blocks, especially at night, has served to inspire the local natives with some of the dread in which after sundown they regard the ruins. After a heavy shower one can always find some damage done to the walls. This is mainly due to the quantity of silted soil behind walls, which, becoming overgutted with water, forces the walls over. The only remedy, and that a partial one, would appear to be to remove the silted soil from behind the walls, but to complete such operations a large gang of labourers would have to be engaged for many months. Still the complaint of the early pioneer that the walls at Zimbabwe are gradually becoming not only less but fewer remains perfectly incontrovertible.

But there is an infinitude of other causes working for the dilapidation of the ancient walls at Zimbabwe, and some of these are undoubtedly preventable. It was for the purpose of removing such causes of damage that the recent work of preservation was undertaken on behalf of the Rhodesian Government, and these operations it is the purpose of this volume to describe.

The Great Zimbabwe, as also the many associated ruins scattered throughout Southern Rhodesia, has been subject to wholesale destruction of its walls by the growth of trees, the presence of damp, the falling of immense trees across walls, the quarrying of its walls by past and present natives for building material, for cattle kraals, and other purposes. All the ruins at Zimbabwe afford ample evidences of the ravages caused by vegetable growth, and no ruin appears to have escaped some measure of destruction from this cause.

In 1902 the Elliptical Temple was found to be full of large trees of immense girth, some being at least sixty feet in height. The shelter from the chilly winds prevailing at night and in the dry winter season, and the protection from damage to bark by grass fires provided by the high and massive walls, together with the perpetual state of damp from wet season to wet season prevailing within the walls, the close, hothouse temperature most favourable to the promotion of growth, provided an area in which trees and plants could flourish most luxuriantly.

The trees within the temple are almost all hard woods of slow growth. One tree, not by any means a large one, showed by its rings an age of over a hundred years. The numerous fig-trees must be of great age. The three immense hard-wood trees in the centre of the building may possibly be a hundred years old. The rest of the temple was as full of soft-wooded trees as space permitted, while the branches of trees near the main walls crowded over the tops of the walls towards the outside. Undergrowth of monkey-ropes, wild vines, thorn creepers, and large bushes formed a dense jungle through which it was almost impossible to pass, while the damp maintained the soil in a wet, soggy state, the trees being covered with orchids and long, trailing festoons of lichen, the shaded walls being one mass of creepers, green moss, lichens, and ferns, and dripping with damp. Certainly such growth made the temple beautifully picturesque, and added greatly to its weird, desolate, and solemn appearance.

But a succession of “dust-devils” or “wind twisters” that very frequently pass over the country in the breathless sultry hours of noon passed over Zimbabwe on the second day after our arrival, and at once demonstrated what damage the trees were inflicting on the ruins. Branches were set crunching and thumping on the summits of all the walls, soft-wood trees bent and swept the walls of loose blocks, two huge hard-wood branches remorselessly scraped noisily up and down the sides and on the top of the Conical Tower, while small trees growing on the actual summits of the walls shook and bent and still further loosened the blocks among which their roots extended. During the few minutes these “twisters” lasted the labourers studiously avoided the walls from which the ancient blocks were falling. Under every branch that crossed over a wall was a deep depression in the summit caused by the branch thudding upon it. Many of the trees growing close to the walls had, with long years of banging against the side of the wall, lost all their bark on their inner sides, and these had become perfectly flat. All this havoc, caused by rocking trees and sweeping branches, and by huge broken limbs falling upon interior walls, must have been going on for many years. The effect has been to cause the removal of the “throughs,” ties, and large bonding stones with which the ancients secured the summits of the walls, and these once gone the wall was subject to rapid dilapidation. Later, during high winds which prevailed for some days, it was most distressing to hear the noise of the trees grating and heavily beating against the walls, and the constant falling down of ancient blocks. The effects of such destruction can be seen to-day in the broken edges of the summits and in the deep depressions which occur at intervals along the lines of both main and divisional walls. Even the chevron pattern has been irretrievably damaged by branches of trees growing outside the temple, while the little tower in the Sacred Enclosure has, within the last few years, been thrown over by a huge branch.

But in 1902–4 all trees growing near walls were felled, all projecting branches and rotten limbs were removed, as well as all trees which caused damp to collect on walls, while a general thinning out was made of all branches which interfered with a general view all round the building. Such trees as had done all the possible harm they could do and all trees standing at a distance from walls were left standing. The result has been to make the temple less “picturesque” than in its neglected state, but it still remains picturesque. The temple now appears to be larger, and its massive proportions now made visible stand out far more prominently than before.

The present trees appear to have been the first that ever grew within the temple area. In the soil removed from ancient floors there were no signs of any older generations of trees having existed. The first appear to have arrived with the soil brought in by the past Makalanga in the course of their usual practice of converting ancient enclosures into platforms on which to erect their huts. The trees evidently flourished in the soil made rich by huge piles of bones of oxen and buck, the remains of feasts and sacrifices. Except in a few instances where rain-water was unable to escape, and has caused the ancient cement flooring to become decomposed, the roots of the trees rarely pierce below the ancient floors, the surfaces of which are covered with matted roots closely interwoven in masses like the roots of a large plant growing in a small pot.

The jungle growth of small trees, bushes, and creepers would seem to be the result of excavators, who have broken up the hard clay floors of the old Makalanga and thus ventilated the soil below, as those places where most excavation work has been done have produced the greatest quantities of trees and the densest jungles. Until the whole of this foreign soil is removed down to the level of an ancient floor this jungle growth will always spring up afresh.

But the growth of creepers such as monkey-rope, wild vines, and a climbing plant known as “Zimbabwe creeper,” has wrought untold havoc, but mainly on the faces of the walls. These creepers pierce into the joints of the dry masonry and emerge at a point some feet higher up. Later the branch inside the wall swells and forces out of the face of the wall all the blocks between the points where it enters into and emerges from the wall. This destruction of the walls by creepers is seen in many places at every one of the numerous ruins at Zimbabwe. Monkey-rope at the Elliptical Temple and wild vine on the Acropolis have been the most destructive agents of any of the creeper plants. The “Zimbabwe creeper” was found to be growing on the temple walls with its roots on the summits. This plant covered the main walls as with a thick green mantle, at some points completely hiding the entire surface of the walls. It also had its roots in the interstices of the Chevron Pattern, from the blocks of which it hung in festoons of over one hundred-weight each. This constant strain on the pattern has effected some destruction in addition to the injuries caused by the overhanging boughs of trees. The dilapidation of the walls of the Elliptical Temple is fairly typical of the dilapidations at all the ruins at Zimbabwe.

But there are also minor causes for the dilapidation seen in the walls outside the larger ruins. The restless herd of some seventy cattle belonging to the Mogabe climb the lower walls with ease, and will walk along their whole length clanking the ancient blocks, and awkwardly clamber down broken ends of walls and gaps, bringing down a cataract of blocks as they descend. Some two hundred goats appear to live on the walls. Large baboons can be seen taking their morning exercise on the walls of the Acropolis, and as these scamper about and chase one another the blocks fall off the walls. Natives pull out the faces of the walls to secure honey, or in ferreting out small animals for food.

It must also be remembered that the ancient walls have been quarried by Makalanga of past times and even by the present local Makalanga, all of whom have extensively used the ancient blocks for their inferior walls. But perhaps the greatest amount of dilapidation was effected when the large enclosed areas of the ruins were filled up and converted into raised platforms. In these instances, which are very numerous, the divisional walls suffered most, the blocks from their summits being thrown into the area till the interior was raised from 4 ft. to 7 ft. above the ancient floors, when clay floors were laid upon the filling in.

On entering the Elliptical Temple of the Acropolis one of the first questions asked by visitors is—Are all these walls ancient? It is to the interest of our local archæological researches that such a question should be fairly dealt with, and the frank admission made that certain of the walls are not ancient. In examining the evidences against the antiquity of such walls a further proof is secured, were it needed, that such of the walls as are ancient possess undoubtedly the true seal of antiquity.

_Makalanga walls within ancient ruins at Zimbabwe._—It would be preposterous to expect anyone who visited the ruins to believe that every single wall one saw at Zimbabwe, whether at the Elliptical Temple or on the Acropolis, was necessarily ancient.

Some of the slighter-built walls within the ruins, which are of poor construction, and were once thought to be ancient, can now be shown to have been built by the Makalanga, the evidences of whose long and successive periods of occupation of these ruins are not only most obvious to all explorers and are confirmed by finds and conditions generally, but are a matter both of actual history as well as of tradition among the local natives themselves. Some of the ruins have been used by them for kraals, others—the smaller ones—were converted into cattle kraals with the huts outside the walls, while some have served both purposes. It is highly probable, judging by the state of the wall-débris, that the natives, in converting an ancient enclosure into a cattle kraal, have found portions of the divisional walls to be so dilapidated that they have rebuilt those portions after their own peculiar and recognisable fashion in order to keep in the cattle, at the same time building up gaps and entrances.

While, according to statements of natives and judging also from the state of the ruins, there has been no occupation of the Elliptical Temple as a place of residence for the last three generations, still there are Makalanga walls to be seen, both here and in the Acropolis, at which latter ruins was the kraal, till four years ago, of the present Mogabe; and on the Acropolis are walls of Makalanga construction, both old and comparatively recent. The western enclosures of the Elliptical Temple have been used as cattle kraals up to the early seventies.

The following are some of the evidences of Makalanga construction of walls within the ruins:—

(_a_) The definite and circumstantial claim of the Makalanga to have built certain walls, and their ability to assign particular generations for the erection of other walls.

(_b_) The construction of such walls is identified with obvious Makalanga buildings in their kraals, where there are no ancient ruins. The purpose of the later walls is in many instances patent, especially when the smell of the modern byres still lingers in the soil of the areas used by natives as cattle kraals enclosed by such walls.

(_c_) Stones once part of the faces of ancient walls are used in the construction of those walls, the weather-stained, lichen-covered, and decomposed faces of the blocks being turned inside the walls either sideways or backwards, while the walls show no sign of age, and have a comparatively fresh appearance. Slate and granite monoliths, as well as ordinary slate beams which had once been lintels, have been used as building material.

(_d_) Débris heaps of ancient blocks have been used as foundations, and sometimes these heaps acted as sections in the length of wall.

(_e_) Frequently such walls are built in a very irregular line along the almost buried summits of ancient walls, and across filled-in entrances and even passages, the foundations of such walls projecting from underneath the Makalanga walls on either side.

(_f_) Some of the Makalanga walls are built over damp, black leaf mould containing undecayed vegetable matter and also ordinary Kafir articles, the mould being over a stratum of red clay foundations of Makalanga huts, and with two or three feet of soil and stones between the clay and any floor below for which antiquity could be claimed. Makalanga pottery has been used to support and wedge up uneven ends of blocks.

(_g_) The made foundations of Makalanga walls are of common clay, those of ancient walls being of a splendid quality of granite cement.

(_h_) Nothing ancient or even approaching to antiquity is ever discovered on the levels of the bases of Makalanga walls, but round about their bases quantities of Makalanga articles may be found, some perhaps of better make and quality than now produced by them.

(_i_) Local natives can to-day build very fair stone walls, but these have straight joints and are without tie or bonding, the courses are most erratic, and the line of wall wavering. The common feature of Makalanga wall construction is to build the stones up exactly over one another, giving the appearance to the wall of being built on columns. Their stone walls of cattle kraals can be seen in many deserted villages, as well as other of their walls where there are no ancient ruins. The Makalanga graves in the passages, both in the Elliptical Temple and in the Acropolis, were very well built in with cross-walls.

(_j_) The Makalanga since mediæval times have always been known as builders in stone. Their circular hut and granary foundations of stone can still be seen in many parts of the country, especially on the clay floors of filled-in enclosures of ancient ruins of the terraced order. This art is mentioned by Mr. Selous and by almost all writers on this country before the Occupation, and pioneers and early settlers have affirmed this to be the case. Bent gives the names of Makalanga villages which he visited where these contained stone buildings of native construction. The names of other villages where such buildings are to be found are given by other writers. Bent actually saw their stone-building operations being carried on at Chipanza’s kraal. Professor Bryce describes a Makalanga village with stone buildings, but just as the arts of mining, smelting, wire-twisting, and cloth weaving are now fast disappearing on the advent of the cheap imported article, and on the natives finding other objects upon which to spend their time and labour, the art of stone building is becoming neglected. Old pioneers visiting the ruins are unanimous in affirming that such walls so built and so conditioned are of undoubted Makalanga construction. There are stone buildings at Cherimabila’s kraal, nine miles west from Zimbabwe. Mr. Drew considers the Barotse to be now the best stone builders in this district.

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_Other walls not ancient._[42]—But there are other walls in these ruins which are not believed to be ancient, and these have not been erected by recent generations of Makalanga, but possibly by mediæval Makalanga, or by Arabs, who had large influential colonies in this country, especially at the various Zimbabwes of the successive Monomotapas. The arguments against these walls being ancient are just as numerous and equally as cogent as those just enumerated, but the consideration of such walls is dealt with in detail in the description of the walls themselves.

• • • • •

_Remains of native huts found in the ruins._—In many of the enclosures of the ruins at Zimbabwe are to be found on the present surfaces, and frequently, if the floor of the interior is not formed by the rock formation, on two floors beneath it, the remains of at least three entirely different descriptions of native huts. This is a feature constantly met with in ancient ruins throughout Southern Rhodesia, and in the early days of investigation these remains occasioned considerable perplexity to the explorer. In some ruins only one type of such structures is found, in others two classes of such dwellings, and in others three if not four different types of structure, all the three main types presenting different features in plan, construction, and material.

That these erections are not ancient is a matter of ocular demonstration.

(_a_) This is shown by their position on the clay floors laid over the débris which has been filled into the enclosure to the depth of from 3 ft. to 7 ft. above any ancient floor, hiding rounded entrances, passages, and smaller sub-divisional walls, and burying, as at some ruins, the ancient decorative patterns on the walls. The examination of the material employed, and the class of its make so similar to the remains of native huts in old deserted villages, all negative any suggestion of antiquity.

(_b_) The stonework of the foundations is, as is shown later, of a totally different character from that in undoubted ancient walls, and is practically identical with the stone foundations of granaries still to be seen in any of the villages, some of which are not twelve months old.

(_c_) The “finds” in these structures do not suggest ancient occupation, but they include articles of superior native make and design, some of which are either not now used by Makalanga or Barotse, or are only met with in rare instances, but are claimed by local natives as having been made and used by previous generations of their people. For instance, double iron gongs, such as are plentifully found north of the Zambesi and in the higher Congo districts, where they may still be seen in actual use, pictures of which occur in works of travel in Central Africa; or copper bangles of exceedingly fine wire, which ornaments have fallen into desuetude and can be but seldom met with now; or carved soapstone daha pipe-bowls, for the making of which the Zimbabwe Makalanga, even at the time of the Occupation, were famous.

(_d_) Several of these structures at Zimbabwe are claimed by the local Makalanga and Barotse to have been built by their respective people of previous generations. The Barotse lived on the Bentberg at Zimbabwe up to fifty or sixty years ago. The remains of their old kraal can be seen to-day. The circular shallow stone foundations of their huts, the courses rising in “cat-steps,” the immense rounded clay rims which supported the poles of the sides of their dwellings, are still in evidence. These were erected on platforms made by filling in the spaces between the inner sides of ancient enclosure walls and the slope of the hill, a practice to be noticed on all the faces of Zimbabwe Hill, except the eastern.

The different types of such structures so found in the ruins may be described as follows:—

(1) The ordinary clay ruins of a present-day Makalanga hut, with clay floors, butt-ends of side poles still in position, clay ruins on floor marking off the fire-place, the stand for pots, the higher floor for sleeping-place of occupants and the lower floor for goats. These are found on the present surface or immediately under black leaf mould soil, and resemble huts built in local kraals, only they are neater, of better make, and of slightly superior quality of clay. The articles found here are similar to those belonging to present Makalanga.

(2) The foundations of huts with large rims of clay with rounded edges on both sides, the diameter being some 9 ft. to 12 ft., and the rims 16 in. in length and about the same width, the poles being fixed along the centres of the rims. The material in the floor and in the rim is of a superior quality of clay, which builders state it would be misleading to describe as cement. Under the clay floors, which are about 3 in. thick, are platforms of stones laid flatwise in three or four courses, the outer faces of the courses receding from 1 in. to 3 in. behind the faces of the courses below. Sometimes the stonework is laid upon a bed of clay. This class of hut is found upon a lower level than the undoubted Makalanga dwelling. In the Eastern Temple this type of remains was uncovered at a depth of 3 ft. below the surface, and there were no less than two clay floors, each with a layer of ashes, and two granite cement floors below it. These can be seen in the trench made alongside the stone foundation. Glass beads of old make, copper spearheads, and thick copper bangles, beaten copper and copper tacks were among the principal finds discovered in this type of building. In and near such remains were found the four double iron gongs (May, 1902-March, 1903), piles of animal bones split open in ordinary Kafir style for marrow, broken pottery, and quantities of ashes.

(3) On still lower levels were found the floors and lower portions of the sides of huts made of a red-coloured cement without poles fixed in the cement sides. This is not ordinary daga. The inside faces of the walls, as well as the floors which are beautifully smooth, have been baked with fire, and fragments will ring almost like metal, portions having become white with the heat. This cement has in most instances been faced with a thin yellow glaze. On the floors are quantities of small rims very neatly bevelled, with three or four parallel faces on the top, the ends of the rims being rounded off. The bevelled rims are from 1½ in. to 4 in. wide. The roofs of these buildings were supported by poles inserted in the cement floors outside the huts at the distance in many instances of 1 ft. The posts round the outside of the huts were from 1 ft. 6 in. to 2 ft. 4 in. apart, and, judging by their butt-ends, which have been preserved by the cement, were made of hard woods, including mahobohobo, which is plentiful at Zimbabwe. The best examples of these huts, of which some score can be seen, are in No. 1 Enclosure in the Elliptical Temple, in the North-West Enclosure, Acropolis, and on the cleared section of floor in the Western Temple. These huts stand on cement platforms without stone foundations, and the platforms are about 1 ft. high, and the top edges are neatly bevelled. In two of these remains at Zimbabwe have been found gold dust, iron spring pincers with flux on the top, pottery, gold scorifiers, and the crudely-shaped soapstone moulds.

Old pioneers assert that these buildings are of Makalanga construction. The Makalangas themselves claim these as having been built by their people in a very remote past. Similar buildings, but without traces of gold-smelting, are known to have been built by the Makalanga in different parts of Southern Mashonaland.

Mr. Alfred Drew, Native Commissioner for Victoria district, who arrived in this country in 1890, and is a recognised authority on old Makalanga buildings, expresses his entire agreement with the above descriptions of old native clay huts, also with the conclusions arrived at concerning them.

(4) There is another class of native hut which is not very frequently found in Southern Rhodesia, but is commonly met with in Basutoland and Swaziland, and in other territories further south. At Zimbabwe there are four such huts on the higher floors of filled-in ruins. This class of hut is constructed of cement of a good quality and of great thickness, with no poles to support the roof. It is circular in form, and from its exterior sides are four, sometimes five, short radiating walls of stones extending outward some 5 ft. or 6 ft. The walls are about 4 ft. wide, and in height reach almost to the top of the cement sides of the hut. The entrance usually has an immense cement buttress on either side, while between each radiating wall, and at the base of the side of the hut, runs a cement bevel rounded on its outer edge as if to form a seat. This bevel is about 14 in. high and 16 in. wide. In all weathers and at any time of day the occupiers could have sat in some one of these partially open spaces between the radiating walls sheltered from sun, rain, or wind. The remains of two such huts were found in the Western Temple on the Acropolis, and one of the radiating walls of one of them, which was more exposed and less ruined than the other short walls, was fixed upon by Swan as an “altar.” This wall is B wall, mentioned in the description of the Western Temple, which follows in Chapter XV.

• • • • •

_Passages._—Every writer on Zimbabwe appears to have been greatly struck with the number of passages both at the Elliptical Temple and on the Acropolis, and particularly with their labyrinthine character. During 1902–4 further passages were discovered and opened out, and these had a total length of 2,130 ft. The total length of passages opened out, or which can be clearly traced, now amounts to 5,202 ft. As is shown later in this section, this by no means exhausts the tale of passages to be found at Zimbabwe.

_Elliptical Temple_:—

Situation of Passages. Cleared. Traced. Parallel Passage 193 ft. Inner Parallel Passage 71 〃 South Passage 73 〃 *West Passage 30 〃 30 ft. *South Entrance to No. 10 Enclosure 14 〃

_Outside Elliptical Temple_:—

Outer Parallel Passage 125 ft. *North-East Passage (remainder of length included in the “Valley of Ruins” passages) 50 〃

_Acropolis or Hill Ruins_:—

South-East Ancient Ascent 349 ft. 1260 ft. Higher Parapet 78 〃 Central Passage 103 〃 *Sunken Passage, Eastern Temple (traced further) 28 〃 North Passage, Eastern Temple 23 〃 *South Cave Passage 46 〃 Covered Passage (cleared in 1902) 10½ 〃 Parallel Passage 71 〃 20 ft. *Cleft Rock Enclosure to foot of Platform stairs 10 〃 Winding Stairs 14 〃 Upper Passage 28 ft. East Passage 80 〃 Buttress Passage 39 〃 *South Passage 38 〃 Pattern Passage (upper portion cleared in 1902) 51 〃

_North-West Ascent_:—

*Sunken Passage in Platform Enclosure 72 ft. Ditto through main wall 16 〃 Ditto on Northern Parapet 28 〃 *Ditto from Northern Parapet to Visitors’ Part 223 〃 *Ditto from Visitors’ Part to Water Gate 150 〃 510 ft.

_Minor Ruins_:—

*Outspan Ruins 56 ft. Ridge Ruins, Parallel Passage 246 〃 *Ridge Ruins, other passages 25 〃 No. 1 Ruins 142 〃

_Valley of Ruins_:—

*North-East Passage 600 ft. Passage referred to by Mr. Bent 300 〃 *Posselt Ruins, Parallel Passage 65 ft. *Philips Ruins 51 〃 *Maund Ruins 24 〃 *Mauch Ruins 99 〃 *Renders Ruins 31 〃 ————————— ————————— Totals 2,752 ft. 3,620 ft.

* These passages were discovered in 1902–4.

In addition to these totals of lengths of passages cleared out or traced, there are many other passages still buried in débris, the outcrop of their side walls being seen here and there on the surface near several ruins. Many, of course, must be completely buried under the veld, for some were lately discovered at least 3 ft. below the surface, with native paths crossing them in all directions, while it is quite reasonable to suppose that with the great area of ruins yet unexplored very many more passages will yet be found, especially when it is recollected that the discovery of one buried passage has most frequently led to the discovery of several side passages.

Traces were found of two other passages leading from the base to the summit of the Acropolis Hill, and these remain unexplored, and each would be fully 900 ft. in length, while traces of several lines of passages are to be seen encircling at various heights the south, west, and north faces of the Acropolis Hill. These also at present remain unexplored.

There are many points of interest concerning these passages:—

(_a_) Passages were evidently constructed as part of the plan of the fortifications, but in some instances only as means of communication between certain buildings within the fortified area and for securing privacy. In the one class of passage buttresses and traverses are repeated with a marvellous redundancy; in the other class of passage not a single buttress or traverse is to be found.

(_b_) In passages leading from main ruins to exterior buildings the walls of the passage nearer the main ruins are better built, and the steps and floors are better constructed in the portions nearer the main ruins than are those of the more distant portions of the passage. So imperceptibly do the better-built portions merge into the less superior class of wall that it is extremely difficult to ascertain the exact point where the change in the quality of the construction takes place, though the difference in the class of building at one end of the passage and that of the other is most obvious. But though this difference in the construction of the passage walls is so apparent, there is no suggestion that portions were of a later period, for they are built upon one plan, have one line of direction, serve as a complete communication with one obvious and particular point, and one length of the passage without the other would be purposeless, so far as the intention of the builders may be gathered. With regard to the passages ascending the Acropolis Hill, the completeness of the plan of these passages is best seen from the summit of the hill or from the summit of Makuma Kopje on the opposite side of the valley, from which heights respectively a complete view of those passages in their entire length is to be obtained.

(_c_) Excepting some of the passages in the Elliptical Temple and a few others on the Acropolis, all the passages at Zimbabwe are exceedingly narrow and tortuous, many being only shoulder wide, while, owing to their winding lengths, it is not possible to see many feet on ahead. Such of these passages as have their floors below the levels of adjoining enclosures have in many places their side walls bulged by the weight of earth and débris behind into the passage-ways, and in some such instances the side walls have collapsed and blocked up the passages.

(_d_) Almost every passage appears to have originally been paved with blocks which were covered over with granite cement, but the cement, except in a few instances, has decomposed and been washed away by centuries of rains, though abundant traces of it remain.

(_e_) Sunken passages built very much below the levels of the ancient floors on either side of them are numerous. The best instances of sunken passages are the North-East Passage between the Elliptical Temple and the Valley of Ruins, also the North-West Ascent to the Acropolis (upper portion), and the sunken passage in the Eastern Temple on the Acropolis.

(_f_) The walls of the ascents to the Acropolis as originally built would have precluded any outsider from seeing, even if standing on an adjoining kopje, the movements of people passing up and down the ascents; and to-day as a native ascends these passages it is almost impossible to see him till he reaches the summit, except as he is passing gaps or walls which have become considerably dilapidated. Some of the outer walls of these ascents are still 10 ft. in height.

(_g_) The Elliptical Temple and the Western Temple on the Acropolis have each long and narrow and deep parallel passages on the inside of their main walls, and it is possible that the Pattern Passage served for a similar purpose at the Eastern Temple. The Parallel Passage in the Elliptical Temple communicated only between the North Entrance and the Sacred Enclosure where are the conical towers, and this passage has no communication with any other portion of the interior of the temple. Several of the known writers on these ruins, including Bent, have conjectured that these parallel passages in the temples were reserved for the use of the priests.

(_h_) Cliffs and large boulders have been frequently utilised to form lengths of passages. Instances of this practice are to be seen on the Acropolis in the Rock Passage of the South-East Ancient Ascent, Buttress Passage, North Passage, and elsewhere. In some instances the walls are made to go out of their line so as to include neighbouring boulders, the sole object, so it would appear, being to deprive any invading force of the vantage offered by the height of the boulders for an attack to be made on the passage.

(_i_) There are no evidences that any of the passages, except as stated later, were ever roofed. Possibly the winding stairs and the sunken passage in the Eastern Temple were originally covered over, as a great quantity of long, flat slate beams were found on their floors. It is believed that a single wall once crossed over the sunken passage in Platform Enclosure at about 15 ft. from its upper end, for when this passage was opened in 1902 slate beams were found at this spot, but at no other point in the passage. The passage through the main west wall of the Western Temple, which was blocked up by a Makalanga-built wall, of course, was covered over by the main wall, while the Covered Passage in the same temple remains intact as originally built. Moreover, the widths of many of the passages though narrow on their floors are wide at the summits of their side walls, and their irregular form precludes suggestion of any roofing having been placed over them, some being doubly as wide as the longest of the slate and granite beams found, beside which the general absence of long slate and granite beams on the floors of the passages would seem to further negative any such conjecture. The West Passage leading to the South Cave was not artificially roofed over, but the outer wall was raised up to the height of the boulder which overhangs the passage.

• • • • •

_Entrances and buttresses._—When in 1891 Bent approached Zimbabwe through North Bechuanaland, Gwanda, Tuli, and Belingwe, he passed through the centre of that area in which the earliest of the many ancient ruins of Rhodesia are located. All the ruins he described or mentioned had rounded ends of walls and rounded buttresses, all angular features being conspicuous by their absence. This fact appeared to him so striking that he was constrained, after comparing these ruins with Zimbabwe, to believe that such rounded features belonged to the earliest period of Zimbabwe architecture. Fully a score of competent writers on our ruins, whose valuable and trustworthy contributions, based on personal examination of the same area, have been welcomed by the leading scientific associations of Great Britain and Germany, are also emphatic as to the rounded entrances and buttresses being one of the chief distinctive features of the earliest Zimbabwes. This is further demonstrated in the detailed descriptions of almost one hundred ruins within the same area which are given in _The Ancient Ruins of Rhodesia_, in the great majority of which ruins angular features, except in reconstructions of a later period, are altogether absent.

But the Great Zimbabwe being the finest type of that early class of ancient building, it may be interesting to know that Bent’s conclusion is thoroughly confirmed by these ruins.

ENTRANCES

Ruins. Rounded. Angular. Elliptical Temple 23 1 (One other entrance is partly rounded and partly angular.) Acropolis 31 4 (One of the angular entrances is of obviously later construction.) No. 1 Ruins 10 1 (One entrance is partly rounded and partly angular.) Valley Ruins 33 4

BUTTRESSES

Ruins. Rounded. Angular. Elliptical Temple 24 Nil. (Two buttresses are partly angular and partly rounded) Acropolis 19 3 No. 1 Ruins 8 Nil. Valley Ruins * *

* All rounded except three as so far discovered.

All ends of walls which are still intact are rounded, there being only a few examples so far discovered of angular-ended walls.

The above figures show conclusively that these rounded features, excluding the ends of walls which are almost always rounded, are in a far greater proportion than 146 to 13 which are angular, and at least three of the latter, if not others, for reasons explained elsewhere, can be shown to have been erected at a much later period, one being built upon a floor of common Makalanga daga, and another débris containing ordinary Kafir articles of no very great age.

All the entrances in the main outer walls, save one, are rounded, the few angular entrances being found, with two exceptions, in slighter walls, mainly divisional, some of which were erected later possibly to suit the immediate convenience of later occupiers, for divisional walls had been removed, reconstructed, or entirely fresh ones erected in new directions in almost every ruin, and in some instances the foundations of the later walls cross at right or oblique angles over the reduced summits of older divisional walls.

Walls of the earliest period widen out as they near entrances. This feature is not present in plumb and angular walls of later construction.

There is no evidence whatever in the rounded entrances that they were ever covered over, but in two angular entrances on the Acropolis the butts of the broken slate lintels still remain in the side walls.

Although there are not sufficient proofs to enable one to definitely determine whether the rounded entrances as a rule were once covered over, some of the evidences to negative the covering in of rounded entrances may be noted:—

(_a_) Had such entrances been roofed in, the collapse of the lintels must have brought down far more of the walls than have fallen.

(_b_) The courses of the blocks at the necessary height above the floor of the entrances on either side do not always correspond.

(_c_) The top courses near the summit of the walls on either side of the entrances show distinct signs of curving inwards towards the entrances. This is particularly noticed on the east side of the north-west entrance to the Elliptical Temple.

(_d_) No splinters of slate or granite beams which could have been used as roofing were found in any of the very many rounded entrances.

(_e_) Two intact rounded entrances, one open up to the summit on either side to a height of 19 ft., one entrance being at the east end of Pattern Passage on the Acropolis.

No main entrance has buttresses on either hand on the outer side, possibly because these would have provided any attacking party with excellent shelter. All buttresses of such entrances are on the inside. Divisional entrances which have buttresses have them on the inside only.

The entrances through a wall of the earlier period are carried over the common foundation in the opening forming the steps, which were evidently constructed before the side walls were erected. These steps are large, broad, and high, and where intact look most imposing. Such entrances resemble stiles, as they are much higher than the levels of the floors on either side.

The entrances through an angular wall of a later period have steps which are not part of either side walls, but were built in after the entrance passage had been constructed, and these show poor workmanship and are very shallow, and recede only two to four inches. As the levels of the enclosures on either side have filled in over the original floors, such “cat-steps” have in some instances been built over the original large steps for the purpose of raising the floor of the entrances, seeing that the enclosures on either side had been filled in some feet above their original levels.

Directly opposite the main entrance of the “Outspan Ruins” is a large circular buttress, as if it were intended to divide any attacking party into small numbers.

• • • • •

_Cause of dilapidation to entrance buttresses._—The entrance buttresses with portcullis grooves are in most instances comparatively small, some projecting only two to three feet towards the interior of the building, and these are built up against main and divisional walls, and are in point of construction altogether independent erections, there being no dovetailing or binding between the buttresses and the walls.

In some of the entrances the side lintels of slate, granite, and unworked soapstone beams have been found built into the portcullis grooves. In _The Ancient Ruins of Rhodesia_ it was noticed that at several of the ruins therein mentioned stone side lintels were found _in situ_. The stone lintel posts _in situ_ at Zimbabwe had not then been discovered. The tallest of such stone lintels at Zimbabwe is 8 ft. above the ground. The buttresses appear to have been built after the stone posts had been erected, for the walls at the sides of the lintel follow the irregularities of the side faces of the beams.

The great destruction which has occurred to these structures might possibly be accounted for by (1) the weight of the stone lintel on getting off the perpendicular, which would lever down the buttress into which it was built; (2) the foundations of buttresses are not so deep as those of the main wall up against which they were built; (3) when some later people, possibly natives, deliberately built up and blocked the entrances they might have used the blocks of these buttresses for their building material; (4) the passage-way between each pair of buttresses being so very narrow, damage could easily have been wrought by ordinary traffic; and (5) the main walls are much higher than the summits of the buttresses, and the walls on either side of the entrances being always more dilapidated on the summits, the falling of huge masses of masonry on to the buttresses immediately below might have effected their destruction.