Over a thousand years ago, between AD 900 and 1300, the Shashe-Limpopo basin witnessed the development of one of the earliest African civilizations. Like civilizations everywhere, it represented complex social organizations, supported by intensive agriculture and long-distance trade. Some of the earliest finished gold objects found in the interior of Southern Africa were excavated here, most notably the now world-famous golden rhino. Mapungubwe was the forerunner of the famous town of Great Zimbabwe. Because of this cultural connection to Great Zimbabwe and then the Venda, it is possible to...

This detailed handbook to the Iron Age covers the last 2,000 years in Southern Africa. The first part of the book outlines essential topics such as settlement organization, stonewalled patterns, ritual residues, long-distance trade, and ancient mining. Part two presents a comprehensive culture-history sequence through ceramic analyses, showing distributions, stylistic types, and characteristic pieces. The final section reviews and updates the main debates about black prehistory, including migration vs. diffusion, the role of cattle, the origins of Mapungubwe, the rise and fall of Great...