Cows and Kings: Models for Zimbabwes

Abstract

This paper discusses the complex societies which flourished on the central plateau of southern Africa between the Zambezi and Limpopo rivers between c. AD 800 and 1500, and the models which can be proposed for how they functioned and why they developed. The principal archaeological monuments left by these societies are their regional political centres, the stone enclosures or zimbabwes (fig. 1), of which Great Zimbabwe is the best known and most elaborate (fig. 2). (The traditional spelling zimbabwe(s) is used in this paper rather than the correct but lesser known spelling dzimbahwe singular and madzimbahwe plural.) They varied considerably in size, but the largest probably housed populations numbering several thousands — Great Zimbabwe itself has been estimated to have had a population of some 30,000 people (Huffman 1984) — and their construction implies organized labour on a substantial scale. The main population lived in densely clustered huts outside the stone enclosure. Artefacts suggest that they were commoners, with the servants of the king and minor officials living close to the central hill. Beyond was an outer ring of prestige residences with their own housing units (fig. 2). ‘Great Zimbabwe was the product of a highly stratified society: the stone walls are essentially demonstrations of the prestige of a ruling class, a symbol of political authority that spread over the whole plateau’ (Garlake 1973, 14).