Ziwa is an
archaeological site
An archaeological site is a place (or group of physical sites) in which evidence of past activity is preserved (either prehistoric or recorded history, historic or contemporary), and which has been, or may be, investigated using the discipline ...
in
Nyanga District
Nyanga District is located in Manicaland Province of Zimbabwe.
The administrative center is Nyanga village. The 2022 National Zimbabwe census reported its population at 146,227, with 51.9% female and 48.1% male population.
Geography
Nyanga Dist ...
,
Zimbabwe
file:Zimbabwe, relief map.jpg, upright=1.22, Zimbabwe, relief map
Zimbabwe, officially the Republic of Zimbabwe, is a landlocked country in Southeast Africa, between the Zambezi and Limpopo Rivers, bordered by South Africa to the south, Bots ...
, containing the remains of a vast late
Iron Age
The Iron Age () is the final epoch of the three historical Metal Ages, after the Chalcolithic and Bronze Age. It has also been considered as the final age of the three-age division starting with prehistory (before recorded history) and progre ...
agricultural settlement dated to the 15th century. It is one of many sites that compose the Nyanga Iron Age ruins. Ziwa was declared a National Monument in 1946 and is currently under consideration for
World Heritage
World Heritage Sites are landmarks and areas with legal protection under an treaty, international treaty administered by UNESCO for having cultural, historical, or scientific significance. The sites are judged to contain "cultural and natural ...
listing. The site contains a large variety of stonework structures including stone terraces running along contours of hills and steep landscapes. Archaeological investigations have also uncovered important aspects of pottery and rock art.
Before the declaration of the site as a National Monument, Ziwa had been part of the commercial farms area and was thus under private ownership. A great deal of damage or degradation of antiquities may have been wrought during this period as the farmer used the property as a cattle ranch. Currently a site
museum
A museum is an institution dedicated to displaying or Preservation (library and archive), preserving culturally or scientifically significant objects. Many museums have exhibitions of these objects on public display, and some have private colle ...
(with tourist facilities such as camping, guided tours, walking trails, bird viewing, etc.) has been established to represent the Ziwa heritage and other archaeological sites in the Nyanga district.
Despite the abandonment of the site by its inhabitants in the 18th century, Ziwa continued to be of significance to the later communities that settled in its neighbourhood.
Description
Ziwa bears evidence of human occupation for all the major archaeological periods identified in Zimbabwe's archaeological sequence. That is from
hunter-gatherer
A hunter-gatherer or forager is a human living in a community, or according to an ancestrally derived Lifestyle, lifestyle, in which most or all food is obtained by foraging, that is, by gathering food from local naturally occurring sources, esp ...
periods of the
Stone Age
The Stone Age was a broad prehistory, prehistoric period during which Rock (geology), stone was widely used to make stone tools with an edge, a point, or a percussion surface. The period lasted for roughly 3.4 million years and ended b ...
to historical times. The of land comprise: Stone Age deposits, rock art sites, early farming communities settlements, a landscape of later farming communities marked by terraces and field systems, hill forts,
pit structures and stone enclosures, iron
smelting
Smelting is a process of applying heat and a chemical reducing agent to an ore to extract a desired base metal product. It is a form of extractive metallurgy that is used to obtain many metals such as iron-making, iron, copper extraction, copper ...
and forging furnaces and numerous remains of daub-plastered housing structures.
Image gallery
Image:Ziwa enclosure model.JPG, Part of Ziwa ruins scale model, taken in visitors centre
Image:Ziwa ruins pitentrance.JPG, Pit entrance
Image:Ziwa ruins wall.JPG, Enclosure double wall
See also
*
History of Zimbabwe
Until roughly 2,000 years ago, what would become Zimbabwe was populated by ancestors of the San people. Bantu inhabitants of the region arrived and developed ceramic production in the area. A series of trading empires emerged, including the K ...
*
Nyanga, Zimbabwe
Nyanga, originally known as Inyanga, is a town in Zimbabwe.
Location
It is located in Nyanga District, Manicaland Province, in Eastern Highland of Zimbabwe, along the international border with Mozambique. This location lies immediately north o ...
*
Great Zimbabwe
Great Zimbabwe was a city in the south-eastern hills of the modern country of Zimbabwe, near Masvingo. It was settled from 1000 AD, and served as the capital of the Kingdom of Great Zimbabwe from the 13th century. It is the largest stone struc ...
*
Dhlo-Dhlo
Danamombe is a Zimbabwean archaeological site, about eighty kilometres from Gweru, in the direction of Bulawayo and about 35 kilometres south of the highway. It is not often visited due to the poor quality roads in the area. The remains on the sit ...
*
Khami
Khami (also written as ''Khame'', ''Kame'', or ''Kami'') is a ruined city located west of Bulawayo, in Zimbabwe. It was once the capital of the Kingdom of Butua of the Torwa dynasty. It is now a national monument and became a UNESCO World Heri ...
Notes and references
Further reading
*{{Cite book, last=Soper , first=Robert , year=2006 , title=The terrace builders of Nyanga , location=Harare, Zimbabwe , publisher=Weaver Press for African Books Collective , isbn=978-1-77922-061-5
External links
*Ziwa entry on th
UNESCO World Heritage site
Archaeological sites in Zimbabwe
Buildings and structures in Manicaland Province
Former populated places in Zimbabwe
Nyanga District
Ruins in Zimbabwe
Tourist attractions in Manicaland Province
Archaeological sites of Eastern Africa