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The controversial lintels from Great Zimbabwe

Article (PDF Available) · March 1979 with 2,386 Reads 
DOI: 10.1017/S0003598X00105800
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Thomas Huffman
J.C. Vogel
27.92 · University of the Witwatersrand

Abstract

The following note is by Thomas N. Huffman, Department of Archaeology, University of the Witwatersrand (formerly National Museums
and Monuments of Rhodesia), and John C. Vogel, National Physical Research Laboratory, CSIR, Pretoria. They wish to thank Mr F. L.
Orpen, formerly of the Rhodesia Forestry Commission, for identifying the wood.

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Antiquity

enclosure which may have ex

enclosure extended over the whole present sys system
tem of fields. Roy's map shows that
hill-ttop (some 40 ha
hill- ha).). Tw
Two ditches
ditches which
which seeseem
m to much of Bra Brandon Hill had already in 1772 been
mark the boundary of such an enclosure are visible divi
ivided
ded by hedge gess into rectangular fields. A road,
as crop marks fro romm a point ju just E of of the farm or track-way, with side-ditches, leads out out from the
building at SO 40807214, whence they follow the E ga
gatte of
of Brandon Camp mp:: a little beyond the outer
475 ft (i. (i.e.
e. 14
1455 m) conto
contour,
ur, as drawn on the ditch, it makes an angular cha change in direction to
1: 25,000 OS map, map, westwards to SO 4°207198, the S and th then continu
continueses straight
straight for for at least
where th thee denuded remains of a bank, too large to 250 m. A less clearly marked track leads obliquely
be accou
accounted fo for by the fi fieeld-boundary that that south-eastwards from the S gate te,, perha
perhaps not an
formerly followe wed d part of this lin linee, continu
nues
es the
the original entrance, and there there are cropmarks of
cir
irccuit to SO 4°°372°3, a tota total dis
distance ofof nearly ditche
hess, not all of antiquity, dividing the area. area. A
one km. From that point, the limit of the the en-
en- chance to observe sections of of some of these
clos
osur
uree probabl
probably y runs to the the VVVVcorner of Brandon features would have bee eenn provide
ovidedd by the great
Camp. Along the N side of the hill, signs of any trench for the pipes of of the
the Elan aqueduct carried
such circuit are as ye yet undetermined. Few hillforts across the site som some 70 years ago, and again in
of comparabl
comparable size are known anywher ere,
e, and none 1957-8, when an additional pipe pipe was laid to meet meet
in this neighbourhood. Even a lightly defended Birmingham's growing needs needs for water. The mark
enclosure of such large size attached to a camp is of this
this late
latest operation is visible at the the lowe
lower edge of of
very unusual. May the enclosure have been a PL. VlIla. Surplus eart
rthh remaining after the
gathering-ground for the local population at a time aqueduct-trench had been fill filled
ed in has has caused the
of a new or unexpected threat? For this, Brandon whiite sca
wh scar at the bottom of th the left-h
left-haand ed edge of
Hill would seem well suited by geography. geography.* If the the PL. VIll
VIlla, while PL. vIllb
vIllb shows the spoil-tip
threat were in fact the Roman Roman advance, this projecting from the edge of of the
the scarp in a narrow
response may may reflect the realrealization that even hill- hill- field
fie ld at the foot of the
the picture. J. K. S T J 0 SE P H
J.
forts with their mas masssive defences provi vid
ded no
RCHM. 1934
934.. Inventory of Herefordshire, III.
guarantee of security against Roman attack. What Y, w. 1973. Milita
ROY,
RO tary
ry antiquities of the Romans in
more striking local demonstration could could ther
there be Britain
ritain..
of Roman power, if after the capture of such a sit site,
e, a ST JOSEPH, J. K. 1961. Air reconnaissance in Britain,
Roman mi military presence were maintained within 1958-60, J. Roman Stud.,
Stud., LI, 119-35.
its innermost defences? 1969.
196 9. Air reconnaissance in Britain, 1965-68, J.
Roman Stud., LIX, 104-28.
Photography ove over the years shows various various other STANFORD, s. c. 19
1970.
70. The Roman for orts
ts at Leintwa
Leintwardine
featutures
res on top of the hill. There are low banks, and Buckton, Trans. Woolhope Natur. Fld Club,
possibly agricultur turaal divi
divissions, earlie ierr than the "''{XIX,222-326.
1972. The function and population of hillf hillforts
orts in the
• For a disc
iscussion
ussion of hillforts of the Middle Marches, Central Marches, in (eds) F. Lynch & C. Burgess,
with distribution maps, see Stanford,
Stanford, 1972. Prehistoric man in Wales and the Wes
West, 3°7-19.

The following note is by Thomas N. Huffman, was sent to W. F. LibbLibbyy at Chicago for radio-
Depart
artment
ment of Archaeology, Universit
University of the carbon dating. Since the result, 1415 ± 160 bp,
result, 1415
Witwatersrand (formerly NationaNational Museums and was not compatible with
with the imports recove
recovered by
Monuments of Rhodesia), and Jo John C. Vogel, MacIver (1906) and Caton-Thompson (1931), the
Nationnal Physical Research Laboratory, CSIR,
Natio samp
sa mple more, to yield 1344 ± 160 bp
le was run twice mor
Pretoria
ria.. They wish to than thank Mr F. L. Orpen, and 1271 ± 260 bp. The weighted av average of
formerly of the Rhodesia Forestry Commission, for for theese measure
th rements
ments was the
then gi
given (Libby
(Libby, 1952):
identifying the
the wood.
In 1950 the warden of the Great Zimbabwe
C-613 Linte
Lintel I 1362 ± 104 bp
590 ad
Ruin
Ru ins,
s, MrMr S. D. Sandes, located tw two wooden
lintels over a drain in Wa
Wall
ll 6 of the Gr
Grea
eatt Enc
Enclosure. Portions of Lint
Lintel II
II were also dated by Libby
Libby
The timber erss were remove
ovedd unde
under the direction of (1954), and at th
the short-live
vedd laboratory of the
Mr K. R. RobinsRobinsoon, Chief Inspe
Inspector of of Monu- University of London (Zeuner,
(Zeuner, 1955), with similar
ments (Robinson, 1950), and a pie piece ofof Linte
Lintel I results:

C-917 Lintel II 1506 ± 350 bp Relative carbon-I3 content, a 13 = -25'8 per

444 ad
GL-19 Lintel II 1240 ± 80 bp
710 ad
The complete list of dates was initially interpreted
in this journal (Summers, 1955), and two alterna-
tive explanations were offered: the results genuinely
dated the building of the Great Enclosure; or the
wood had been taken from an earlier feature and re-
used. The CI4 dates were used by some to bolster
the opinions that favoured exotic origins for Great
Zimbabwe, even though these were inconsistent
with independent evidence (e.(e.g. Dart, 1955).
Large scale investigations at the ruins in 1958
(Summers, Robinson and Whitty, 1961) confirmed
the theory evolved by previous research of the
essentially African nature and medieval date of the
settlement. New radiocarbon dates from the
Acropolis likewise demonstrated that Great Zim-
babwe was not built before AD 1100 (Robinson,
1961).
At least 50 radiocarbon dates for the Rhodesian
Iron Age were available by 1971, and the building
sequence could be further compressed to between
AD 1200 and AD 1450 (Garlake, 1973; Huffman,
1972). Despite the overwhelming evidence that the
original lintel dates were unreliable, they were still
used as evidence for a 'pre-Bantu' origin of the
Zimbabwe Culture (e.g. Gayre, 1972).
To prevent further incorrect interpretations,
remaining portions of the two lintels were recently
dated at the National Physical Research Labora-
tory in Pretoria:
Pta-792 Zimbabwe Lintel I 650 ± 50 bp
1300 ad
Sapwood of Androstachys johnsonii beam, c. 6 cm in
diameter, collected in 1950 from above drain in
Wall 6, Enclosure 14 of the Great Enclosure,
Zimbabwe. Made available by C. K. Cooke in 1972.
7 g of wood pretreated with acid before processing.
Result corrected for isotope fractionation; relative
carbon-I3 content (w.r.t. PDB standard), a 13 =
-25''3 per cent.
-25
Pta-1594 Zimbabwe Lintel II 620 ± 40 bp
1330 ad
Outer rings of Spirostachys africana beam of 9 cm
in diameter, collected in 1950 from above drain in
Wall 6, Enclosure 14 of the Great Enclosure,
Zimbabwe. Submitted 1976 by T. N. Huffman. 6 g
of wood pretreated with acid before processing.
cent; result corrected for isotope fractionation.
A further lintel reclaimed from the covered
passage in the Western Enclosure on the Acropolis
was also dated:
Pta-II92 Zimbabwe Lintel III 640 ± 40 bp
1310 ad
Outer heartwood from Colophospermum mopane
beam 9 cm in diameter, collected in August 1973
from wall of covered passage leading from the
Western Enclosure to the South Compartments on
the Acropolis at Zimbabwe. Submitted 1974 by
T. N. Huffman. 8 g of wood pretreated with acid
and alkali before processing. Relative carbon-I3
content, a 13 = -24'9 per cent; result corrected for
isotope fractionation.
All three lintels were recovered from walls with
P or Pia coursing; and so the Acropolis lintel is
independent confirmation of the fourteenth-
century dates for the controversial lintels. Further-
more, these dates are in the correct position in the
internal sequence at Great Zimbabwe as well as
in complete accordance with dates from other
Zimbabwe Culture sites. Consequently, the early
measurements on the lintels were incorrect.
The erroneous analyses were due in part to the
use by the Chicago laboratory of the solid carbon
method (Libby, 1955), which has since been
shown to produce unreliable results occasionally
(de Vries and Barendsen, 1954). The original
results were also some of the first radiocarbon
dates for sub-Saharan Africa, and the technique
was still ifl its infancy.
infancy. Radiocarbon dating today
has been vastly improved, and these new dates
reflect this greater accuracy.
Future research will undoubtedly refine the
dating of the sequence at Great Zimbabwe, but the
redating of the lintels eliminates the only remaining
major inconsistency.
CATON-THOMPSON, G. 1931..
1931 The Zimbabwe culture:
ruins and reactions (Oxford).
DART. R. 1955. Foreign influences of the Zimbabwe and
pre-Zimbabwe eras. Nada. XXXII. 19-30.
DE VRIES. H. and G. W. BARENDSEN. 1954. Measurements
of age by the Carbon-14 technique, Nature, 174,
1138..
1138
GARLAKE, P.P. s. 1973. Great Zimbabwe (London).
GAYRE. R. 1972. The origin of the Zimbabwean civilisation
(Salisbury).
1972.. The rise and fall of Zimbabwe, J.
HUFFMAN, T. N. 1972
Afr. Rist., XIII (3), 355-66.

LIBBY, W. F. 1952. Chicago radiocarbon dates, III, on the Acropolis Hill, Occ. Pap.
1961,, Excavations
1961
Sciena, 120
20,, 673-81.
673-81. Nat. Mu
Mus. Sth. Rhod. A. III (23), 159-92.
1954. Chicago radiocarbon datess,
date v, Sciel1a
Sciel1a,, 120, SUMMERS,
SU MMERS,R.
R. 1955. The dating of the Zimbabwe ruins,
741-2• Antiquity, XXIX, 107-II
107-II..
1955. Radiocarbolldatillg,
Radiocarbolldatillg, 2nd ed. (Chicago). SUMMERS, R., K. R. ROBINSON
ROBINSON andand A. WHITTY. 1961.
CIVER,D. R. 1906. Mediaeval Rhodesia (London)
MACIVER,
MA (London).. Zimb 1958, Occ. Pap. Nat. Mus.
Zimbaabwe excavations 1958,
ROBIN
INSON,
SON,K.
K. R. 1950. Removal of timbers built into th thee Sth. Rhod. A. III (23), 157-132.
foundations of the Inner Wall of the Parallel ZEUNER,F. E. 1955. Radiocarbon dates, Annual Report
Passage-Elliptical Building or 'Temple' Zimbabwe. Institute of Archaeology in London, X l.
Unpublished report in files of National Museu
Museums
ms
and Monuments of Rhodesia.

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