Mapungubwe: an African kingdom

Mapungubwe: an African kingdom in the Limpopo valley, its trade, its classes and its golden rhino. Read one part at a time and tap “I know this”. Then test yourself in the quiz.

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Where it was

Mapungubwe in Limpopo, at the border with Botswana and Zimbabwe.

Archaeologists dug up gold objects, beads and pots. We know little about what the people said, because they did not write. Mapungubwe has been a World Heritage Site since 2003, protected in Mapungubwe National Park. It shows an advanced African kingdom before colonial times. The golden rhino was found in a royal grave on top of Mapungubwe Hill in the 1930s. It is a small one-horned rhino made of thin gold foil, hammered around a wooden core and fixed with tiny gold tacks.

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Great Zimbabwe

After Mapungubwe, power moved north to Great Zimbabwe, famous for walls whose stone blocks fitted without mortar, and birds carved from soapstone.

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Remember this: your summary

Mapungubwe lies in Limpopo, where the Limpopo and Shashe rivers meet, near Botswana and Zimbabwe.
At its strongest about 1220 to 1290; then the people moved away (the climate became drier).
Gold and ivory were traded via the east coast and the Indian Ocean with traders from Arabia, India and China; glass beads came from as far as India.
The leaders lived on top of the hill, ordinary people on the plain in homes of poles and mud: clear classes.
The golden rhino from a royal grave stands for leadership and shows skilled goldsmiths.

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Memory trick

Hill = head, plain = people. The higher you lived, the higher your rank.

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Important words

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