Zimbabwe Kadzi
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Taken from: CONTINUITY AND CHANGE An archaeological study of farming communities in northern Zimbabwe AD 500-1700 by Gilbert Pwiti
Test Pit I (1 x 1m)
Layer 1
Containing a lot of pottery and some bone as well as shell and a few glass beads. This went down to about 20 cm; (after the Middle Ages)
Trench I (2 x 2m)
Some shell beads and one blue glass bead were recovered at about 55 cm, including a small bone decorated with cross hatched incisions. (about 1200AD)
Trench III (2 x 2m)
Layer I between 16 and 20 cm and containing a very high proportion of pottery as well as the occasional glass and shell beads were recovered. A fragment of an ivory bangle as well as a fragment of cowrie shell were also recovered. An iron adze was recovered at about 16 cm below the surface. (after the Middle Ages)
Trench IV (2 x 3m)
Auguring here had also yielded two glass beads, one yellow and one blue. Layer 1 going down to 10 cm. This contained a few potsherds. One blue glass bead was recovered. (after the Middle Ages)
Seven glass beads were recovered from the upper levels of the stratigraphy. One cowrie shell was recovered from Trench III. The glass beads are sourced to Persia and India (Sinclair 1987).
At Kadzi, they occur in rather small quantities in the upper horizons of the stratigraphy, and are absent lower down. This seems to attest to their late introduction at the site. However, the important point here is that they are present in the sequence, and illustrate to us the probable antiquity of the establishment of external links between our area and the Indian Ocean coast.
Zimbabwe: Tsindi
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Taken from: Excavations at Lekkerwater Ruins, Tsindi Hill, Theydon Zimbabwe by Sheila Rud. In: The South African Archaeological Bulletin, Vol. 39, No. 140 (Dec., 1984).
The Tsindi Ruins are southeast of Harare not far from Marondera.
From the archaeological excavations and the radio-carbon dates of charcoal remains it appears that the first walls of the settlement were built in the 13th century and were added to in the 15th century. These are of the same type as those found at Great Zimbabwe. During the 17th or 18th century large clay huts were built within the enclosure and it is believed they were used for religious purposes by spirit mediums.
One of the many dry-stone monuments, or madzimbahwe found in Zimbabwe.
Once this stone enclosure with its thatched huts was the elite residence of a local ruler and the probable site of a traditional religious centre housing a spirit medium.
Of a total of 64 glass beads, only two came from sealed deposits. One white opaque oblate (5*7mm) from trench Via layer 3 (the deepest at bedrock at 6.3m) (Robinson 1961b), and one grey-blue translucent cylinder (10*5mm) from trench VIb (Robinson 1961a) in layer four (the deepest at 3.6m). All the rest were found unsealed as was the single cowrie found.
They surely date from the Middle Ages (13th-15th century) but more precise dating is not given.
Zimbabwe: Great Zimbabwe
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Taken from: Chinese-style ceramics in East Africa from the 9th to 16th century: A case of changing value and symbols in the multi-partner global trade. By Bing Zhao 2015.
(Except of thousands of imported beads also Chinese porcelain was found.) (And also one coin from Kilwa.)
The sherds from Great Zimbabwe include around 20 bowl and plate sherds of Longquan green-glazed stoneware, a green-grey glazed stoneware bowl fragment from the Zhuangbian kiln site (Putian in Fujian Province), and three blue-and-white porcelain sherds from Jingdezhen in Jiangxi. They are all dated to the period from the beginning of the 14th to the end of the 15th century.
As historians have demonstrated, it were local coastal merchants (not Swahili) who operated direct exchange with inland areas. They brought with them exotic goods, firstly Indo-Pacific glass beads early in the 7th–8th century, then from the 10th century onward Egyptian glassware. The available Chinese ceramics may have arrived later, from the 12th century onwards. For the period of the 13th–early 16th centuries, Kilwa played a role in local distribution of Chinese imports coming from the Indian Ocean into the inland sites that provided gold, copper, and other highly sought commodities in global trade. It is interesting to note that Chinese-style ceramics, as well as glass beads, reached inland areas through another network, different from that operated along the Swahili coast. Meanwhile, archaeology confirms a similar role as social symbol, as these imports were found in a high concentration at the tombs of elite that were involved in maritime trade. These exotic goods functioned thus as a symbol and materialization of mercantile power.