Ziwa
Encyclopedia
Ziwa, or Ziwa ruins is the name used to describe the remains of a vast late Iron Age agricultural settlement that has been dated to the 17th century. The site is located in Nyanga, Zimbabwe
. Ziwa was declared a National Monument in 1946 and is currently under consideration for World Heritage 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 engendered 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
(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. http://www.international.icomos.org/victoriafalls2003/papers/B2%20-%201%20-%20Missias.pdf#search=%22ziwa%20zimbabwe%22
periods of the Stone Age
to historical times. 3337 hectares 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
and forging furnaces and numerous remains of daub-plastered housing structures.
Nyanga, Zimbabwe
Nyanga is a town in the province of Manicaland, Zimbabwe, located adjacent to Nyanga National Park in the Eastern Highlands about 105 km north of Mutare. According to the 1982 Population Census, the town had a population of 2,973....
. Ziwa was declared a National Monument in 1946 and is currently under consideration for World Heritage 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 engendered 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
Museum
A museum is an institution that cares for a collection of artifacts and other objects of scientific, artistic, cultural, or historical importance and makes them available for public viewing through exhibits that may be permanent or temporary. Most large museums are located in major cities...
(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. http://www.international.icomos.org/victoriafalls2003/papers/B2%20-%201%20-%20Missias.pdf#search=%22ziwa%20zimbabwe%22
Description
Ziwa bears evidence of human occupation for all the major archaeological periods identified in Zimbabwe's archaeological sequence. That is from hunter-gathererHunter-gatherer
A hunter-gatherer or forage society is one in which most or all food is obtained from wild plants and animals, in contrast to agricultural societies which rely mainly on domesticated species. Hunting and gathering was the ancestral subsistence mode of Homo, and all modern humans were...
periods of the Stone Age
Stone Age
The Stone Age is a broad prehistoric period, lasting about 2.5 million years , during which humans and their predecessor species in the genus Homo, as well as the earlier partly contemporary genera Australopithecus and Paranthropus, widely used exclusively stone as their hard material in the...
to historical times. 3337 hectares 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
Smelting is a form of extractive metallurgy; its main use is to produce a metal from its ore. This includes iron extraction from iron ore, and copper extraction and other base metals from their ores...
and forging furnaces and numerous remains of daub-plastered housing structures.
See also
- History of ZimbabweHistory of ZimbabweAt the end of the Bush War there was a transition to majority rule in 1980. The United Kingdom ceremonially granted Zimbabwe independence on April 18, 1980 in accordance with the Lancaster House Agreement...
- Nyanga, ZimbabweNyanga, ZimbabweNyanga is a town in the province of Manicaland, Zimbabwe, located adjacent to Nyanga National Park in the Eastern Highlands about 105 km north of Mutare. According to the 1982 Population Census, the town had a population of 2,973....
- Great ZimbabweGreat ZimbabweGreat Zimbabwe is a ruined city that was once the capital of the Kingdom of Zimbabwe, which existed from 1100 to 1450 C.E. during the country’s Late Iron Age. The monument, which first began to be constructed in the 11th century and which continued to be built until the 14th century, spanned an...
- Dhlo-Dhlo
- KhamiKhamiKhami is a ruined city located in what is now Zimbabwe. It was once the capital of the Kingdom of Butua of the Torwa dynasty. It is located 22 kilometers west of the modern city of Bulawayo, capital of the province of Matabeleland North. Its ruins are now a national monument in Zimbabwe. Khami is...
External links
- Ziwa entry on the UNESCO World Heritage site