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First Edition. Illustrated throughout with full-page photographs on virtually every page and a folding map showing the plan of the Elliptical Temple. 8vo, publisher's original pictorially decorated wraps printed in red and black on the upper cover 86, [2] pp. A fine copy, usually well preserved. FIRST EDITION OF THIS VERY SCARCE WORK ON THE RUINS OF ZIMBABWE. Written by the curator of the Zimbabwe Ruins from 1910-1936. The rediscovery of the Zimbabwe Ruins in 1868 was due to Adam Renders, an American hunter, who unknowingly pitched his camp on the site of these Ruins and stumbled across the most profound mystery of Africa. Great Zimbabwe was a city in the south-eastern hills of the modern country of Zimbabwe, near Masvingo. It was settled from around 1000 CE, and served as the capital of the Kingdom of Great Zimbabwe from the 13th century. It is the largest stone structure in pre-colonial Southern Africa. Major construction on the city began in the 11th century until the 15th century, and it was abandoned in the 16th or 17th century. The edifices were erected by ancestors of the Shona people, currently located in Zimbabwe and nearby countries. The stone city spans an area of 7.22 square kilometres (2.79 mi2). Population estimates vary. Earlier estimates suggest a peak population of around 20,000 people. A recent study using archaeological, ethnographic, and historical evidence, along with statistical modeling suggests that the sites population did not exceed 10,000 people. The Zimbabwe state centred on it likely covered 50,000 km (19,000 sq mi). The site of Great Zimbabwe is composed of the Hill Complex, the Valley Complex, and the Great Enclosure (constructed at different times), and contained area for commoner housing within the perimeter walls. There is disagreement on the functions of the complexes among scholars. Some consider them to have been residences for the royals and elites at different periods of the site, while others infer them to have had separate functions. The Great Enclosure, with its 11 m (36 ft) high dry stone walls (that is, constructed without mortar), was built during the 13th and 14th centuries, and likely served as the royal residence, with demarcated public spaces for rituals. Since the 1950s, there has been consensus among archaeologists as to the African origins of Great Zimbabwe. Artifacts and radiocarbon dating indicate settlement in at least the 5th century, with continuous settlement of Great Zimbabwe between the 12th and 15th centuries and the bulk of the finds from the 15th century. The radiocarbon evidence is a suite of 28 measurements, for which all but the first four, from the early days of the use of that method and now viewed as inaccurate, support the 12th-to-15th-centuries chronology. In the 1970s, a beam that produced some of the anomalous dates in 1952 was reanalysed and gave a 14th-century date. Dated finds such as Chinese, Persian and Syrian artefacts also support the 12th- and 15th-century dates.
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