The structures and societies that ancient peoples created will never stop amazing me. I find I can get caught with the same notion that many foolish explorers have: not being able to believe an ancient civilization could have built such incredible monuments. From Egyptian pyramids to North American mound complexes to South American pyramids, it is truly incredible what people were able to construct hundreds and even thousands of years ago. Even now it would be difficult to build the same kinds of structures that our very distant ancestors were constructing.
The Great Zimbabwe is another incredible example. I didn’t know much about this site before we learned about it in class, but it is quite impressive. The dry fit stone walls are truly amazing. I can’t even imagine trying to build any of the structures in the Great Zimbabwe from scratch, especially without modern technology. Just the vision they had to build things like the Great Enclosure is impressive- that they knew that the stones would hold. I love how grand many of the monuments and structures were in ancient times. The people of Zimbabwe could have just built small homes and moved on, but instead they built things like the Great Enclosure and the Hill Fort. It makes archaeology and history so much more fascinating.
Another aspect that is interesting is the fact that the Great Zimbabwe is located in a part of Africa that is not exactly hospitable. As we learned, the kingdom collapsed partially due to drought and famine. It’s hard to imagine building such a site when you weren’t even sure if you would have enough water. I know that if we were born in that time it would be common to not know exactly what the environment was about to do, but its very hard to imagine. It would be so strange not knowing what the weather was going to be like each day.
Once again I find it funny that the Europeans who discovered the Great Zimbabwe speculated on who built it. They sound so much like modern conspiracy theorists. They found little pieces of evidence and then jumped to drastic conclusions, like the guy who saw wooden beams and said they must have been ceder from Lebanon and not local. Therefore the Phoenicians had to be the ones to make the structures. The best one though was probably the Queen of Sheba theory. I love how advanced the Europeans thought they were and yet they would come up with all of these radical theories based on myths.
The archaeology of Africa really intrigues me as well. They seem so exotic and unique because when someone mentions Africa, I immediately think of the African savannah of safari animals or of the jungles near Equatorial Africa. There is so much more to Africa than just its environment for sure.
What I thought what was interesting is when you mentioned that some scholars didn’t believe that Africans were the ones to build a sophisticated city. I think that it comes from a preconceived notion that all people from Africa are not as capable of constructing a sophisticated, civilized society like Westerners. Thus, the natives are not smart enough or understand what it takes to build a civilization complete with a government, a system of laws, an economy, and a culture that expresses their own unique but worthy values. I actually tried to address this issue in my own post. I also tried to link this to the Egyptomania, where people believed that the pyramids were built by Atlantians or aliens. For some reason, certain people believe that Africans are not astute enough to have their own identities. Hopefully one day we can all see how incredible the cultures of Africa are and truly respect them as well.