The Great Wildebeest Migration: The Lost City of Mapungubwe

Monday, January 6, 2014

The Lost City of Mapungubwe

The Golden Rhino of Mapungubwe

We spent the weekend in Mapungubwe National Park and World Heritage Site. The Kingdom of Mapungubwe was the first real kingdom in Africa. Before that, civilizations were ruled by supposed gods like the Pharaohs of Egypt. Mapungubwe was also the first African society to be divided into classes, an aristocratic class (the king and his family) and lower classes (everyone else, like the merchants, farmers, artisans and the shamans.)

Pottery excavated from Mapungubwe

Mapungubwe means the "place of the stone of wisdom." It only lasted for 400 years before it was abandoned in the 14th century. Its highly sophisticated people traded gold and ivory with China, India and Egypt.

The site lies on the open savannah at the confluence of the Limpopo and Shashe Rivers in the province of Limpopo. It abuts the northern border of South Africa and the borders of Zimbabwe and Botswana, a crossroads location that helps explain its prosperous past as an important trading centre, particularly at the height of its powers between about 1220 and 1300 AD. A free-standing structure rising 30 metres above the surrounding grasslands, Mapungubwe is topped by impregnable cliffs all around.

Gold beads, jewelry and other artifacts

Since its discovery in 1932 this Iron Age site has been excavated by the University of Pretoria. However, the findings were kept from public attention until 1993, just prior to South Africa's first democratic elections, because evidence of a highly advanced indigenous society existing centuries before European colonialism spread across Africa ran contrary to the racist ideology of apartheid.

"The remains in the Mapungubwe cultural landscape are a remarkably complete testimony to the growth and subsequent decline of the Mapungubwe state," the World Heritage Committee says in its assessment. "What survives are the almost untouched remains of the palace sites and also the entire settlement area dependent upon them, as well as two earlier capital sites, the whole presenting an unrivaled picture of the development of social and political structures over some 400 years."

Our heritage guide drove us to the base of Mapungubwe hill.

We then set out on foot to climb to the King's palace. Our guide carried a fully loaded rifle with him because we were right in the middle of a game preserve that holds four out of the Big Five - lion, leopard, elephant and rhino. Not to mention black mambo snakes and hyenas. Please don't mention them!

The elephants loved hanging out in this valley.

The first place we went was into a dormant excavation hole set up as an exhibition site.

We could actually see the levels of artifact and fossil deposits.

Our guide explained the different phases of the excavation and the chronological eras to which they corresponded. I felt like I was back in Macedonia on my archaeological dig! Where's my shovel?

The excavation has been completed for now. The University of Pretoria, the South African government and the archaeological community at large are all in agreement that the site has been excavated enough to tell the story of Mapungubwe and that the rest of the hidden treasure should be left undisturbed until further information is needed or deemed scientifically necessary.

Then came the best part. We climbed up these steps (with bats squeaking underfoot) to see where the King lived. Holy Indiana Jones, Batman! I hate bats!

There were still ancient grinding mortars lying about on top of the royal hill.

This is the pathway to the place where the remains of any people found during the excavation were reburied. It was very important to the descendents of these ancient people that their remains be treated with respect and reburied in the traditional way.