Mapungubwe and Great Zimbabwe: The origin and spread of social complexity in southern Africa

Huffman, Thomas N.

doi:10.1016/j.jaa.2008.10.004

Cited by 136 publications

(99 citation statements)

References 22 publications

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“…This initiated what is now known as the elite Zimbabwe Pattern (also ethnographically derived, associated with a palace of the king, residence for royal wives, public court and a place for guards, with cattle no longer at the centre; Huffman 1982Huffman , 1996Huffman , 2007. According to Huffman (1982Huffman ( , 2009, this ideological transition marks the beginning of sociopolitical complexity in southern Africa. It is also associated with political centralization and the emergence of Mapungubwe as an influential capital.…”

Section: A Historiography Of the Zimbabwe Culturementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Although various archaeologists such as Pwiti (1991Pwiti ( , 1996, Garlake (1978) and Pikirayi (2001) have argued for the importance of local factors such as cattle and religion in the development of sociopolitical complexity, today the most commonly held assumptions about the Zimbabwe culture are as follows: (1) K2 and Mapungubwe are the origins of regional sociopolitical complexity (Huffman 1982(Huffman , 1996(Huffman , 2000(Huffman , 2009, (2) sociopolitical complexity is only defined on the basis of class distinction (i.e., the physical separation of the rulers from the ruled), (3) the spatial organization at Zimbabwe culture places was one and the same (Huffman 1982(Huffman , 1996(Huffman , 2009) and (4) Mapungubwe (AD 1220-1290) is the first Zimbabwe culture state, which was succeeded by Great Zimbabwe (AD 1300-1450) and in turn followed by Khami (AD 1450-1820) (Huffman 2000(Huffman , 2009. Unequivocally, this suggests that the rise and fall of these places occurred in tandem.…”

Section: A Historiography Of the Zimbabwe Culturementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Unequivocally, this suggests that the rise and fall of these places occurred in tandem. Not surprisingly, Mapungubwe was nominated for the World Heritage List on the basis that it was the first Zimbabwe culture state and capital (DEAT 2002), one that failed as a result of environmental constraints and resulting in the rise of Great Zimbabwe (see also Huffman 2000Huffman , 2009. Perhaps the only worrisome point here is that this framework is based on limited evidence that not only excluded the basal levels of Khami, but ignored the significance of similarities in material culture and presence of prestige goods at many sites dating to the first-and second-millennium AD interface (Chirikure et al 2012).…”

Section: A Historiography Of the Zimbabwe Culturementioning

confidence: 99%

“…For example, according to Schofield (1937), "the pottery of Zimbabwe III [Great Zimbabwe] was similar to class MI at Mapungubwe, indicating perhaps that the latter came within the sphere of Zimbabwe III about the fourteenth or fifteenth century" (own emphasis). The legacy of this view is that although the argument was flipped by Huffman (1982Huffman ( , 2000Huffman ( , 2009 to make Great Zimbabwe fall under the state of Mapungubwe in the thirteenth century, the basic idea is still that of the domination of southern Africa by a single entity at a time. Thus, Garlake (1982:6) observed that even though new concepts were introduced to the study of the Zimbabwe culture particularly in the 1980s, the basic paradigm remained entirely unchanged going back through Summers, Robinson and Schofield, in that little attention was given to smaller sites while internally generated change was downplayed in explaining major cultural changes.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Not surprisingly, the beginning of sociopolitical complexity is reduced to one point on the landscape-the Shashi-Limpopo confluence area-where, purportedly, ideological transitions associated with class distinction were nurtured before being materialized on Mapungubwe Hill (Huffman 1982(Huffman , 2009. Indeed, Mapungubwe is assumed to represent the earliest palace which is spatially organized like Great Zimbabwe and other settlements that came after (Sinclair 1987;Huffman and Vogel 1991;Huffman 1996;Pikirayi 2001).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 4 more Smart Citations

New Pathways of Sociopolitical Complexity in Southern Africa

Chirikure¹,

Manyanga²,

Pikirayi

et al. 2013

Afr Archaeol Rev

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Much is known about the economy and spatial organization of Zimbabwe culture entities of Mapungubwe, Great Zimbabwe and Khami but less in terms of their origins and relationship with each other. Based on little tangible evidence, it is believed and widely accepted that the societies based at Mapungubwe (AD 1220-1290), Great Zimbabwe (AD 1300-1450) and Khami (AD 1450-1820) rose, developed and eclipsed in tandem. A recent reexamination of the relationship between these settlements and related ones using local ceramics, imported artefacts, stone architecture and Bayesian modelling suggests this may not have been the case. The synthesis proffered revelations which temper the widely accepted assumption that sociopolitical complexity in southern Africa began in the Shashi-Limpopo Valley before anywhere else in the region. Firstly, there are numerous Zhizo and Leopard's Kopje sites that predate Mapungubwe but contain prestige goods and stone structures dating from the late first millennium AD. Secondly, material culture studies and modelled radiocarbon dates indicate that Great Zimbabwe evolved out of Gumanye while Khami, like Mapungubwe, may have developed out of the Leopard's Kopje. In fact, Great Zimbabwe was already a place of importance when Mapungubwe collapsed. Thirdly, Khami and Great Zimbabwe overlapped for over a century, before the latter buckled. Therefore, the evolution of sociopolitical complexity in southern Africa may have followed trajectories that are different from what the current understanding implies. (1450-1820 ap. J-C) auraient été fondés, se seraient développés et se seraient effondrés successivement. De récentes recherches ont exploré les relations entre ces différents sites ainsi que ceux qui y sont rattachés, en étudiant les céramiques locales, les objets importés, la typologie des murs de pierres et notamment les préférences résidentielles, et la modélisation Bayesienne. La synthèse permet de tempérer la vision dominante selon laquelle la complexité sociopolitique dans le Sud de l'Afrique a commencé dans la vallée du Shashi-Limpopo, avant tout autre site dans la région. Tout d'abord, il y a de nombreux sites antérieurs à Mapungubwe, Zhizo et Leopard's Kopje, avec des biens de prestige et des fortifications en pierre datant de la fin du premier millénaire ap. J-C. Ces caractéristiques seraient apparus à K2 et Mapungubwe dans la dépression du Limpopo. Deuxièmement, la culture matérielle et les datations carbones indiquent que Great Zimbabwe était déjà un lieu important quand Mapungubwe s'est effondré. Enfin, Khami et Great Zimbabwe coexistent pendant plus d'un siècle, avant que ce dernier ne tombe en déchéance. Par conséquent, la complexité sociopolitique dans le Sud de l'Afrique a probablement emprunté des trajectoires différentes de celles qui sont actuellement tracées avec les connaissances disponibles.

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Section: A Historiography Of the Zimbabwe Culturementioning

confidence: 99%

Section: A Historiography Of the Zimbabwe Culturementioning

confidence: 99%

Section: A Historiography Of the Zimbabwe Culturementioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 3 more Smart Citations

New Pathways of Sociopolitical Complexity in Southern Africa

Chirikure¹,

Manyanga²,

Pikirayi

et al. 2013

Afr Archaeol Rev

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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Great Zimbabwe's water

et al. 2016

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Once a thriving center with commercial links to the Indian Ocean, what remains of Great Zimbabwe is its monumental architecture. Its rise and decline have long been linked to environmental changes in southern Zimbabwe, beginning in the second half of the 13th century with agropastoralists thriving in the region's well-watered granite hills and valleys, and culminating in a vast urban and trading society. Later, c.1550 AD, it is argued, drying climate, land overexploitation, and changing regional trading patterns would lead to the decline of Great Zimbabwe. A review of this model is necessary since Great Zimbabwe and communities living around it survive in a region constantly threatened by water crises. However, we still know very little on the forms and uses of water and how these have influenced its development and demise. This article offers a multilayered review of available information on water, including new records on environmental sequences, modern water sources, and provisioning models from in and around Great Zimbabwe. The integration of both old and new datasets allows us to follow the history of people-water interaction from early times to the present. We argue that understanding of the local environment was vital in managing both water excesses and shortages in the past, and show that some of this knowledge survives among indigenous communities linked to the site and living in the surrounding landscape. While nearby Masvingo town has persistently lived under water-emergency conditions, farmers around Great Zimbabwe mitigate shortfalls of modern water provision through a balanced and mutually vital interaction with natural water resources such as springs and soil moisture.

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Climate, history, society over the last millennium in southeast Africa

Hannaford

Nash

2016

WIREs Climate Change

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Climate variability has been causally linked to the transformation of society in pre--industrial southeast Africa. A growing critique, however, challenges the simplicity of ideas that identify climate as an agent of past societal change; arguing instead that the value of historical climate--society research lies in understanding human vulnerability and resilience, as well as how past societies framed, responded and adapted to climatic phenomena. We work across this divide to present the first critical analysis of climate--society relationships in southeast Africa over the last millennium. To achieve this, we review the now considerable body of scholarship on the role of climate in regional societal transformation, and bring forward new perspectives on climate--society interactions across three areas and periods using the theoretical frameworks of vulnerability and resilience. We find that recent advances in palaeoclimatology and archaeology give weight to the suggestion that responses to climate variability played an important part in early state formation in the Limpopo valley (1000--1300), though evidence remains insufficient to clarify similar debates concerning Great Zimbabwe (1300--1450/1520). Written and oral evidence from the Zambezi--Save (1500--1830) and KwaZulu--Natal areas (1760--1828) nevertheless reveals a plurality of past responses to climate variability. These were underpinned by the organization of food systems, the role of climate--related ritual and political power, social networks, and livelihood assets and capabilities, as well as the nature of climate variability itself. To conclude, we identify new lines of research on climate, history and society, and discuss how these can more directly inform contemporary African climate adaptation challenges.2

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Mapungubwe and Great Zimbabwe: The origin and spread of social complexity in southern Africa

Cited by 136 publications

References 22 publications

New Pathways of Sociopolitical Complexity in Southern Africa

New Pathways of Sociopolitical Complexity in Southern Africa

Great Zimbabwe's water

Climate, history, society over the last millennium in southeast Africa

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