Great Zimbabwe Supplemental Reading
Please read the following passage and answer the questions that follow in
complete sentences.
The city of Great Zimbabwe existed in the Sub-Saharan region of Africa from the
11th century to the mid-16th century.
The city grew from a community of farmers
and cattle herders to a major economic center, deriving power and wealth from its
proximity to resources of gold and the trading routes along the Indian Ocean.
Great Zimbabwe reached its peak with 18,000 residents by the mid-14th century.
The ruins of Great Zimbabwe, some 300 structures, cover more than sixty acres
and includes three main areas: the Hill Complex, the Great Enclosure and the Valley
Ruins.
The Hill Complex is the oldest part of the city with
pottery and burials dating
to the 6th century.
A monumental wall composed of local granite, 37 feet in height
and 328 feet in length, surrounded the complex and testifies to the military and
political importance of the city.
The Great Enclosure, also known as the Mumbahuru (“the house of the great
woman”) housed the wives of the rulers and was a ceremonial site with a
monumental wall composed of about one million blocks. Most people of
Zimbabwe however lived in daga huts of mud and gravel surrounding the complex.
Among the Zimbabwe ruins, archaeologists discovered local and imported pottery
including Chinese celadon wares, glass beads from India, Persian faience, and birds
and bowls of soapstone. Flecks of discarded soapstone suggest that the soapstone
works reflect the work of local craftsmen.
The Chinese and Persian artifacts
indicate that Great Zimbabwe was part of an Indian Ocean trading network even
though the complex itself is 300 miles from that ocean.
At its peak in the 13th and 14th century, Great Zimbabwe thrived on cattle herding,
gold mining and commerce with the Swahili port city of Sofala on the Indian
Ocean.
It produced cotton and pottery.
Because of its strategic
location near
these resources and trade opportunities, Great Zimbabwe grew larger than any
surrounding town and became the capital city of the Karanga (Shona) nation.
Great Zimbabwe declined in power in the early 15th Century.
The nearby
tributaries of the Zambezi and Limpopo Rivers no longer produced gold flakes and
nuggets, which had fueled the economy.
The exhausted farmland surrounding the
city could no longer support the number of residents. Eventually the trade routes in
the interior between the Zambezi valley and the ports on the Indian Ocean
changed, costing Great Zimbabwe its control over regional commerce.
Great
Zimbabwe was named a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1986.
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Shadreck Chirikure and Innocent Pikirayi, "Inside and outside the dry stone walls: Revisiting the material culture of
Great Zimbabwe," Antiquity 82 (2008);
Great Zimbabwe Reading for Comprehension Questions
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COMPLETE SENTENCES
1.) Describe the layout of the city of Great Zimbabwe.
Include land area, structures,
and the main sections of the city.
2.) What was the purpose of the Great Enclosure?
3.) What are archaeologists able to infer about Great Zimbabwe’s economy? What
specific artifacts support their theories?
4.) What were the three major economic activities during the ‘golden age’ of Great
Zimbabwe in the 13th-14th centuries?
5.) Discuss at least two reasons for the decline of Great Zimbabwe in the early 15th
century.
Definitions
Infer: Deduce or conclude (information) from evidence and reasoning rather than from explicit statements.
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