RUINS OF RHODESIA

Dominion, Volume 22, Issue 134, 2 March 1929, Page 26

RUINS OF RHODESIA

ZIMABWE MYSTERY

Foi* many years Zimbabwe has been the problem of archaeology (remarks the Melbourne “Age”). With its colossal citadel and temples, its long series of forts spread over the hills and valleys of Rhodesia, it has baffled the scientists who sought to determine its culture and classification. Gaunt in its splendid isolation, it has stood the skeleton of a past civilisation—undefined. .The expedition of the British Association for the Advancement of Science now on its way to make a thorough examination of the ruins hopes to give a definite answer to the question.

One school of research has claimed Zimbabwe to be of Phoenician origin, the site of an ancient colony from which the Children of the Sun shipped their gold to Arabia and Tyre, for sale and distribution throughout the cities of the Mediterranean. Passing through the Pillars of Hercules (Strait of Gibraltar) and round the south of Africa, Hiram of Tyre was believed to have sailed to this port under commission from King Solomon, to secure gold for the adornment of his temple in Jerusalem. After a voyage of three years, HJram returned with gold to the value of four millions sterling.

Others assign the ruins to quite modern times, as none of the trees within the temple are said to be more than one hundred years old. But this would ignore completely the explicit testimony of the Portuguese, who on their first arrival in the country saw Zimbabwe in ruins.

It is agreed by all who have examined the remains that they are associated with the old mines in the vicinity. The quest of pearls and gold was the urge of primitive migrations over the seas, and the earliest date for the trek of the Bantu into these regions is set down as A.D. 900. There is good reason, then, to believe that these mines, which engineers have dated at B.C. 1100, and from which they compute that £75,000,000 was taken, were worked by some nation from overseas. This conclusion agrees well with the distribution of the ruins themselves. The colony of which Zimbabwe was the metropolis was well organised and divided into districts, each’having its capital and possessing extensive and well-defined temple remains atnd numerous smelting furnaces. Scattered around these larger towns are the remains of numerous other, buildings, which, owing to their lack of temples and furnaces, were either treasure houses or defence garrisons against the attacks of the natives. These surrounding negroid tribes would doubtless suplily the foreigner with the necessary labour required for working the mines. The long chain of forts, occupying strategic positions and converging to a well-marked line towards the coast, indicates a transport to the seaboard. The key to the problem will be found probably in the citadel and the great temple. The former of these, built of granite blocks on/the summit of a great kopje, and surrounded with a massive wall, is one of the most imposing ruins in Africa. Within the outer wall are others of granite formation, the intervening spaces being filled in with a stairway ori a graduated plan. So that to reach the summit of the citadel one had to pass round this series of walls. This arrangement supplies an impregnable fortress against attack. Within the central walls have been found conical towers which are now regarded as of Bantu origin. Also the. additions to the walls after the latter design are set down to the Bantu. The structure called “the temple” comprises a number of divisions, the walls of which are falling down, the whole being encircled with a granite wall similar to that of the citadel. In several of these divisions Burkitt, the Cambridge anthropologist, last year discovered Kaffir circular hearts and a large amount of native pottery of the Bantu class. The ruins that spread through valley and over the hills for miles will doubtless fall into the same classification as these larger buildings.

That there are two cultures represented at - Zimababwe is now certain. Since the finds of Burkitt last year, this has been placed beyond- all dispute. As to the latter—the Bantu—there is little diffi-

culty in assigning a date, as he did not arrive in the region till A.D. 900, and the modern native could not possibly be credited with such works. The date set down by the more recent examiners of the site for these Bantu additions, is a period between A.D. 900 and 1100. But what of the earlier buildings that these natives found on the way of their trek Into the south? Who were the searchers after gold who built up this great colony, and took such wealth of gold from the hills, leaving without any trace jof their identity except a few scattered bowls and here and there a wall feature? Who were the men that manned the forts to give safe conduct to the gold escort on its Way to the coast?

Of the theories that have been advanced, we believe that the Phoenician theory has most in its favour. It must be remembered that this race, which, as Herodotus informs us, had its origin in Chaldea,’ divided in the course of its migration into two groups—the Sabaeans, occupying southern Arabia, and the Tyrians, who colonised from Tyre the northern shore of Africa around Carthage. Both these groups had probably some association in Zimbabwe. The Temple of Marib, central shrine of the Sabaeans, had features similar in some respects to those in the lower structures of Zimbabwe. The chevron pattern on the citadel wall corresponds to that of the Arabian temple. We know that the Sabaeans were fabulously rich in gold, of which their own land was destitute. Egyptian monuments of about B.C. 1700 depict the in .ots of gold that abounded in the Kingdom of South Arabia, and the prophet Ezekiel spoke of the “Merchants of Sheba (Sabeae) who occupied the fairs of Israel with their precious stones and gold.” Aristeas tells us that they brought gold in abundance into Rome, and points out that this did not come from their own land. Periplus records that the King of Sheba, Kharabic, in the year A.D. 35 possessed practically all the east coast of Africa. It is significant that in Rhodesia there is a river called “Sabi/’ and a mountain “Fura.” called by the kaffirs “Fur,” and in the Moorish records “Afur.” It suggests at least the ancient title of Ophir, the land of much gold. jit is certain that these Sabaeans or Southern Phoenicians did not get the gold from India, for Arianmis assures us that in ancient times there was very little of the precious metal there.' Commenting on the march of Alexander through that country, he ■ says: “It has been ascertained that all the Indians through whose territories Alexander and his armies marched have no gold. Therefore, India cannot be Ophir of antiquity.’ Where then was it gathered? The words of a modern historian—-Professor Bryce—are highly significant in this connection, and in answer to this question he says: In very remote times there existed, as is known from Egyptian monuments, a trade from South-East Africa into the Red Sea There are other indications that gold used to come from East Africa, but so far as we know it has never been obtained iq quantity from any part of the coast between Cape Guardafui and Mozambique. Thus there are grounds for believing, that a traffic between the Red Sea and the coast south of the Zambesi may thave existed from remote times.” So firmly established in the anpient ’ East was the belief that the Sabaeans Worked these Rhodesian mines that we find Josephus, the great historian of the Jews, and Mohammed, > himself, an Arab, stating that the kingdom of. Sheba, whose queen canje in, state to visit King Solomon, was in South-East Africa.

Whether the western Phoenicians from Tyre, Sidon, and Carthage reached Zimbabwe, in Rhodesia, by sailing down the west coast of Africa, and then round the south, must at' present remain a theory only. As to whether Hiram actually accomplished this voyage or secured his gold from his kinsmen in -South Arabia, cannot be determined until further evidence is forthcoming. That his venture, wherever it took, place, required three years for its accomplishment, would suggest that the gold supply was at a great distance.

Further, the evidence of the bas-reliefs of the period, which have been overlooked by writers on the subject, must be taken into consideration. Hiram brought back with him not only gold, but spices, slaves, and apes. Now not only does tradition associate these slaves with negroids, but on the bas-reliefs representing the time of the construction of Solomon’s Temple they are actually depicted as such. The negroid cast of features is outstanding. Also the apes are shown as cynocephalous. a species common to South-East Africa. This evidence, of course, might be used to strengthen the theory that Hiram used the South Arabian fleets in the route from the Red Sea to South-East Africa. But then he would have to transport his cargo across land on its arrival, and ship it into his own fleet in waiting on the South Palestine coast. There is nothing impossible in this, but it would hardly require three years to carry out. However, what results the present expedition will present to the meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science will be eagerly awaited by all interested in the history of the past. That these will confirm the theory of Phoenician colonists in Rhodesia, who built Zimbabwe during their gold-mining occupation of the country, we fully anticipate.