THE PRESENT POSITION OF THE DISCUSSION AS 

 TO THE ORIGIN OF THE ZIMBABWE-CULTURE. 



By Richard N. Hall, F.R.G.S. 



By the term "Zimbabwe Culture" — a term first employed 

 by (ierman scientists — is meant all the forms of culture displa\ed 

 in the prehistoric rock mines, in the buildings of dressed stone, 

 in the form of ceremonial once practised at Zimbaljwe, and in 

 the arts and manufactures once employed in some more or less 

 remote period of time in Southern Rhodesia. 



By the term " period "' no definite period of time is implied, 

 nor that the culture was necessaiily displayed by different races. 

 A period, its brevity or length, is simply determined by a mani- 

 fest change in culture either in evolution or devolution, or by 

 the culture, or any one or more of its phases, falling into 

 desuetude or oblivion. 



By the term " subsequent squatters " is meant t)ccupiers at a 

 ruin after it had already fallen into ruins, after it had become 

 abandoned by its original builders and occupiers, such subsequent 

 squatters not being connected in any way with the original 

 builders and occupiers. 



The main problem which has excited the minds of acknow- 

 ledged scientists of Britain, Germany, France, and South Africa 

 is : What was the origin of the Zimbabwe-culture, also what were 

 the approximate dates of the first displays of such various forms 

 of culture so remarkably uncommon to any known negroid 

 people ? 



There are only two working hypotheses which are possible 

 of application to the solution of this problem, z'/r. : — 



I. A natural evolution in culture of the altogether unaided 

 Bantu negroid in mediaeval times, as claimed by Dr. Alaciver, and 

 . 2. The intrusion In some remote period of anj;iquity of an 

 Asiatic influence the culture of which became engrafted at a 

 much later time on the aboriginal culture of the Bantu negroid, 

 either directly or conveyed through mixed Asiatic and African 

 media, and, as in all instances of intrusions of foreign influence 

 on African soil, whether in Egypt, Lybia, Carthage, or Somali- 

 land, such imported culture arter a period of display gradually 

 weakened and suffered decadence, Tjeing overtaken in time by 

 overburden and ultimate oblivion. 



These two hypotheses, e\olution of a purely local culture 

 and a decadence of an imported culture, are diametrically 

 opposed to each other. If one hypothesis be substantiated the 

 other must perforce be negatived. 



In the discussion of the origin of the Zimbabwe-culture, a 

 discussion originated by Mr. Theodore Bent in 1891, and re- 

 opened by the publication of Dr. Maciver's "Mediaeval Rhodesia" 

 in 1906, which was replied to in my volume ' ' Pre-Historie 

 a inass of ars^uments strengthening the hypothesis of an imported 

 Rhodesia," there has been elicited from high scientific quarters 



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