Innocent Pikirayi

Debating Great Zimbabwe

Huffman has used historical data and evidence from other Zimbabwe settlements to critique Chirikure and Pikirayi (2008)s interpretation of Great Zimbabwe. However, we argue that he has misunderstood Portuguese written accounts and that his treatment of the radiocarbon chronology is methodologically unsound. Moreover, use of other Zimbabwe settlements to interpret Great Zimbabwe has poor analytical weight on the site itself because it requires universalising structuralist models that are severely constrained. Future work on Great Zimbabwe and other Zimbabwe settlements must take these points into account, as well as requiring full publication of previous research at the site itself.

Zimbabwe culture before Mapungubwe: new evidence from Mapela Hill, South-Western Zimbabwe.

Across the globe, the emergence of complex societies excites intense academic debate in archaeology and allied disciplines. Not surprisingly, in southern Africa the traditional assumption that the evolution of socio-political complexity began with ideological transformations from K2 to Mapungubwe between CE1200 and 1220 is clouded in controversy. It is believed that the K2−Mapungubwe transitions crystallised class distinction and sacred leadership, thought to be the key elements of the Zimbabwe culture on Mapungubwe Hill long before they emerged anywhere else. From Mapungubwe (CE1220–1290), the Zimbabwe culture was expressed at Great Zimbabwe (CE1300–1450) and eventually Khami (CE1450–1820). However, new fieldwork at Mapela Hill, when coupled with a Bayesian chronology, offers tremendous fresh insights which refute this orthodoxy. Firstly, Mapela possesses enormous prestige stone-walled terraces whose initial construction date from the 11th century CE, almost two hundred years earlier than Mapungubwe. Secondly, the basal levels of the Mapela terraces and hilltop contain élite solid dhaka (adobe) floors associated with K2 pottery and glass beads. Thirdly, with a hilltop and flat area occupation since the 11th century CE, Mapela exhibits evidence of class distinction and sacred leadership earlier than K2 and Mapungubwe, the supposed propagators of the Zimbabwe culture. Fourthly, Mapungubwe material culture only appeared later in the Mapela sequence and therefore post-dates the earliest appearance of stone walling and dhaka floors at the site. Since stone walls, dhaka floors and class distinction are the essence of the Zimbabwe culture, their earlier appearance at Mapela suggests that Mapungubwe can no longer be regarded as the sole cradle of the Zimbabwe culture. This demands not just fresh ways of accounting for the rise of socio-political complexity in southern Africa, but also significant adjustments to existing models.

Stone architecture and the development of power in the Zimbabwe tradition AD 1270 – 1830

Within the Zimbabwe Culture, stone architecture was not a mere reflection of the existing power of élites; rather, the process of creating architecture was also one of creating élite power. Creating architecture involved manipulation of the ‘natural’ environment, the elements of which were extended or appropriated to constitute the built environment. There is a clear relationship between architecture and ‘natural’ power, which provided links with the ancestral world. Thus, the construction of monumental architecture in the Zimbabwe Culture was a process of constructing social and political power through the manipulation of ideology, including the appropriation of ‘nature’. The Great Zimbabwe and Khami architectural styles express two distinct architectural forms with two distinct conceptual relationships to nature. Great Zimbabwe (AD 1290–1550) period architecture was apparently an extension of the natural environment, while Khami (AD 1400–1800) architecture arrogated elements of nature wholly transforming them into monumental built environments. Understanding these ideological differences is critical to understanding the dynamics of ancient states on the Zimbabwe Plateau.

The Kingdom, the Power and Forevermore: Zimbabwe Culture in Contemporary Art and Architecture

According to Qassim Sultan, architectural heritage reflects the development of society, and its ability to adapt and meet functional and other needs.1 It is manifest in monuments and public buildings, which create a sense of continuity between the past and the present. Scholars are increasingly interested in the way such sites evoke memories, define cultural identities and create a sense of belonging. Architectural heritage can become part of a communitys expression of belief in its history, culture and self. This article explores such issues in relation to public buildings and holiday resorts constructed in Zimbabwe since the early 1990s, focusing on architectural styles inspired by the countrys rich archaeological and historical heritage, which are discussed in the light of debates over ‘post-modernist’ architecture. The article argues that architectural heritage plays a critical role in contemporary Zimbabwe, as demonstrated by the range of functions served by these buildings. Yet for archaeologists this heritage poses challenging questions regarding the ways in which the past is represented. It is evident that the past ‘sells’, despite inconsistencies in its presentation, representation and interpretation. Indeed, the marketing of this heritage is largely for tourist consumption. Some buildings evoke ‘usable’ notions of the past, provoking inspiration and a sense of attachment or nostalgia. Other buildings express political power, economic control and ritual elaboration on the part of the postcolonial state. * This article was originally presented at conference entitled ‘Heritage in Southern and Eastern Africa: Imagining and Marketing Public Culture and History’, Livingstone, Zambia, 5–9 July 2004. I wish to thank the Journal of Southern African Studies (JSAS), and the British Institute in Eastern Africa for their invitation and financial assistance to attend the conference.  1 Qassim Sultan is the current Director General of Dubai Municipality. His ideas are contained in a circular addressed to prospective participants of the ‘First International Conference on Architectural Conservation: Between Theory and Practice’ which was held in Dubai, 14–16 March 2004.

Revisiting Baranda: a multi-analytical approach in classifying sixteenth/seventeenth-century glass beads from northern Zimbabwe

Abstract The glass bead trade in southern Africa provides important evidence of interregional contact during the early modern period. Compositional analysis of a large assemblage of imported glass beads from the sixteenth- to seventeenth-century AD trading site of Baranda in northern Zimbabwe reveals a south Asian origin of the majority of the beads. Combining stratigraphic data and morphological analysis with innovative compositional XRF and Raman spectroscopy approaches, the research was able to assign the Baranda beads accurately to their correct chronological range. This coincides with the period of Portuguese dominance of Indian Ocean trade.

Repatriating more than Mapungubwe human remains : archaeological material culture, a shared future and an artificially divided past

Apartheids lingering ghost ensures that repatriation processes in South Africa are complex. Apartheid ideology not only separated black and white, but also made ethnicity the prime identity for Africans, many of whom internalised it. South Africas ethicised past ensured that the process of repatriating Mapungubwe human remains was framed in ethnic terms. This resulted in quarrels between claimant communities, who tried to authenticate their claims by proving sole ownership of the human remains. In this potentially volatile context archaeologists were not only negotiating responsible repatriation, but also had to consider their role in a divided present, as squabbles over repatriation could harm both the dead and the living. Fluid group membership involved in the negotiation for the return of human remains from Mapungubwe meant that it would be difficult to exclude any claimants. It was therefore agreed that conflicting oral traditions should be viewed as equal, even when not supported by archaeological data. This acceptance of multivocality resulted in a joint claim by representatives of the Mapungubwe descendants.

The future of archaeology in Africa

ARCHAEOLOGICAL FUTURES In Februarys edition of Antiquity Koji Mizoguchi launched our new feature, ‘Archaeological Futures’, with his thoughts on the regional traditions of archaeology in a globalised world. In this issue, Innocent Pikirayi, Professor of Archaeology at the University of Pretoria, continues the series with his reflections on archaeology in Africa. In particular, he focuses on the barriers that must be broken down in order to secure a relevant and meaningful future for the practice and dissemination of archaeology in this continent that was the cradle of humanity.

Trade, Globalisation and the Archaic State in Southern Africa

The earliest southern African state societies based in the middle Limpopo valley and the southern regions of the Zimbabwe plateau had extensive commercial links with eastern Africa and the continent of Asia from the late 1st millennium to the middle of the 2nd millennium of the common era (CE). These states witnessed phenomenal growth and expansion propelled by this trade. However, they also became victims of the changing patterns of the Indian Ocean trade, involving eastern Africa, the Persian Gulf, the Indian sub-continent and the Far East, and the auriferous Zimbabwean plateau hinterland and adjacent lowlands. It is argued here that while there are multiple reasons for the demise of Mapungubwe (1000–1300 CE) and Great Zimbabwe (1100–1550 CE), long-distance, regional and inter-continental trade involving precious commodities such as gold was perhaps the primary cause in triggering this. Thus the dynamics of ancient state development and decline associated with the archaic state cannot be completely dissociated from intensified interactions with societies in Asia and, later, Europe.

Ingombe Ilede and the demise of Great Zimbabwe

Although new research suggests multi-directional trajectories in the development of the Zimbabwe Tradition (see Chirikure et al. 2016), regional population shifts need not be discounted, as some of these generated states (e.g. Vigneswaran & Quirk 2015). Oral-historical data from northern Zimbabwe counters persistent but often misleading views of pre-colonial states in south-central Africa as exercising power over static and stationary populations (Pikirayi 1993). Rather, human mobility shaped, among other things, the Zimbabwe Cultures spatial features, its strategies for accumulating power and managing resources, and the regional political, social and economic actors to which it was connected. This occurred with the demise of Great Zimbabwe from the second half of the fifteenth century and for much of the sixteenth. Ingombe Ilede attests to post mid fifteenth-century regional shifts in patterns of trade that would lure the Portuguese to south-central Africa from the early sixteenth century onwards. The Zambezi became the preferred inland route. Great Zimbabwes expansionary thrusts to control this trade undermined its own political control over the southern Zimbabwe plateau, as this spawned new political formations like the Mwene Mutapa state and other polities, including Ingombe Ilede.

Great Zimbabwe in historical archaeology : reconceptualizing decline, abandonment, and reoccupation of an ancient polity, A.D. 1450 - 1900

A recent anthropological critique of the archaeology and cultural heritage management of Great Zimbabwe refers to “the silence of unheard voices and untold stories,” “the unrepresented pasts of local communities,” and “the silence of anger—the alienation—and desecration of Great Zimbabwe” (Fontein 2006). Fontein sees a lack of representation of local histories, not only in the literature, but also in museum displays and in the archaeological narratives (Pikirayi 2001), including heritage management reports (Ndoro 2005). Admittedly, this is one of the reasons why Great Zimbabwe is a contested site and cultural landscape. In this paper it is argued that Great Zimbabwe’s contribution to the understanding of the origins of later Karanga and other regional histories is poorly understood. Archaeology, in collaboration with other disciplines, can play a useful role in writing the story of Great Zimbabwe and—in keeping with the plenary session themes—relating it to other transformative global developments of the early modern era, when the site was clearly experiencing decline and eventual abandonment. Detailed local histories, though useful in understanding sociopolitical dynamics on the Zimbabwe Plateau, may account for the invisibility of Great Zimbabwe since A.D. 1550 until its “discovery” by Europeans during the late 19th century. Underlying these processes is the failure by archaeologists to understand decline or collapse of a sociopolitical system once based at Great Zimbabwe, and its global implications.