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Zimbabwe Culture before Mapungubwe: New Evidence from Mapela Hill, South-Western Zimbabwe
Across the globe, the emergence of complex societies excites intense academic debate in archaeology and allied disciplines. Not surprisingly, in southern Africa the traditional assumption that the evolution of socio-political complexity began with ideological transformations from K2 to Mapungubwe be...
Autores principales: | , , , , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
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Public Library of Science
2014
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4215987/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25360782 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0111224 |
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author | Chirikure, Shadreck Manyanga, Munyaradzi Pollard, A. Mark Bandama, Foreman Mahachi, Godfrey Pikirayi, Innocent |
author_facet | Chirikure, Shadreck Manyanga, Munyaradzi Pollard, A. Mark Bandama, Foreman Mahachi, Godfrey Pikirayi, Innocent |
author_sort | Chirikure, Shadreck |
collection | PubMed |
description | Across the globe, the emergence of complex societies excites intense academic debate in archaeology and allied disciplines. Not surprisingly, in southern Africa the traditional assumption that the evolution of socio-political complexity began with ideological transformations from K2 to Mapungubwe between CE1200 and 1220 is clouded in controversy. It is believed that the K2−Mapungubwe transitions crystallised class distinction and sacred leadership, thought to be the key elements of the Zimbabwe culture on Mapungubwe Hill long before they emerged anywhere else. From Mapungubwe (CE1220–1290), the Zimbabwe culture was expressed at Great Zimbabwe (CE1300–1450) and eventually Khami (CE1450–1820). However, new fieldwork at Mapela Hill, when coupled with a Bayesian chronology, offers tremendous fresh insights which refute this orthodoxy. Firstly, Mapela possesses enormous prestige stone-walled terraces whose initial construction date from the 11(th) century CE, almost two hundred years earlier than Mapungubwe. Secondly, the basal levels of the Mapela terraces and hilltop contain élite solid dhaka (adobe) floors associated with K2 pottery and glass beads. Thirdly, with a hilltop and flat area occupation since the 11(th) century CE, Mapela exhibits evidence of class distinction and sacred leadership earlier than K2 and Mapungubwe, the supposed propagators of the Zimbabwe culture. Fourthly, Mapungubwe material culture only appeared later in the Mapela sequence and therefore post-dates the earliest appearance of stone walling and dhaka floors at the site. Since stone walls, dhaka floors and class distinction are the essence of the Zimbabwe culture, their earlier appearance at Mapela suggests that Mapungubwe can no longer be regarded as the sole cradle of the Zimbabwe culture. This demands not just fresh ways of accounting for the rise of socio-political complexity in southern Africa, but also significant adjustments to existing models. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-4215987 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2014 |
publisher | Public Library of Science |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-42159872014-11-05 Zimbabwe Culture before Mapungubwe: New Evidence from Mapela Hill, South-Western Zimbabwe Chirikure, Shadreck Manyanga, Munyaradzi Pollard, A. Mark Bandama, Foreman Mahachi, Godfrey Pikirayi, Innocent PLoS One Research Article Across the globe, the emergence of complex societies excites intense academic debate in archaeology and allied disciplines. Not surprisingly, in southern Africa the traditional assumption that the evolution of socio-political complexity began with ideological transformations from K2 to Mapungubwe between CE1200 and 1220 is clouded in controversy. It is believed that the K2−Mapungubwe transitions crystallised class distinction and sacred leadership, thought to be the key elements of the Zimbabwe culture on Mapungubwe Hill long before they emerged anywhere else. From Mapungubwe (CE1220–1290), the Zimbabwe culture was expressed at Great Zimbabwe (CE1300–1450) and eventually Khami (CE1450–1820). However, new fieldwork at Mapela Hill, when coupled with a Bayesian chronology, offers tremendous fresh insights which refute this orthodoxy. Firstly, Mapela possesses enormous prestige stone-walled terraces whose initial construction date from the 11(th) century CE, almost two hundred years earlier than Mapungubwe. Secondly, the basal levels of the Mapela terraces and hilltop contain élite solid dhaka (adobe) floors associated with K2 pottery and glass beads. Thirdly, with a hilltop and flat area occupation since the 11(th) century CE, Mapela exhibits evidence of class distinction and sacred leadership earlier than K2 and Mapungubwe, the supposed propagators of the Zimbabwe culture. Fourthly, Mapungubwe material culture only appeared later in the Mapela sequence and therefore post-dates the earliest appearance of stone walling and dhaka floors at the site. Since stone walls, dhaka floors and class distinction are the essence of the Zimbabwe culture, their earlier appearance at Mapela suggests that Mapungubwe can no longer be regarded as the sole cradle of the Zimbabwe culture. This demands not just fresh ways of accounting for the rise of socio-political complexity in southern Africa, but also significant adjustments to existing models. Public Library of Science 2014-10-31 /pmc/articles/PMC4215987/ /pubmed/25360782 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0111224 Text en © 2014 Chirikure et al http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are properly credited. |
spellingShingle | Research Article Chirikure, Shadreck Manyanga, Munyaradzi Pollard, A. Mark Bandama, Foreman Mahachi, Godfrey Pikirayi, Innocent Zimbabwe Culture before Mapungubwe: New Evidence from Mapela Hill, South-Western Zimbabwe |
title | Zimbabwe Culture before Mapungubwe: New Evidence from Mapela Hill, South-Western Zimbabwe |
title_full | Zimbabwe Culture before Mapungubwe: New Evidence from Mapela Hill, South-Western Zimbabwe |
title_fullStr | Zimbabwe Culture before Mapungubwe: New Evidence from Mapela Hill, South-Western Zimbabwe |
title_full_unstemmed | Zimbabwe Culture before Mapungubwe: New Evidence from Mapela Hill, South-Western Zimbabwe |
title_short | Zimbabwe Culture before Mapungubwe: New Evidence from Mapela Hill, South-Western Zimbabwe |
title_sort | zimbabwe culture before mapungubwe: new evidence from mapela hill, south-western zimbabwe |
topic | Research Article |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4215987/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25360782 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0111224 |
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