The chronology of the Valley Enclosures: implications for the interpretation of Great Zimbabwe

Abstract

The recent structuralist model of the social organization of space at Great Zimbabwe, proposed by Huffman, is critically examined in the light of new chronological data. Architectural histories of the Western and Central Valley Enclosures (Posselt and Phillips Ruins respectively) are used to show the complex changes that occur through time in the social ‘meaning’ of spatial organization. It is argued that these changes are not adequately accounted for in Huffman's model. The Western Valley Enclosure, dated on the basis of a large piece of blue-on-white Chinese porcelain of the Honghzi period (Ming Dynasty, AD 1488–1505) recovered from a sealed context, was still occupied when most other areas of Great Zimbabwe were abandoned. Huffman's incorporation of these enclosures into a synchronic structuralist interpretation of the site is therefore probably invalid. These new data highlight the importance of chronological control in the development of structural and symbolic interpretations of Great Zimbabwe.