Category: A Level Notes

The Bambadyanalo complex is home to excavated bones mainly of livestock,  like cattle, and cereal crops like sorghum,  millet,  melons and gourds. They were a thriving agricultural  society.  From the grave excavations,  archaeologists  unearthed healthy bodies from a rich balanced diet on cereal supplemented  by meat and other luxuries from their imports.

This is a Middle Iron Age Society near Robert Sinyoka in the Matabeleland North Province of modern Zimbabwe. The Leopard's kopje site is dated between 800-1250 AD. These are believed to be direct ancestors of the Great Zimbabwe acropolis. The group resided in the south-west plateau of Zimbabwe and the Shashe-Limpopo  valleys.

This is a Middle Iron Age Society near Robert Sinyoka in the Matabeleland North Province of modern Zimbabwe. The Leopard's kopje site is dated between 800-1250 AD. These are believed to be direct ancestors of the Great Zimbabwe acropolis. The group resided in the south-west plateau of Zimbabwe and the Shashe-Limpopo  valleys.

Gokomere is an early Iron Age settlement site in the South Central of Zimbabwe,  dated 5th and 7th Century.  From the anthropological and ethnographic evidence of descendants of this culture, this was a multi-economic community. The culture is closely related to that of Mapungubwe  cultures in Vendaland,  South Africa.

The major impact of Iron Age on the Zimbabwean Plateau was the creation of he Iron Age cultures and communities like Ziwa, Gokomere, Leopard's kopje nd Bambadyanalo Archaeological discoveries and Early Iron Age settlements re shown all over Southern Africa into Botswana, Zambia, Mozambique and outh Africa. These communities began the Metropolitan Zimbabwean ettlement and became the major political, social and economic attractions. Most of the archaeological, anthropological and ethnographic studies have bee ntered on the Metropolitan settlements ignoring the provincial settlements.

Our knowledge of the Early  Iron Age is  based virtually on archaeological findings.  Some archaeological findings were found in Zimbabwe. Archaeologists  have identified  artefacts by the names of the places where they were found such as Ziwa,  Gokomere,  Mabveni, Malapati, Zhizo and Hwange game reserve.

The Stone Age period  has been divided into three main periods;  Early,  Middle and Late Stone Age. The Stone Age period was basically characterised  by hunter-gatherer societies until the birth of agricultural societies. The Khoisan were the characters of this period  in Zimbabwe.

The earliest inhabitants of the region were the two Stone Age people, the Khoisan hunter-gatherers  and the Khoikhoi  hunter-herders. The two were Stone Age people. The juicy and romantic rock art in cave dwellings left by the Khoisan has invaluably given historians an intimate insight into their lifestyle.

Research in any particular theme,  issue or society requires the use of a wide variety of sources to reconstruct and provide social,  economic and political  evidence of the past. Sources of historical  evidence are bases,  methods and means used by researchers to rebuild the narrative of settlements,  activities and systems of societies.