Great Zimbabwe chronology and interpretation

Record summary

Great Zimbabwe is a major stone-built settlement associated with Shona-speaking societies and the medieval gold-trade networks of southern Africa. Excavations, radiocarbon dating and imported goods place its principal florescence roughly between the eleventh and fifteenth centuries. The site matters because colonial scholarship once attributed its architecture to outsiders, whereas archaeological evidence supports local African state formation and craft production. Questions remain about political organization, population size, the roles of cattle and trade, and how later oral traditions relate to the excavated settlement.