Typical Bantu Village Showing type of housing, layout and design.

Source: A. M. Duggan-Cronin, The Bantu Tribes of South Africa: Reproductions of Photographic Studies (Cambridge, U.K.: Deighton, Bell, 1935), vol. 4, Henri P. Junod, The Vathonga (The Thonga-Shangaan People), plate 24.

 

As we can see, many of the stone ruins appear to have been repeatedly built over.

 

Archaeology of the Region:

Apart from such glimpses into history, as well as well-made iron and stone artefacts that were collected, little is known about the archaeology of the mountain-lands. From July 1952 to 1955 some 1915 artefacts were collected from 20 sites around Barberton, including the mountain lands. These are at present housed in the Barberton museum. The artefacts were collected from open donga sites where material of all ages was mixed on the surface. Earlier Stone Age (approximately 1 million to 200 000 years ago) implements were exposed at various depths in the deep dongas, Middle Stone Age (125 000 to 75 000 years) material occurred in the ferricrete overlying the subsoil, and Later Stone Age (between 30 000 and 40 000 years ago until about 2 000 years ago) artefacts were exposed by surface erosion. Even today many Late Stone Age artefacts are encountered on walks in the highlands. (4)

However, the remains of ancient cultures that must once have thrived in the area are numerous. Terraces and rock packed structures can be found in the mountain-lands and research by Dr. Cyril Hromnik has it that the Dravidian merchant caste of southern India mined gold here 2000 years ago, resulting in these stone structures, celestial calendars as well as temples. Since 1984 interest in the early history of the Barberton goldfields has been revived by Dr. Hromnik�s controversial research and his discovery in this area, of what he claims to be ancient megalithic Dravidian religious structures. Hromnik is of the opinion that an area known, as Komati-land was the trading zone of the Dravidians and that their presence in fact predates the appearance of the first Bantu in this part of Africa by centuries. The oral tradition of the local Swazi (Siswati), who settled in this area only relatively recently, in the first half of the 19th century, has little to say about these early gold miners. However the Swazi people are almost unanimous in attributing the stone enclosures, stonewalled roads and other stone structures that occur in the vicinity of the gold workings to the beSutfu. By calling these ancient stone-builders beSutfu the Swazi traditions do not refer, as is popularly believed, to the modern Bantu-speaking BaSotho (meaning �Black People�). �Sutfu is not just a Nguni variant of the name Sotho; the reference is, rather, to people of the uSutu River. (4)

Gold Mining:

It has been noted that the area is extremely rich in gold. Several mining shafts have been reported in the area. Not only did the rich gold reefs attract attention in the 1880�s, but the early evidence of historic civilizations mining for minerals were described in writings by the early Europeans. Firstly, the prospectors found that others before them exploited gold by primitive methods. As D. Wilson (1901) Mining Commissioner and Landdrost of Kaapsche Hoop (then called Duiwels Kantoor), reported:

�Another curious and puzzling find, affording evidence of a very high degree of civilization on the part of the ancient explorers of De Kaap, took place within a few yards of my office at the Kantoor. Running into the side of a steep hill, was the remains of a tunnel, which was opened up in the course of prospecting work, when the diggers unearthed two earthenware pipes about three feet long and six inches in diameter. They had most of the signs one looks for in ancient pottery and were obviously of very great age�.

Who the ancient miners were, still remains an unresolved and tantalizing secret, and depending on one�s viewpoint, great efforts are made to attribute it to San people, Dravidian merchants form the Indian sub-continent, Arabs, Phoenicians and even Egyptians. Evidence of dwellings estimated to be some 500 years old can be interpreted as part of a culture that traded gold with eastern (Arabic and Indian) communities in the past. At least one such complete Iron Age �village� is found on mountain-lands as well as various other sites still to be verified. (4)

 

Great Zimbabwe:

Great Zimbabwe is a ruined city that was once the capital of the Kingdom of Zimbabwe, which existed from around 1100 to 1450. The word "Great" distinguishes the site from the many hundreds of small ruins, known as Zimbabwe's, spread across the Zimbabwe highveld. The Capital of the Zimbabwe kingdom lies approximately 500 miles north of the site known as Adam's Calendar (below). Archaeological evidence suggests that Great Zimbabwe became a centre for trading, with artefacts suggesting that the city formed part of a trade network extending as far as China. This international trade was mainly in gold and ivory; some estimates indicate that more than 20 million ounces of gold were extracted from the ground. (5) It is in this very same region that one finds 'scattered throughout the strata and rocks ... deposits of reef and alluvial gold, and also iron, talc, asbestos and nickel' (4), offering a reasonable explanation for such a high concentration of ancient structures.

The gold-rich soil, the presence of ancient mines and an ancient local historical focus on mineral trade (i.e. the Zimbabwe kingdom) hint at an association between these extensive ruins and the natural resources of the region.