Theories: Who built all the ancient stone structures& mined that great quantity of gold in Zim? (1) the most popular theory, these days is that the Mashona people did it about 6 centuries ago when they were a great empire, under a royal dynasty called Monomotapa. (2) the next popularity is the Arab theory, which sees the Emozaid Arabs as having been miners& builders about 12 centuries ago. (3) then we come to the ancient theory which sees it as the work of the Phoenicians for King Solomon, nearly 3 000 yrs ago, it wqs the most popular theory @first. (4) the most ancient theory is that it was all the work of the Egyptians, about 3&half 000 yrs ago. While a great amount of research has been done, with integrity, certain factors have influeced media promotion of,& therefore the popularity of, the different theories. The 1st one has a present day popular (political impact) while the 3rd one suffers bcoz of an aversion to matters biblical. Arabs An important key to understand the later back ground scene is to have grasp of the history of the Arabs who came to this region. (J.E MULLAN) of the missionary background published a book in 1969. He had close contact with certain tribes, which had close certain traditions. & That prompted him to do futher research, he very thoroughly researched the histories of all tribes that had impacted upon what is now Zim. He also intensively studied Arab writings pertaining to the period as well as some Portuguese writings& consulted all the relevant writings by European Authors. The well confirmed backgeound, from which he drew his conclusions, is set out as follows, the 1st inhabitants in Africa south of Zambezi were the bushmen, followed by the Hottentonts, they were collectively called the San people. Then about 700 AD there was a big influx of Arabs,they were Suni Arabs, also called Emozaid Arabs, from Yemen& Oman, who fled religuous persecution, across the sea to the east Africa ended up in what is now Mozambique, they settled& spread into Zim,& the adjacent part of northern transvaal. So this whole area became occupied by Arabs for centuries that followed. The first Bantu Africans to cross Zambezi arrived about, 900 AD & they were followed by other tribes either in pursuit or flight, the 1st Mashona Africans settled in astride the Zambezi after 1200 AD. The Portuguese 1st landed @sofala in 1505 AD& Jan van Rebeeck landed @the cape in 1652. What happened to these refugee Arabs during this time& to the present? they firstly made their headquaters on Zambezi& named the place Sana after their capital Yemen, the name has since been changed to Sena, their 1st 2 centuries were among the San pple who it would appear, were subservient to them. The next 3 centuries were less trsnquil amongst Bantu tribes some friendly, some hostile. Mullans book i think was a masterpiece of enthnology but his conclusion as expressed in its title (The Arab builders of Zim) needs to be examined, his strongest point is the C14 dating (702)AD of the wood found in the structure of the wall of Zim ruins temple. It was the extremely durable tarnbote wood , that dating would fit the Arab theory perfectly assuming the wood was already dry for sometime before it was used, @ the peak of their power. Bent the 1st archaelogist to visit great Zim ruins discovered in the Acropolis, a soapstone ingot, into which smelted gold had been poured, he recognized in its unusually shape, Phoenician connection with similar ingots of Cyprus The scene described above does not fit the Monomotapa theory, Mullens research shows that @ the height of their power they never had sway over the Southern half of Zim, let alone have the hub of their activities there/ use Sabi river. The Arab theory also falls apart for reasons which are obvious. The very ancient Egypt theory propagated by Carl Peters was based on the find of statuette, proven to be that of Thutmose 111, near confluence of the Mazoe river& Zambezi,based on that find he figured that about 1500 BC was the time of the peak of the great Zim story& that it was all an Egyptian enterprise. As we saw in Israel a Maritime pple& others after him reduced the Egyptian ghronology by about 5 centuries identifying Queen Hatshepsut with the Queen of Sheba,&Titutmose 111 with Shishak of the bible. This gave very interesting bible connections as well as the reason for finding that statuette where it was located, so we are left with King Solomon& his Phoenicians who fit the bill, what is more, it has lately come to light that the Phoenicians were miners& stone builders. Questions: (1) Why if the stone building were erected by the Phoenicians, do nearly all the relics, which have been found in them belong only to the past 8 centuries/ so in other words the African era? the answer is straight foward, these buildings were occupied after the Phoenicians were on& off for nearly 25 centuries, new occupants removes old relics or they got destroyed, especially when the buildings were used as cattle kraals, that means that one remaining Phoenician relics is more signficant than 10 000 recent African ones (2) why are they so many African skeletal remains in the ruins very few Arab& no Phoenician? we know the Arabs for occupied the area for many centuries, so the paucity of their skeletal remains cannot be taken as an indication of lack of presence. The Africans were exposed to on going tribal slaughter, with a lot of skelotons lying around& shallow burials. The Arabd always buried their dead in a special way& deep. The Phoenician era judging by the evidence, must have been civilized& every dead body must have been given proper burial, probably in a cemetery away from the building, on top of that, there also is the matter of the additional 25 century time lapse, to Monomotapa. (3)why did the Phoenicians withdraw when King Solomon died, but continued under the Egyptians, atarting with Thutmose 111? Then about 721 BC their home base& home ports were lost to them in one swoop by the Assyrian invasion, all their people @home were carried away into captivity& they ceased to be the masters of the seas. There you have it folks, my summary of research i did about who built great Zimbabwe, to my understand Arabs never built it, they found it ancient, Shonas never built it they also found it ancient, but the Phoenicians did, lets hear what others has to say, Ngiyabonga!!!
Posted on: Sat, 06 Dec 2014 11:39:32 +0000
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