Hostname: page-component-76fb5796d-x4r87 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-26T09:14:11.017Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Cows and Kings: Models for Zimbabwes

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 November 2022

Graeme Barker
Graeme Barker*
Affiliation:
Department of Archaeology, University of Leicester, University Road, Leicester LE1 7RH
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

This paper discusses the complex societies which flourished on the central plateau of southern Africa between the Zambezi and Limpopo rivers between c. AD 800 and 1500, and the models which can be proposed for how they functioned and why they developed. The principal archaeological monuments left by these societies are their regional political centres, the stone enclosures or zimbabwes (fig. 1), of which Great Zimbabwe is the best known and most elaborate (fig. 2). (The traditional spelling zimbabwe(s) is used in this paper rather than the correct but lesser known spelling dzimbahwe singular and madzimbahwe plural.) They varied considerably in size, but the largest probably housed populations numbering several thousands — Great Zimbabwe itself has been estimated to have had a population of some 30,000 people (Huffman 1984) — and their construction implies organized labour on a substantial scale. The main population lived in densely clustered huts outside the stone enclosure. Artefacts suggest that they were commoners, with the servants of the king and minor officials living close to the central hill. Beyond was an outer ring of prestige residences with their own housing units (fig. 2). ‘Great Zimbabwe was the product of a highly stratified society: the stone walls are essentially demonstrations of the prestige of a ruling class, a symbol of political authority that spread over the whole plateau’ (Garlake 1973, 14).

Type
Research Article
Information
Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society , Volume 54 , Issue 1 , 1988 , pp. 223 - 239
Copyright
Copyright © The Prehistoric Society 1988

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Allan, W., 1972. Ecology, techniques and settlement patterns. In Tringham, R. and Dimbleby, G. W. (eds), Man, Settlement and Urbanism, 211–26. London: Duckworth.Google Scholar
Barker, G., 1978. Economic models for the Manekweni Zimbabwe . Azania 13, 71–100.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Beach, D. N., 1977. The Shona economy: branches of production. In Palmer, R. H. and Parsons, N. (eds), The Roots of Rural Poverty in Southern Africa, 37–65. London: Heinemann.Google Scholar
Beach, D. N., 1980. The Shona and Zimbabwe 900–1850. London: Heinemann.Google Scholar
Boserup, E., 1965. The Conditions of Agricultural Growth. London: Allen and Unwin.Google Scholar
Brain, C. K., 1974. Human food'remains from the Iron Age at Zimbabwe. South African Journal of Science 70, 303–309.Google Scholar
Bruce-Chwatt, L. J., 1965. Paleogenesis and paleoepidemiology of primate malaria. Bulletin of the World Health Organisation 32 (3), 363–87.Google Scholar
Chittick, N., 1969. A new look at the history of Pale. Journal of African History 10 (3), 375–91.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chittick, N., 1974. Kilwa: an Islamic Trading City on the East African Coast. Nairobi: British Institute in Eastern Africa.Google Scholar
Colson, E., 1979. In good years and in bad: food strategies for self-reliant societies. Journal of Anthropological Research 35 (1), 18–29.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Conde, H. J., 1973. Some Demographic Aspects of Human Resources in Africa. Paris: OECD Development Center.Google Scholar
Cooke, H. J., 1975. The paleoclimatic significance of caves and adjacent landforms in western Ngamiland, Botswana. Geographical Journal 143, 431–44.Google Scholar
Crader, D. C., 1981. Hunters Alongside Farmers: Faunal Remains from Chendere II Rock Shelter, Malawi. Ph.D. dissertation, Berkeley, University of California.Google Scholar
Curtin, P. D., 1981. Recent trends in African historiography and their contribution to history in general. In Ki-Zerbo, J. (ed), UNESCO General History of Africa 1: Methodology and African Prehistory, 55–71. Berkeley: University College Los Angeles Press.Google Scholar
Da Costa, F. M., 1973. Elementos Para a Ocupàcao Pecuaria do Perímetro de Muabsa. Lourenco Marques: Direcção dos Serviços de Veterinaria de Moçambique.Google Scholar
Dahl, G. and Hjort, A., 1976. Having Herds: Pastoral Herd Growth and Household Economy. Stockholm: Stockholm University (Department of Social Anthropology).Google Scholar
Daniel, J. B., 1973. A geographical study of pre-Shakan Zululand. South African Journal of Science 55 (1), 23–31.Google Scholar
Denbow, J. R., 1979. Cenchrus ciliaris: an ecological indicator of iron age middens using aerial photography in eastern Botswana. South African Journal of Science 75, 405–408.Google Scholar
Denbow, J. R., 1981. Broadhurst—a fourteenth century A.D. expression of the Early Iron Age in southeastern Botswana. South African Archaeological Bulletin 36, 66–74.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Denbow, J. R., 1982. The Toutswe Tradition: a study in socio-economic change. In Hitchcock, R. and Smith, M. (eds), Settlement in Botswana, 73–86. London: Heinemann.Google Scholar
Denbow, J. R., 1983. Iron age pastoralist settlements in Botswana. South African Journal of Science 79, 405–408.Google Scholar
Denbow, J. R., 1984. Cows and kings: a spatial and economic analysis of a hierarchical early iron age settlement system in eastern Botswana. In Hall, M., Avery, G., Avery, D. M., Wilson, M. L. and Humphreys, A. J. B. (eds), Frontiers: Southern African Archaeology Today, 24–39. Oxford: British Archaeological Reports, International Series 207.Google Scholar
Denbow, J. R. and Campbell, A. C., 1980. National Museum of Botswana — archaeological research programme. Nyame Akuma 17, 3–9.Google Scholar
Deshler, W. W., 1965. Native cattle-keeping in eastern Africa. In Leeds, A. and Vayda, A. P. (eds), Man, Culture, and Animals, 153–68. Washington D.C.: American Association for the Advancement of Science, Publication No. 78.Google Scholar
De Wilde, J. C., 1967. Experiences with Agricultural Development in Tropical Africa. Baltimore: John Hopkins Press.Google Scholar
Documentos, 1971. Documentos sobre os Portugueses em Moçambique e na Africa Central, vol. 7. Lisbon: Centro de Estudos Historicos Ultramarinos.Google Scholar
Dyson-Hudson, R. and Dyson-Hudson, N., 1969. Subsistence herding in Uganda. Scientific American 220, 76–89.Google Scholar
Elphick, R., 1986. Khoikhoi and the Founding of White South Africa. Johannesburg: Ravan Press.Google Scholar
Evers, T. M., 1977. Plaston early iron age site, White River District, Eastern Transvaal, South Africa. South African Archaeological Bulletin 32, 170–78.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Evers, T. M., 1984. Sotho-Tswana and Moloko settlement patterns and the Bantu Cattle Pattern. In Hall, M. J., Avery, G., Avery, D. M., Wilson, M. L. and Humphreys, A. J. B. (eds), Frontiers: Southern African Archaeology Today, 236–47. Oxford: British Archaeological Reports, Inter-national Series 207.Google Scholar
Fagan, B. M., 1966. Vertebrate fauna from Harleigh Farm, pp. 78–80. In Robins, P. A. and Whitty, A., Excavations at Harleigh Farm near Rusape, Rhodesia. South African Archaeological Bulletin 21, 61–80.Google Scholar
Fielder, R. J., 1973. The role of cattle in the Ila economy. African Social Research 15, 327–61.Google Scholar
Fiennes, R. N. T. W., 1978. Zoonoses and the Origins and Ecology of Human Disease. London: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Ford, J., 1960. The influence of tsetse flies on the distribution of African cattle. First Federal Science Congress (Salisbury), 357–65.Google Scholar
Ford, J., 1971. The Role of Trypanosomiasis in African Ecology: a Study of the Tsetse Fly Problem. Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
Fouche, L., 1937. Mapungubwe: Ancient Bantu Civilisation on the Limpopo. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Gardner, G. A., 1963. Mapungubwe vol. 2. Pretoria: van Schaiks.Google Scholar
Garlake, P. S., 1973. Great Zimbabwe. London: Thames and Hudson.Google Scholar
Garlake, P. S., 1976a. Excavation of a Zimbabwe in Mozambique. Antiquity 50, 146–48.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Garlake, P. S., 1976b. The investigation of Manekweni, Mozambique. Azania 11, 25–47.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Garlake, P. S., 1978. Pastoralism and Zimbabwe . Journal of African History 194, 479–93.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Garlake, P. S., 1982. Prehistory and ideology at Zimbabwe. Africa 52 (3), 1–19.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Giddens, A., 1984. The Constitution of Society. Outline of the Theory of Structuration. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Grigg, D. B., 1970. Agricultural Systems of the World. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Guy, S., 1979. The Destruction of the Zulu Kingdom: the Civil War in Zululand 1879–1884. London: Longman.Google Scholar
Hall, M. J., 1976. Dendrochronology, rainfall and human adaptation in the Later Iron Age of Natal and Zululand. Annals of the Natal Museum 22 (3), 693–703.Google Scholar
Hall, M. J., 1981. Settlement Patterns in the Iron Age of Zululand. Oxford: British Archaeological Reports, Inter-national Series 119.Google Scholar
Hall, M. J., 1987. The Changing Past: Farmers, Kings and Traders in Southern Africa, 200–1860. Cape Town: David Philip.Google Scholar
Hall, M. J. and Mack, K., 1983. The outline of an eighteenth century economic system in south-east Africa. Annals of the South African Museum 91 (2), 163–94.Google Scholar
Hall, M. J. and Maggs, T., 1979. Nqabeni, a later iron age site in Zululand. In Merwe, N. J. van der and Huffman, T. N. (eds), Iron Age Studies in Southern Africa, 159–76. South African Archaeological Society: Goodwin Series 3.Google Scholar
Hall, M. J. and Vogel, J. C., 1980. Some recent radiocarbon dates from Southern Africa. Journal of African History 21 (4). 431–55.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hall, R., and Neal, W. G., 1904. The Ancient Ruins of Rhodesia. London: Methuen.Google Scholar
Halstead, P., 1981. From determinism to uncertainty: social storage and the rise of the Minoan palace. In Sheridan, A. and Bailey, G. N. (eds), Economic Archaeology, 187–213. Oxford: British Archaeological Reports, International Series 96.Google Scholar
Huffman, T. N., 1971. Excavations at Leopard's Kopje main kraal: a preliminary report. South African Archaeological Bulletin 26, 85–89.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Huffman, T. N., 1972. The rise and fall of Zimbabwe . Journal of African History 13 (3), 353–66.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Huffman, T. N., 1975. Cattle from Mabveni. South African Archaeological Bulletin 30, 23–24.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Huffman, T. N., 1981. Snakes and birds: expressive space at Great Zimbabwe. African Studies 40 (2), 131–50.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Huffman, T. N., 1982. Archaeology and ethnohistory of the African Iron Age. Annual Review of Anthropology 11, 133–50.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Huffman, T. N., 1984. Where you are the girls gather to play: the Great Enclosure at Great Zimbabwe. In Hall, M. J., Avery, G., Avery, D. M., Wilson, M. L. and Humphreys, A. J. B. (eds), Frontiers: Southern African Archaeology Today, 252–65. Oxford: British Archaeological Reports, Inter-national Series 207.Google Scholar
Jones, P. A., 1984. A Net Cast Wide: the Social Geography of Initial Agriculture and the Early Iron Age in Africa South of the Equator. Ph.D dissertation, Sheffield University.Google Scholar
Klapwijk, M., 1973. An early iron age site near Tzaneen, N. E. Transvaal. South African Journal of Science 69, 324.Google Scholar
Kuper, A., 1975. The social structure of the Sotho-speaking peoples of southern Africa. Africa 45, 67–81, 139–49.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kuper, A., 1980. Symbolic dimensions of the Southern Bantu Homestead. Africa 50, 8–23.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kuper, A., 1982. Wives for Cattle. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul.Google Scholar
Lambrecht, F. L., 1964. Aspects of evolution and ecology of tsetse flies and trypanosomiasis in prehistoric African environments. Journal of African History 5 (1), 1–24.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Learmouth, A. T. A., 1977. Malaria. In Howe, G. M. (ed.), A World Geography of Human Disease, 61–108. London: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Maggs, T., 1980. The iron age sequence south of the Vaal and Pongola rivers: some historical implications. Journal of African History 21, 1–15.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Maggs, T. and Michael, M. A., 1976. Ntshekane: an early iron age site in the Tugela Basin, Natal. Annals of the Natal Museum 22, 705–40.Google Scholar
Marker, M. A. and Evers, T. M., 1976. Iron age settlement and soil erosion in the Eastern Transvaal, South Africa. South African Archaeological Bulletin 31, 153–65.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mason, R., 1981. Early iron age settlement at Broederstroom 24/73, Transvaal, South Africa. South African Journal of Science 77, 401–16.Google Scholar
Miller, J. C., 1982. The significance of drought, disease, and famine in the agriculturally marginal zones of west-central Africa. Journal of African History 23, 17–61.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Mills, E. A. C. and Filmer, N. T., 1972. Chondwe iron age site, Ndola, Zambia. Azania 7, 129–45.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Miracle, M. P., 1965. The introduction and spread of maize in Africa. Journal of African History 6, 39–55.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Morgan, W. B., 1969. Peasant agriculture in tropical Africa. In Thomas, M. F. and Whittington, G. W. (eds), Environment and Land Use in Africa, 241–72. London: Methuen.Google Scholar
Nicholson, S. E., 1976. A Climatic Chronology for Africa. Ph.D dissertation, University of Wisconsin.Google Scholar
Nicholson, S. E., 1978. Comparison of historical and recent rainfall anomalies with late Pleistocene and Early Holocene. In Bakker, E. M. van Z. and Coetzee, J. A. (eds), Palaeoecology of Africa, 99–123. Rotterdam: Balkema.Google Scholar
Nicholson, S. E., 1979. The methodology of historical climate reconstruction and its application to Africa. Journal of African History 20, 31–49.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nye, G. W. and Greenland, D. J., 1960. The Soil Under Shifting Cultivation. Harpenden: Commonwealth Bureau of Soils.Google Scholar
Parkington, J. E., 1977. Soaqua: hunter-fisher-gatherers of the Olifants River Valley, Western Cape. South African Archaeological Bulletin 32, 150–57.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Parkington, J. E., 1981. Southern Africa: hunters and food-gatherers. In Mokhtar, G. (ed.), UNESCO General History of Africa 2: Ancient Civilisations of Africa, 639–70. Berkeley: University College Los Angeles Press.Google Scholar
Phillipson, D. W., 1970. Excavations at Twickenham Road, Lusaka. Azania 5, 79–118.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Phimister, I. R., 1976. Pre-colonial gold mining in southern Zambezia: a reassessment. African Social Research 21, 1–30.Google Scholar
Plug, I., 1979. Namakala and Nanga: faunal report on two early iron age sites, Zambia. South African Archaeological Bulletin 34, 123–26.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Plug, I. and Dippenaar, N. J., 1979. Evidence of Rattus rattus (house rat) from Pont Drift, an iron age site in the Northern Transvaal. South African Journal of Science 75, 82.Google Scholar
Plug, I. and Voigt, E. M., 1985. Archaeozoological studies of iron age communities in southern Africa. In Wendorf, F. (ed.), Advances in World Archaeology 4, 189–238. New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Prendergast, M. D., 1979. Iron age settlement and economy in part of the Southern Zambezian highlands. South African Archaeological Bulletin 34, 111–19.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Renfrew, A. C., 1975. Trade as action-at-a-distance: questions of integration and communication. In Sabloff, J. A. and Lamberg-Karlovsky, C. C. (eds), Ancient Civilisation and Trade, 3–59. Alburquerque: University of New Mexico Press (School of American Research, Advanced Seminar Series).Google Scholar
Robins, P. A. and Whitty, A., 1966. Excavation at Harleigh Farm near Rusape, Rhodesia. South African Archaeo-logical Bulletin 21, 61–80.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Robinson, K. R., 1959. Khami Ruins. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Robinson, K. R., 1982. A review of the Malawi Iron Age based on investigations undertaken during 1975 to 1979. Zambia Museums Journal 6, 126–50.Google Scholar
Sandelowsky, B. H., Van Roogen, J. H. and Vogel, J. C., 1979. Early evidence for herders in the Namib. South African Archaeological Bulletin 34, 50–51.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sinclair, P. J. J., 1982. Chibuene: an early trading site in southern Mozambique. Paideuma 28, 150–64.Google Scholar
Sinclair, P. J. J., 1984. Some aspects of current Swedish archaeology research in Africa. Norwegian Archaeological Review 17 (1), 60–63.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sinclair, P. J. J., 1987. Space, Time and Social Formation: A Territorial Approach to the Archaeology and Anthropology of Zimbabwe and Mozambique c. 0–1700 A.D. Uppsala: Societas Archaeologica Upsaliensis.Google Scholar
Sinclair, P. J. J. and Lundmark, H., 1984. A spatial analysis of archaeological sites from Zimbabwe. In Hall, M. J., Avery, G., Avery, D. M., Wilson, M. L. and Humphreys, A. J. B. (eds), Frontiers: Southern African Archaeology Today, 277–88. Oxford: British Archaeological reports, International Series 207.Google Scholar
Speed, E. A., 1970. Report on the Nkope faunal remains. In Robinson, K. R., The Iron Age of the Southern Lake Area of Malawi, 104–15. Malawi: Department of Antiquities, Publication no. 8.Google Scholar
Summers, R., 1967. Archaeological distributions and tentative history of tsetse fly infestation in Rhodesia and adjacent territories. Arnoldia 3 (13), 1–18.Google Scholar
Summers, R., 1969. Ancient Mining in Rhodesia. Salisbury: National Museum.Google Scholar
Summers, R., 1971. Ancient Ruins and Vanished Civilizations of Southern Africa. Cape Town: Balkema.Google Scholar
Tempany, H. and Grist, D. H., 1960. An Introduction to Tropical Agriculture. London: Longmans.Google Scholar
Thomas, J. D., 1965. Some preliminary observations on the ecology of a small man-made lake in tropical Africa. In Brokensha, D. (ed.), Ecology and Economic Development in Tropical Africa, 113–46. Berkeley: University College Los Angeles.Google Scholar
Thorp, C., 1984a. Faunal Remains as Evidence of Social Stratification at Great Zimbabwe. M.A. dissertation, University of Witwatersrand.Google Scholar
Thorp, C., 1984b. A cultural interpretation of the faunal assemblage from Khami Hill Ruin. In Hall, M. J., Avery, G., Avery, D. M., Wilson, M. L. and Humphreys, A. J. B. (eds), Frontiers: Southern African Archaeology Today, 266–76. Oxford: British Archaeological Reports, International Series 207.Google Scholar
Tobias, P. V., 1974. The biology of the southern African Negro. In Hammond-Tooke, W. D. (ed.), The Bantu-Speaking Peoples of Southern Africa, 3–45. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul.Google Scholar
Tourte, R. and Moomaw, J. C., 1977. Traditional African systems of agriculture and their improvement. In Leakey, C. A. and Wills, J. B. (eds), Food Crops of the Lowland Tropics, 295–312. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Trimingham, J. S., 1975. The Arab geographers and the East African coast. In Chittick, H. N. and Rotberg, R. I. (eds), East Africa and the Orient, 15–46. New York: Africana Publishing Company.Google Scholar
Tyson, P. D., 1978. Rainfall changes over South Africa during the period of meteorological record. In Werger, M. J. A. (ed.), Biogeography and Ecology of Southern Africa 1, 53–69. The Hague: W. Junk.Google Scholar
Tyson, P. D. and Dyer, T. G. J., 1975. Mean annual fluctuations in the summer rainfall region of South Africa. South African Geographical Journal 57 (2), 104–10.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tyson, P. D., Dyer, T. G. J. and Mametse, M. N., 1975. Secular changes in South African rainfall: 1880 to 1972. Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society 101, 817–33.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Vogel, J. O., 1971. Kumadzulo, an Early Iron Age Village Site in Southern Zambia. Oxford: Oxford University Press (Zambia Museum Paper 3).Google Scholar
Vogel, J. O., 1973. Some early iron age sites in southern and western Zambia. Azania 8, 25–54.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Vogel, J. O., 1975. Kabondo Kumbo and the Early Iron Age in the Victoria Falls region. Azania 10, 49–75.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Voigt, E. A., 1978. The Faunal Remains from Greefswald as a Reflection of Iron Age Economic and Cultural Activities. M.A. dissertation, University of Pretoria.Google Scholar
Voigt, E. A., 1980a. The faunal sample from Msuluzi Confluence. Annals of the Natal Museum 24, 140–45.Google Scholar
Voigt, E. A., 1980b. Reconstructing iron age economies of the Northern Transvaal: a preliminary report. South African Archaeological Bulletin 35, 39–45.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Voigt, E. A., 1982. Appendix 1. Faunal report on the Lydenburg Heads Site, 2530 AB4, pp. 31–32. In Evers, T. M., Excavations at the Lydenburg Heads Site, Eastern Transvaal. South African Archaeological Bulletin 37, 16–33.Google Scholar
Voigt, E. A., 1983. Mapungubwe: an Archaeozoological Interpretation of an Iron Age Community. Pretoria: Transvaal Museum (Monograph No. 1).Google Scholar
Voigt, E. A., 1984a. Iron age herders of the northern Transvaal, South Africa, in the first millennium A.D. In Grigson, C. and Clutton-Brock, J. (eds), Animals and Man in Archaeology 3: Early Herders and Their Flocks, 371–93. Oxford: British Archaeological Reports, International Series 202.Google Scholar
Voigt, E. A., 1984b. The faunal remains from Magogo and Mhlopeni: small stock herding in the Early Iron Age of Natal. Annals of the Natal Museum 26 (1), 141–63.Google Scholar
Voigt, E. A. and Von den Driesch, A., 1984. Preliminary report on the faunal assemblage from Ndondondwane, Natal. Annals of the Natal Museum 26 (1), 95–104.Google Scholar
Voigt, E. A. and Plug, I., 1981. Early Iron Age Herders of the Limpopo Valley. Pretoria: Transvaal Museum (Report for the Human Sciences Research Council).Google Scholar
Voigt, E. A. and Plug, I., 1984. Happy Rest: the earliest iron age fauna from the Soutpansberg. South African Journal of Science 80, 221–27.Google Scholar
Wadley, L., 1979. Big Elephant Shelter and its role in the Holocene prehistory of central south-west Africa. Cimbebasia series B 3 (1), 1–76.Google Scholar
Walker, N. J., 1983. The significance of an early date for pottery and sheep in Zimbabwe. South African Archaeo-logical Bulletin 38, 88–92.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Welbourne, R. G., 1975. Toutswe iron age site: its yield of bones. Botswana Notes and Records 7, 1–16.Google Scholar