MAPUNGUBWE. Bottom Photo: The sandstone hill of Mapungubwe is almost 30 metres high and 300 metres in length.

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1 MAPUNGUBWE Disasters occur. Accidents happen. Cars crash, aircrafts fall, ships sink and nations diminish and disappear. Ultimately, all that we have to commemorate their existence is the wrecks and ruins that they have left behind. On the next page we will research the most noteworthy events that have had a big impact on the lives of ordinary South Africans throughout the years and in some cases even changed the course of history. Mapungubwe: South Africa s First City For the Sesotho people, Mapungubwe means hill of the jackal. In Tshivenda the word means place of the rock. The centuries old fortress, about 100 kilometres west of Musina in the Limpopo province, has been described as one of the most precious archaeological sites in Africa. The South African government, however, kept Mapungubwe out of the public eye for almost 60 years, from the late 1930 s until the middle 1990 s, with the result that very few people know of it much less of its importance with regard to South Africa s natural heritage. Why is Mapungubwe special? It is very seldom in the archaeological world that one can say with conviction that this is the place where a society changed from one very different sort of organisation to another. It is one of the things that make this place absolutely unique, Professor Tom Huffman said in Mapungubwe was at its mightiest in the 13 th century for about 60 years and was South Africa s first Egoli a place where gold was discovered 600 years before Johannesburg was established. In fact, the processing of gold became Mapungubwe s trademark. It was also the centre of an important area of trade and presumably the first place in Southern Africa where cotton was produced and woven into material. Mapungubwe was also the first place in the Southern African society where one type of organisation turned into another, where a king ruled over his subjects and was, in turn, worshipped by them. Photo: Ornate, punched, lunate gold covered plates were found in 1934 in the royal graveyard. It is almost three centimetres in diameter and nobody knows what was used for. Bottom Photo: The sandstone hill of Mapungubwe is almost 30 metres high and 300 metres in length. A time of change Mapungubwe is located at the conjuncture of the Shashe and Limpopo Rivers in the Limpopo Shashe basin, an area with high temperatures and relatively little rainfall where droughts are prevalent. People originally occupied the Limpopo valley area in about 200 A.D. and by 900 A.D. big, permanent settlements, where 90% of the meat eaten by the local population comprised of that of tame animals, were already established. As merchants from the east coast travelled deeper inland, the importance of the area was amplified. In more or less the 8 th or 9 th century A.D., the region s first settlements near Schroda, a rock plateau that has a view over the Limpopo River, were established. Schroda, which derives its name from the agricultural settlement where it is located, had a population of between 500 and 700 people and was, at the time, almost certainly the largest settlement in Southern Africa. Schroda was however attacked around 1000 A.D. and the inhabitants that

2 were compelled to flee westward were effectively cut off from east coast trading. As Schroda diminished, another settlement, K2 (called thus by an early excavator who said that the area reminded him of the settlements in North Africa) came into being close by. Until that point in time cattle was the traditional form of wealth, but at K2 cattle lost its central position in the economy as glass beads and gold replaced it as the most important form of gathered wealth. And as trade with these wares was limited to a rather small group of people, wealth was distributed unequally and differences in class developed. The king and the royal family were eventually totally separated from their people and the dichotomy between rulers and subjects was further augmented when overpopulation in the small valley where K2 was located, forced the ruling elite to relocate to Mapungubwe. The move took place around 1075 A.D. The first houses were built at the foot of the hill that the new settlers called Mapungubwe, but it was later extended to the crest of the hill. In the following 60 to 80 years Mapungubwe was the richest and mightiest settlement in the region. Photo: This clay human figurine was most probably used in initiation rituals. Hundreds of figurines of between four and nineteen centimetres long were found at Mapungubwe. Did you know? The ruins of the centuries old city, Mapungubwe, in the Limpopo Province is one if the most important historical sites in South Africa and is thought to have originated in 1220 A.D. To climb the mountain, you have to zigzag In the time period when Mapungubwe s might and influence reached its peak, the population was estimated at 3000 to 5000 and occupied a ground surface area of more than square metres. Most of the people lived in the plains around the hill whilst the ruling elite resided on the hill. The king and his immediate family lived on the crest where they were isolated and protected, while other members of the royal family lived on the terraces below the crest. Interestingly there is a Venda adage that reminds one of this time period and is still used today: To climb the mountain, you have to zigzag, which means that you have to use a go between to make contact with the king. By physically isolating themselves from the rabble (there is only one winding road that leads to the crest) the king and his supporters elevated their status and also their power. Another important point is that this physical separation indirectly strengthened the ritualization of leadership, which was a new development in the region s culture. The king was probably also the only person who was authorised to speak to the forefathers: a position of supreme power, as it was the forefathers that communicated with the gods. Photo: The centuries old settlement, Mapungubwe, was located south of the Limpopo River. Trade with the Coast Islamic mariners from India and the Middle East, propelled over the Indian Ocean by the seasonal Monsoon winds, presumably started to explore the east coast of Africa about 2000 years ago. These traders carried loads of beads, material and glazed pottery, which they traded on the African coast for gold, ivory and animal skins. The first descriptions of the trading are somewhat unreliable, as it was mostly passed on orally from generation to generation. The Periplus of the Erythraean Sea, a guide to the harbours of Arabia, India and East Africa that was written at around 100 A.D., for example mentions the harbour of Rhapta on the coast of Africa, where a lot of ivory and sea turtle shells could be acquired. The precise location of Rhapta is however still a mystery, although some historians think that it is somewhere off the coast of modern day Tanzania. It is however known that Islamic mariners sailed as far as Sofala in the modern day Mozambique and that trade was already well established by 900 A.D. The coastal region was however almost depleted by 1200 A.D. and traders started to travel further inland. It was this that led to the development of Schroda, K2 and lastly Mapungubwe.

3 Less is known about the finer details of this trade industry. A number of wares were probably traded at markets in important trade villages, but the Arabian geographer, Abdullah al Idrisi, claims that Moslem traders knew of a few anchoring and pick up points along the coast. This most probably includes the mouth of the Zambezi River and possibly also that of the Limpopo River. Ivory and Animal Skins Ivory and animal skins were probably the first export commodities from the Limpopo valley and were in demand in Moslem countries. Ivory was presumably the centre of the thriving economy in Mapungubwe and also the region s most popular export commodity. Ivory bracelets were found at K2 and a large number of tools made out of bone, especially needles, were apparently made for export purposes. Al Mas udi, an Arabian trader that visited the east coast of Africa in the tenth century A.D., also gave an interesting description of an elephant hunt, which was probably typical of the hunts undertaken in the Limpopo valley. There are many wild elephants, but no tame ones. The Zanj (people of the country Zanj Africa) do not use them for warfare or anything else, but simply hunt and kill them. When they want to catch them, they throw the leaves, bark and branches of a certain type of tree that grows in the country on the ground and then lie in wait for the elephant that comes to drink water. The water burns the elephants and makes them drunk. They fall down and cannot get up, because their legs will not bend. The Zanj storm them with very long spears and kill them for ivory. It is from this country that teeth weighing fifty pounds and more come. The decline and decay of Mapungubwe After less than a century as the mightiest city state in the region, Mapungubwe s might and status began to wane. The reason for this is not clear, but it was most probably due to the result of a combination of factors, especially climate change, which led to cooler temperatures and less rain, which hampered the production of crops. A shift in power to the north and over the Limpopo province to the settlement that we now call Great Zimbabwe also played a role. Howsoever, by 1300 A.D. Mapungubwe virtually did not exist anymore and would remain forgotten for almost 600 years. The 20 th Century: Secrecy and Denial Legends about a golden treasure that is hidden somewhere in or around Mapungubwe lasted until late in the 20 th century. These stories, which were undoubtedly fuelled by the rumours of king Solomon s mines and the discovery of gold fields in and around Johannesburg, caused European prospectors to flow into the region, but they had a remarkably low level of success. In 1932 however, everything changed. Three local farmers decided in that year to personally inspect Mapungubwe. Despite warnings by the local Vendas that anyone who visited that hill would certainly die, they climbed to the crest of the hill (the place that would later be identified as the royal graveyard) where they found golden treasures weighing about 75 grams. They distributed these artefacts between them. Fortunately, one of the three men was a former student of the University of Pretoria and he wrote a letter describing their findings, as well as the artefacts that they dug up, to his professor, Leon Fouché. Fouché immediately realised the importance of their findings and contacted professor Louw at the University of the Witwatersrand, who visited the area shortly after receiving the letter. He also labelled Mapungubwe as a place of great importance. Photo: All of the ceramic wares that were found at Mapungubwe were hand made by the women of the region.

4 Solomon and the queen of Sheba: According to the Old Testament King Solomon was the third king of Israel and the son of David and Bathsheba. He was famous for his wisdom and his alliance with Egypt and Phoenicia guaranteed enduring peace for the region. According to the Romans, the queen of Sheba ruled over the Sabeans in the old kingdom of Sha abijah (now South Yemen) a region that was formerly renowned for its gold and spices. According to 1 Kings 10 in the Bible the queen of Sheba visited King Solomon and the Ethiopian monarchy until 1975 traced this connection back. The Excavation Begins The first excavations at Mapungubwe was done between 1933 and 1935 when the government of the Union of South Africa bought the farm on which Mapungubwe is located and appointed the University of Pretoria as its agent to carry out the investigation. The first graves were discovered shortly after the excavation was started and, in 1936, the archaeology committee from the University of Pretoria exhibited the golden rhinoceros in the Transvaal Museum. A year later Fouché published a report titled Mapungubwe Ancient Bantu civilisation on the Limpopo. In this report Fouché maintained that Mapungubwe had clear connections with both the Tswana and Sotho cultures and apparently originated in Africa. He also said that terrain was less than 200 years old and that those settlements were founded 200 years after those were established in Great Zimbabwe. Both of these theories were however later proven to be false. Meanwhile, the golden rhinoceros was removed from public view and locked in a safe at the University of Pretoria where it remained hidden for the next 60 years. Photo: Bodies were usually buried with an assortment of ceramics, imported glass beads and shells. Only royals were buried with gold. The Conspiracy of Silence Mapungubwe is clearly a testimony of significant achievements by black people, but the erstwhile government merely refused to accept it. Many people argued that black people in the 13 th century simply were not capable of such sophisticated craftsmanship. To them, the conclusion was obvious: Mapungubwe was the result of outside influences, in other words from Egypt or possibly Europe. Captain Guy Gardner was appointed in 1935 to excavate the terrain and he continued his work until Gardner s work was unfortunately very destructive. Trenches were dug, but two thirds of the material removed from the ground was dumped over the crest of the hill without sifting it. Gardener also harboured a few preconceptions that later came to light in a vicious attack on Fouché. He alleged that the terrain was not ancient, nor from Bantu origin, nor civilised. Instead it was the product of Hottentot culture, and most probably the work of a single Hottentot that travelled to the region from elsewhere and established a kingdom close to Mapungubwe. Despite scientific proof to the contrary, Gardener encouraged people to connect Mapungubwe with Great Zimbabwe and, by association, with Egypt and Europe. This theory that Great Zimbabwe was built by Sabeans and Phoenicians and, after a transitional phase, occupied by a hybrid race, was previously alleged by journalist, R.N. Hall and excavator, W.G. Neal, a prospector who did excavations at Great Zimbabwe, 30 years prior to Gardener s proclamation. This was naturally part of a much bigger race debate. Like many of his contemporaries, Gardener also purported that Bantus did not live in that region at the relevant time. To make this theory sound more plausible, he created a new name for these Hottentot travellers, that according to him moved to the region 600 to 700 years in advance. He called them proto Hottentot and Bush Bush people. It is rather meaningful that Gardener s report was completed in 1940 and only published 23 years later in Mapungubwe Under Apartheid The Apartheid government was busy defending itself against the rise of nationalism and communism in the late 1960s. Mapungubwe was part of a state farm with the name Greefswald, which the South African army seized in

5 1968. Ironically, P.W. Botha used Greefswald for conferring with his cabinet. With the terrain now under the control of the South African army, access to the area was strictly prohibited. In 1969 the University of Pretoria founded an archaeology department. Excavation work in Mapungubwe would continue for the next 25 years, but it was shrouded in a haze of mystery. To further worsen the situation, artefacts, bones and ceramics that were discovered during the excavation, were kept in a small hut with a leaking roof and broken windows. Official publications in this time also emphasised that there were no links between Mapungubwe and existing the African cultures. One can therefore not help to think that it was an insensitive, systematic way in which to deny black people their heritage. In 1984 however Mapungubwe was finally declared a National Heritage Site and the artefacts and bones that were excavated there are now systematically being catalogued and categorised at the University of Pretoria. The Search for Gold There are at least half a dozen centuries old gold mines north and south of the Limpopo, but their yields were most probably very limited. An Indonesian marine expedition, which anchored at the coast near Sofala in the 10 th century, for example acquired amongst others ivory, tortoise shells, leopard skins and ambergris, but apparently not gold, possibly because it was not associated with the region. Notwithstanding, gold was a coveted item by the 13 th century. Archaeological evidence suggests that the people of Mapungubwe were already melting hard metals and it would therefore be simple for them to melt gold as well, but gold was not easily acquired. Most of the gold that was found in the region was probably from flush depositions or mined from shallow depositions. The mining of gold ore was too laborious, as the quarts had to be heated and the ore crushed and separated. For this reason the mining of gold was presumably seasonal, rather than a full time activity, that was only undertaken when it was not necessary to work in the fields. Photo: Beneath the golden treasures in the royal graveyard, three rhinoceros, of which only one was restored, were found. The delicate and specialised restoration work had to be done by experts from the British Museum. The Treasures of Mapungubwe A few beautiful, processed golden objects, especially the golden bowl, the golden (practically black) rhinoceros and the golden sceptre were discovered in graves at the crest of Mapungubwe. The objects were made of wood and covered with golden sheeting that was fastened with solid gold nails. These objects were kept from the public eye for more than 50 years and were only declared national treasures in While golden artefacts were presumably the most popular of Mapungubwe s treasures, other important discoveries were also made in the ancient terrain, especially the centuries old spinning reels (clay disks with a hole in the middle) that could revolve and were used to extract cotton from cotton balls. Indeed, the Limpopo valley is the oldest terrain in the country where spinning reels were found, which indicates hat Mapungubwe was the first place in Southern Africa where cotton was cultivated. Graves were also an exceptionally rich source of archaeological discoveries, despite the fact that the last king was buried at Mapungubwe about 800 years ago. At the so called royal graveyard at the crest of the hill, 23 bodies were discovered, and in three of these graves, golden objects such as the golden rhinoceros, the golden bowl, the golden sceptre and various jewels were found along with the bodies. From these excavations, it seems that glass beads were also regarded as precious articles that could only be obtained from trading with the east coast. In Schroda, beads were used as a new currency and for trading. More glass beads were found at Schroda than in any other archaeological terrain in Southern Africa. The people of K2 however later began to manufacture their own beads.