Zimbabwe

Extensive stone architectural ruins 27 km/17 mi southeast of Victoria in Mashonaland, Zimbabwe. The site was occupied from the 3rd century AD, but the massive stone structures date from the 10th–15th centuries AD. They were probably the work of the Shona people, who established their rule in about AD 1000 and mined minerals for trading.

The new state of Zimbabwe took its name from these ruins, and the national emblem is a bird derived from soapstone sculptures of fish eagles found there. The site comprises hill ruins with the earliest dwellings (10th century AD), a series of stone‐walled enclosures on a granite outcrop known as the Acropolis, a massive elliptical building, or Great Enclosure, with 10‐m/30‐ft stone walls, a ritual or political site known as the Temple, and a conical tower built in a later phase.

Porcelain of the Ming period and golden ornaments have been found in the ruins. Gold, copper, tin, and iron were all mined by the Shona.

The site was a trading centre with particular links to the city of Kilwa on the East African coast. Soapstone figures, probably manufactured at Great Zimbabwe, used material from 24 km/15 mi away, and pottery found in Kilwa contexts was imported from China and the Islamic world, although a distinctive unglazed pottery was made at Kilwa. Trade routes to Persia, India, and the Far East exported gold, copper ingots, and iron gongs through Great Zimbabwe.

The decline of the site roughly coincided with that of Kilwa, and suggests an interdependence affected by other pressures, such as environment or a shift in the exchange network of raw materials traded for imported goods.