OKIGIX OF Z1.M1;A15\VE-CT'LTURE. ;!,^7 



I liave advanced the arguments and evidences given in this 

 paper with a hirge amount of confidence which I tlioroughly 

 believe to have ample warrant and justification. The Khami 

 Ruins at lUilawayo afford ocular demonstration in their walls of 

 any archaeological argument 1 have here employed. One can 

 visit from that centre innumerable pre-historic buildings and rock 

 mines. There we are in the mediaeval country of Mo-Karanga 

 w^ith its almost one thousand years of written liistory. The 

 direct representatives of the nation and dynasty of the old 

 Mmui-nni-tapas, the Karanga, are at this very moment busily 

 working in stores and offices close at hand. To my confidence in 

 the hypothesis which I have had the honour to advocate, must be 

 added the great satisfaction that the recent controversy has but 

 served to place the work of the late ^Ir. Theodore Bent in 

 Mashonaland upon a still firmer and prouder pedestal. 



A diagram illustrating the order of events in Pre-historic 

 and Historic Rhodesia, and showing the relative periods of the 

 Introduction. Display, and Decadence of the Zimbabwe-culture 

 was laid before the meeting of the South African Association 

 for the Advancement of Science at Bulawayo. and its purport 

 may be stated as follows :— 



Exclusive occupation of gold mines area by aboriginal Bush- 

 men from some indefinite time until the arrival of Asiatics who 

 mined for gold with Indian labour. These operations were con- 

 tinued for centuries, the gold being exported to Asia. Arrival 

 of the Bantu on this area about 300 to 400 a.d., or a little later. 

 Erection of Zimbabwe Temple and Tower at an indefinite time 

 between 300 a.d. and 613 a.d., on a site which had been occupied 

 ^ by the Asiatic miners for a prolonged period earlier. Cessation 

 of Asiatic influence, and sudden catastrophe putting an end to 

 old form of rock mining. The Zimbabwe ceremonial falls into 

 desuetude. Earliest decadent type of buildings erected, also 

 crude mining for copper and iron in practice. Subsequent 

 squatters at Ziml)abwe and at other ruins of the oldest Zimbabwe 

 type. The established trade in Rhodesian gold, obtained from 

 river-beds, and exported to India, and its ivory exported to 

 China (Massoude .915 a.d.;. Erection of Matebeleland Ruins 

 rivhami. Dhlo-dhlo, etc.) about 900 a.d. River sand washing for 

 gold general, also working on outcrops for iron and copper ores. 

 The Bushmen practically exterminated. Arrival of Zarde Arabs. 

 Inyanga, horticultural terraces, aqueducts, and labour shelter pits 

 made and used, and the vine introduced from the Persian Gulf. 

 Arrival of Magadoxo Arabs early in eleventh century at Sofala. 

 Zimbabwe reputed to be " very ancient " and in ruins, the natives 

 having no tradition as to its erection or original occupiers. In 

 1 3 14, the Persians from Kilwa usurped the trade of the Arabs on 

 the Sofala coast. Portuguese arrived and settled at Sofala, 1485. 

 In 1560 all buildings said to be "ancient" and "most ancient." 

 also the rock mines. Portuguese influence in Zambesia In'oken 

 in 1760. 



