Introduction

Sometime between 1450 and 1650, a period generally referred to as the early Atlantic Age, Europeans began to impact beyond their continent in markedly significant ways (Ehret 2002; Thornton 1992; Wallerstein 1986). Their commerce dictated the course of events globally with visible consequences locally (Fagan 1998, pp. 19, 23, 217–303). Africans were active agents in the complex interconnected and interdependent process involving the spread of European capitalism and early forms of European colonisation (Funari et al. 1999, pp. 1–36). Although the Atlantic Age is generally perceived as a history of European expansion to other continents (Wolf 1982), it is also about the social and political effects of this expansion among the societies Europeans encountered (e.g., Gray and Birmingham 1970; Kelly 1997). It is in effect a study of early forms of European colonisation, viewed from an indigenous perspective (e.g., Cusick 1998; Lightfoot 1995, 2004; Silliman 2005). Studies of European colonisation are poorly developed in African historical archaeology (see Murray 2004). This paper may be regarded as one such study, attempting to unravel the effects of early forms of European presence on the continent. It is in the local responses to the various contact settings that the consequences of such expansion are clearly elucidated. Some societies resisted strongly, while others adapted to the new contact settings. Some African settlements, particularly the royal palaces, present valuable archaeological evidence of contact with European societies. African–European contact did not end with the early Atlantic Age but intensified as a result of increased slave trade after 1650, which affected subsequent African demographic patterns and productive capacities. This paper provides an archaeological perspective of African–Portuguese contact and interactions with the Mutapa state in northern Zimbabwe during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Asian and European material culture found in some sites dating to this period is also assessed in terms of contact, as African settlements assumed new identities in the process of negotiating their relationships with Europeans. Some parts of northern Zimbabwe also experienced adverse environmental consequences that impacted African society.

In a project such as this one, we need to acknowledge the shortcomings of an approach that apparently privileges issues in terms of European sources and the impact of colonisation, as this overlooks historical archaeologies concerned with revising metanarratives that misrepresent the African past. Alternative approaches focus more attention on historical archaeologies that listen to local histories and local historicities, framed primarily from oral sources (e.g., Schmidt and Walz 2007). This is the trend in African historical archaeologies (e.g., Pikirayi 2004). Given the number of oral traditions on the Mutapa state and its neighbours collected from the time of the arrival of the Portuguese in the sixteenth century through nineteenth and twentieth centuries (see Beach 1994; Bhila 1983), this is a rich vein of academic enquiry worth pursuing.

Historical Background

Feiras, or trading markets, were the main contact points between the Portuguese and the local African communities in south eastern Africa, particularly the lower Zambezi region and adjacent northern Zimbabwe plateau (Fig. 1). However, contact also occurred beyond feiras as the Portuguese were frequent visitors to Mutapa royal courts, where, during the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries, they tried to influence the course of events. Gold, the main export of the Zimbabwe plateau, was the main reason behind the establishment of feiras. The feiras are presented in written accounts as essentially Portuguese institutions (see Bhila 1983), but they were also African in character, which reflects the ‘duality’ of the contact settings at the time. Gold has been traded to the Indian Ocean coast in exchange for glass beads, sea shells, cloth, Far and Near Eastern ceramics since the ninth century. With the emergence of Great Zimbabwe in the thirteenth century, the region experienced increased gold production and trade, matched by corresponding prosperity in East African coastal cities (Garlake 1972). Great Zimbabwe, by then the largest stone-built city south of the Zambezi, was at the helm of this commerce. The immediate beneficiary of the gold trade from Zimbabwe was Kilwa, the largest port city on the coast. Coincidentally, Kilwa controlled the trade coming through Sofala on the Mozambican coast, which included gold and ivory. The Great Mosque and the Grand Palace of Husuni Kubwa at Kilwa reflect the wealth and building boom generated by this trade during the early fourteenth century, a time of renewed international demand in gold (Sutton 1990). This opulence is also mirrored at Great Zimbabwe with the building of the Great Enclosure at the same time. Following the arrival of the Portuguese on the Indian Ocean coast in the early sixteenth century, the chiefdoms of Barwe, Danda, and Manyika in eastern Zimbabwe and adjacent Mozambique plains broke away from the Mutapa state to wrestle control of the gold coming from the interior and gain direct access to the commerce (Bhila 1983). The Portuguese referred to this region as “Rivers of Sena,” prompting them to establish a base at Sofala on the Mozambican coast as stepping stone into the hinterland (Silva Rego 1965).

Fig. 1
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Map showing the location of the Mutapa state in relation to the east African coast and the Indian Ocean

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Portuguese observers during this time, such as João de Barros, Diogo de Couto and Duarte Barbosa (see Pikirayi 1993), erroneously perceived monumental stone buildings on the Zimbabwe plateau as part of the Biblical lands of Ophir, of the Queen of Sheba and King Solomon (e.g., Diogo de Couto's account in Theal 1898–1903, vol. 6, pp. 390–392), an ‘El Dorado’ also linked with the legendary Prester John. Their conquest of the eastern African coast was largely fortified by this myth (see Silverberg 1996), as was the subsequent attack and near-destruction of the Mutapa state from 1570 onwards. When the lavish use of gold could not be ascertained, the Portuguese turned to other precious metals such as silver, the search for which in both West Central and southeastern Africa proved fruitless (Newitt 2004).

It appears that feiras were established formally by the Portuguese crown in northern Zimbabwe during the late sixteenth and the first half of the seventeenth century, following abortive campaigns directed against the Mutapa state during the period 1567–1575 (Diogo de Couto, in Theal 1898–1903, vol. 7, pp. 275–319; Francisco de Monclaro in Silva Rego and Baxter 1962–1975, vol. 8, pp. 324–329). Archaeological sites characterised by the presence of imported Asian and European ceramic, glass beads and glassware attest to this development. These feiras provide tangible evidence of contact between the local communities of northern and eastern Zimbabwe, and the European traders (Francisco de Monclaro in Silva Rego and Baxter 1962–975, vol. 8, p. 393). Most of the feiras were built in areas under the control or influence of local rulers who had a stake in the trade. Some of these places include Dambarare, Makaha, Luanze, Bokuto and Massapa, Maramuka, Chitomborwizi, Ongoe (Angwa) and Urupande (see Fig. 2). Some feiras have also been reported near the gold-rich regions of Manyika in eastern Zimbabwe (Garlake 1967, 1969).

Fig. 2
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Chomagora zimbabwe

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Having been established as a trading centre sometime in the sixteenth century, Massapa became important during the early seventeenth century when the Portuguese describe it as part of a trading network involving other feiras in the region of Mukaranga and beyond (Mudenge 1988, p. 222; João dos Santos, in Theal 1898–1903, vol. 7, pp. 270–273). However, its operations were curtailed by political instability in the Mutapa state following a civil war between rebels and the ruling Mutapa Gatsi Rusere between 1600 and 1610 (Antonio Bócarro in Theal 1898–1903, vol. 3, p. 382). This resulted in the Portuguese building a fort near the site. Political instability was fuelled by increased Portuguese interference in the politics of the Mutapa court, prompting some rebels to resist the Portuguese (Diogo Velho in Silva Rego and Baxter 1962–1975, vol. 8, pp. 523, 525). With the death of Gatsi Rusere in 1624, these rebels took control of Massapa, killing the Portuguese representative (Captain of the Gates) stationed there. The Portuguese claim to have defeated this army and proceeded to occupy the state capital. From the 1630s, Massapa seems to have declined as a trading centre. Conditions in the Mutapa state were at their worst, due to civil war and lawlessness. Some Portuguese raised private armies to rob, enslave or kill people (Axelson 1973). Fortifications are also reported. The violence that ensued has been underestimated, but the scale by which this happened is captured in some seventeenth century Portuguese accounts. It is in the context of this conflict that we must understand the establishment of Portuguese prazos (estates) in the lower Zambezi since the early seventeenth century, reinforced by warlords and commanded by slave armies (chikunda) (Isaacman and Isaacman 2004). These raided neighbouring areas, triggering population dispersal in the region (Isaacman 1972; Newitt 1973). Conditions in Mukaranga, the heartland of the Mutapa state, could at this stage be compared to those obtaining in a prazo.

Much often overlooked is the consequential environmental degradation of Mukaranga. Here, we must look elsewhere for clues. Events in both West and East Central Africa between 1560 and 1630s are indicative of societal stress connected with increased slave trading and the failure of rains in the drought-prone woodland savanna regions. The Jaga invasion and the Portuguese destruction of the state of Kongo and the western expansion of the Lunda, the increased trade in slavery and the rise of new polities in West Central Africa were conditioned by negative trends (Miller 1983). In the lower Zambezi, the Portuguese were confronted with a similar situation in the form of the Zimba from Maravi (Antonio Bócarro in Theal 1898–1903, vol. 3, p. 361). From around the 1570s to 1600, the Zimba moved towards the Zambezi, then the Indian Ocean coast, ravaging the coast as far north as Malindi. Alpers (1975) downplayed the extent of Zimba threat, arguing that their devastation of the lower Zambezi and beyond had been exaggerated. Instead, he saw them as emerging out of early Maravi states in response to Portuguese trading activities, which tampered with the former (see also Mudenge 1988, pp. 224–227). It seems Zimba accounts were neither a fabrication of the Portuguese nor an exaggeration of historians. Like the Jaga in West Central Africa, the Zimba represent a local response to environmental catastrophes experienced in the region at the time. The Zimba threatened Portuguese presence in the Zambezi valley region and, in the process, disrupted the social and economic fabric of local communities. It is argued here that some archaeological evidence for fortifications in parts of northern Zimbabwe probably attest to this conflict as well as increased Portuguese attempts to accept the gold mines of the Mutapa state.

The Zimbabwe plateau is populated by some 300 or more neatly coursed stone buildings, zimbabwe, which archaeologists identify with the origins and development of the culture once dominant at Great Zimbabwe (Pikirayi 2001). These were royal palaces, whose affluence, influence and fabulous power were based on gold and ivory exports to societies living in the coastal cities of eastern Africa, the Persian Gulf, India and the Far East. By the turn of the sixteenth century, some of these palaces located in the northern part of Zimbabwe were under the control of the Mutapa ruling dynasties (Beach 1980). Early Portuguese travellers into the Mutapa state reported some stone building activities and the layout of these capitals. Portuguese sources make reference to zimbabwe as royal palaces and capitals of the Mutapa state. Pre-1550 descriptions of royal palaces indicate the usage of neatly built stone, hence reference to the term zimbabwe (house[s] of stone). In 1506, a Portuguese clerk based at Sofala on the coast of Mozambique wrote a letter mentioning a city “...called Zimbany...which is big and where the king always lives....” He mentions that the houses of the king were “of stone and clay and very large and on one level...” (Silva Rego and Baxter 1962–1975, vol. 1, p. 389–399; Theal 1898–1903, vol. 1, pp. 62–68). A similar account comes from the description by the Portuguese Gaspar Veloso, about the journeys made by António Fernandes into the Zimbabwe plateau interior where kings always resided in royal places “... made of stone without mortar...” (Silva Rego and Baxter 1962–1975, vol. 3, p. 183). A similar account from Duarte Barbosa mentions the town of ‘Benametapa’ as the usual residence of the king, who lived “...in a very large place, whence the merchants take to Sofala gold which they give to the Moors without weighing for coloured cloths and beads which among them are most valued....” (Theal 1898–1903, vol. 1, pp. 95–96).

Apparently, after 1550, Mutapa royal palaces were no longer constructed using stone. João dos Santos, who worked as a missionary in Tete in the Zambezi valley from 1585 to 1595 and whose account is mostly borrowed from earlier Swahili traders, is clear that royal palaces were no longer built in stone. He noted instead that “....even the king's palaces are built of wood covered with clay and thatched with grass” (Theal 1898–1903, vol. 7, p. 275) and adds:

The dwelling in which the Monomotapa resides is very large, and is composed of many houses surrounded by a great wooden fence, within which there are three dwellings, one for his own person, one for the queen, and another for his servants who wait upon him within doors. There are three doors opening upon a great courtyard, one for the service of the queen, beyond which no man may pass, but only women, another for his kitchen, only entered by his cooks.... (Theal 1898–1903, vol. 3, pp. 356–357)

Such settlements could incorporate an area over a ‘league’ (about 3 miles) in circumference with houses constructed within a stone’s throw of each other (see Mudenge 1988, p. 78) and populated by tens of thousands of inhabitants if we cautiously accept estimates by João dos Santos for the town of Quiteve in the lower Zambezi (Theal 1898–1903, vol. 3, p. 208).

During the early seventeenth century, the Mutapa royal palace was located close to the settlement of Massapa. A document from the Archives of Propaganda in Rome, dated ca. 1631, describes a place called ‘zimbaoe’ as “...a royal city of Monomotapa, very near....Mazapa [Massapa]. It is said to be a large city. There is no church, but there are many Christians who are refugees compelled to live there....” (Theal 1898–1903, vol.2, p. 439). In a letter by Fr. Louis, of the Order of Preachers, to his Provincial, dated 3 February 1630, Mutapa's zimbabwe is located “a night's journey” away from Massapa (Theal 1898–1903, vol. 2, pp. 427–428).

This paper views ferias and prazos as both economic and environmental phenomena, which impacted on zimbabwe society during the early Atlantic Age. Increased Portuguese presence in the lower Zambezi and adjacent Zimbabwe plateau triggered large-scale change in settlement patterns in the region. The archaeological signatures to this effect are evident in the middle Ruya-Mazowe basin, mainly in terms of stone fortifications on hilltops. This confirms seventeenth-century historical records, which see the shift of the Mutapa state from the Zimbabwe plateau to the Dande and Chidima areas of the Zambezi Valley around the same time. Using archaeological and historical evidence, the paper discusses local aspects of African and Portuguese contact in northern Zimbabwe during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries and seeks to identify ways in which African–European contact was affected and sometimes transformed by local circumstances. Focus is on royal palaces, trading centres and fortifications involved in the gold trade, as these played a central role in the contact process.

The Archaeological Evidence

The archaeological evidence presented here comes from the middle Ruya-Mazowe basin of northern Zimbabwe, mainly around Mt Fura and the surrounding area (see Fig. 2). This area is linked with the earliest establishment of the Mutapa dynasties in the region (Beach 1980). The zimbabwe located during survey point to the existence of these capitals, while sites with imported ceramic materials, glassware and glass beads attest to interaction and contact with the Portuguese and other traders from the Indian Ocean coast. The fortifications that are also found in the general area point to the Portuguese attempts to create a prazo in an area wrestled from Mutapa rulers. Presented here are the relevant evidence and the challenges presented by interpretation of the material evidence in terms of ‘African’ and ‘Portuguese’ identities.

Early Zimbabwe

Archaeological surveys between 1990 and 2000 revealed neatly coursed stonewalled settlements of the Zimbabwe Culture in the middle Ruya-Mazowe basin. Until then, only the site of Ruanga, about 20 km south of Mt Fura (Garlake 1972) was known and excavated, dated to the fifteenth century on the basis of imported glass beads. The other clusters of zimbabwe are found in the Centenary area to the west and on the Zambezi Escarpment and in adjacent Dande lowlands to the north west (Pwiti 1996). The zimbabwe located on Chikaniso Hill and Nowedza Communal lands north of the Ruya River and on Chomagora Hill and Matanda Farm to the north and east of Mt Fura, respectively, are relatively small centres, the stone walled areas not more than 5–10 m across for the largest site.

The sites of Matanda Farm and Chomagora Hill have been excavated to determine their chronology and cultural affiliation. Available radiocarbon dates place Chomagora Hill (Fig. 3) to the fifteenth century,Footnote 1 while those from Matanda Farm were inconclusive, only dating a later farming community to the first half of the thirteenth century.Footnote 2 The zimbabwe at Chomagora was established on an existing, later Iron Age community identified elsewhere with the Musengezi tradition (Pwiti 1996), also living on top of the hill and seems to have been established there much earlierFootnote 3. This compares well with the evidence produced by Garlake (1972) from Ruanga.

Fig. 3
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Map of northern Zimbabwe showing the distribution of feiras and stone built zimbabwe

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No imported items were recovered from these sites, contrary to our expectations. Available evidence elsewhere in northern Zimbabwe, e.g. Garlake (1972), shows some glass beads recovered at Ruanga, and Pwiti (1996) reported a late fourteenth-century glazed brown celadon at Zvongombe and glass beads at Kasekete. This suggests that there were trading contacts already taking place in these centres as well as among the local ‘Musengezi’ population with the Indian Ocean coast. The proximity of Matanda Farm and Chomagora to the auriferous Mukaradzi valley suggests that these sites were also taking part in the gold trade. Ceramic crucibles found at Chomagora suggest this role. No glass beads were found during the excavations. The zimbabwe at Chikaniso Hill and Nowedza Communal Lands await detailed investigations but may not yield much due to plundering by gold prospectors. Collectively, however, these sites seem to be Mutapa palaces established during the fifteenth century. Together with the pre-existing Later Iron Age Musengezi population, they provide evidence for pre-European or pre-Atlantic Age trading contact in the area.

The Feira of Massapa

Archaeological surveys since the early 1990s have also located an extensive site on Baranda Farm in the auriferous Mukaradzi River valley, near Mt Fura. Baranda has well-drained sandy soils, which derive from grano-diorite outcrops also found in nearby farms mostly north of the Mukaradzi River (Fig. 4). These soils are referred to locally as shapa or mashapa (meaning sandy soils). The site measures 1,200 × 1500 m, covering an approximate area of 180 ha, spilling over into adjacent farms. The investigations included phosphate mapping and controlled surface collections, test and trench excavations, to determine the extent of and the stratigraphy and nature of settlement, respectively. The excavations showed that Baranda was largely a single component site (see Pikirayi 1993).

Fig. 4
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The trading site of Baranda, northern Zimbabwe

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Recovered was a substantial amount of imported local pottery, which included Chinese stoneware, Persian earthenwares and Chinese blue on white porcelain (Table 1) and glass beads from the Indian sub-continent in shades of brown, dark and light blue, green, black and yellow and sometimes white, all dating to the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries (Table 2; For detailed site report, see Pikirayi 1993, pp. 146–157). Baranda was well placed for the exploitation of gold the Mukaradzi valley and, judging by the artefacts recovered from there, must have commanded extensive external commercial contacts with the Indian Ocean coast. Local material, especially graphite-burnished pottery, shows that continuation of the culture was used at Great Zimbabwe (Fig. 5). In addition to the pottery and beads, excavations recovered some copper wire, iron implements, lumps of slag, grinding equipment, ceramic crucibles, pebbles and spindle whorls, as well as wild and domestic animal bones (Pikirayi 1993, pp. 80–83, 143, 162–165). Baranda has no visible structures, the evidence having been destroyed by tilling (see Fig. 4). The layout of the buildings is thus unclear, but the presence of pole-impressed dhaka suggests that the buildings were not substantial in character. The range of activities is similar throughout the whole site, except for the western section which was primarily used for iron production. Radiocarbon dates the site from the late thirteenth century to the beginning of the sixteenth but is at variance with optically stimulated luminescence dates, which are consistent with the sixteenth/seventeenth-century dating assigned to the imports (Pikirayi 1993; Sinclair et al. 1993).

Table 1 Imported pottery from the site of Baranda
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Table 2 Glass beads from Baranda
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Fig. 5
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Sherds with graphite burnish and red ochre from Baranda, northern Zimbabwe

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The settlement of Baranda was geared towards gold processing for export as seen from the ceramic crucibles and metalworking found on the site. Cloth was also manufactured there as attested by spindle whorls. All these activities supported the trade, which is evidenced by imports. Essentially, the archaeological record shows African material culture directly associated with non-African items of trade. This is evidence for cultural and economic interaction, and it is within this context that the consequences of such encounters during the period under review are discussed. Furthermore, within a 5-km radius of Baranda are sites with similar local and imported pottery. These could have functioned as satellite settlements of Baranda, serving slightly different or supporting functions from or for the former. Two roughly built stone enclosures with loopholes on Chenguruve hill, about a kilometre to the southwest, attest to the violent episode connected with this trade during the seventeenth century, which might have resulted in the decline of Baranda (see Table 2, compare with Table 1). Although sherds of Chinese blue on white have been recovered from the middens of these enclosures, they are exiguous in comparison with the large quantities from Baranda. Baranda was therefore part of a complex of settlements in the Mukaradzi valley, which attests to external trade during the late sixteenth and a major part of the seventeenth century and provides an ideal setting for documenting contact between the external traders and local people under the control of the Mutapa state. Based on the descriptions in Portuguese-written sources considered, it would appear that Baranda and surrounding sites would constitute the feira of Massapa (in reference to mashapa).

Fortifications

Archaeology shows that sites with loopholes are the most prominent and numerous in the region (Fig. 6). In the 1950s, Professor Eric Axelson conducted surveys between Fura and Tsawa (Mahonje) mountains and highlighted the existence of stone enclosures, which he believed, because of the loopholes, were of Portuguese construction. The stone structures are irregular, semi-circular or oval in plan, the plan often dictated by the general appearance of the hill on which they are sited. A detailed description of the architectural features is provided in Pikirayi (1993, pp. 63–70). Over 100 sites with stone structures have been recorded, mostly from the middle Mazowe valley, Mt. Fura and the entire Gwetera–Mukaradzi valley, as well as some roughly built stone enclosures without loopholes on the mountain ridges to the west of Kandeya–Dotito areas north of the Ruya (Fig. 7). This location falls within the Mukaranga region, the original heartland of the Mutapa state (Beach 1980). Detailed surveys on these sites have been carried out on Mt. Fura (Soper 1994), and excavations have been targeted on the middens associated with these sites at Muchekayawa and Chenguruve hills. Radiocarbon dating of charcoal samples found within the ash and luminescence dating of the pottery and burnt dhaka date the sites from the early seventeenth century, but Muchekayawa, would suggest settlement during the late sixteenth century. Associated pottery (Fig. 8; for more illustrations see Pikirayi 1993, pp. 140–142) would identify the inhabitants of these sites with some ‘Tonga’ groups from the middle or lower Zambezi or the Budya from the northeastern plateau (Pikirayi 1993, pp. 144–146). In the past, these sites were considered early Mutapa capitals (Huffman 1986). Rather, they belong to a different architectural tradition (termed Mahonje, see Pikirayi 1993, p. 70) since Mutapa capitals are clearly represented in the area by the neatly coursed stone structures at Chomagora Hill and Matanda Farm.

Fig. 6
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A stone structure on Mt Fura, northern Zimbabwe. Located on the western ridge, this structure is a part of a cluster of 20 enclosures located on the mountain summit and upper slopes. The mountain rises steeply to 500 m from the general ground level. Constructed using pophyritic schist stone blocks, note the linteled doorway and the square loophole to the left. These are the only loopholed stone structures vaguely alluded to in the account of the Portuguese missionary, João dos Santos, who worked in the Mutapa state from 1585–1595 (Theal 1898-1903, vol. 7, pp. 275–277). Photograph courtesy of Anders Lindahl

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Fig. 7
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Distribution of stone structures with loopholes, Mukaranga, northern Zimbabwe

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Fig. 8
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Local pottery from Chenguruve Hill enclosures

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Recovered from some of the excavated fortified hilltops were glass, copper and shell beads (Table 3), very limited quantities of imported ceramics, local pottery with a carination on the shoulder (Fig. 8), some ceramic crucibles (Pikirayi 1993, pp.142), river pebbles and some iron and copper objects (Pikirayi 1993, pp.164–165). These artefacts were recovered from large ashy midden deposits very often found immediately outside the enclosure walls. The imported glass beads and pottery point to the inhabitants of the site being involved in some trading networks with the Indian Ocean coast, while the crucibles suggest quite extensive mining of gold, judging by their quantity. This activity together with the extensive ashy middens always found in association with the loopholed stone structures (see Pikirayi 1993, pp. 85, 86, 89, 90, 92–95 for photographs and sites plans) indicate the highly insecure conditions in which gold was exploited in Mukaranga at the time. In addition, they are also suggestive of the negative environmental conditions, which may have resulted from the digging of swathes of Mukaradzi and other river Valleys—forest clearance for firewood—the quantities of which produced the huge ash middens. Also recovered from the vicinity of some of the hill forts, as well as from within the sandy soils around Baranda and beyond, are numerous charcoal mounds, iron slag concentrations and remains of iron smelting furnaces, in association with each other such that they were probably the work of smelting blacksmiths, but the dating of this activity remains unclear. The recovery of over 40 mounds within a 4–5-km radius indicates heavy forest clearance to support the iron smelting industry and gold processing activities.

Table 3 Glass beads from loopholed stone structures
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Discussion

The Dualities of Settlement Identities

The identification of neatly coursed stone enclosures at Chomagora and Matanda Farm, near Mt Fura, and Chikaniso and Ngome hills, north of the Ruya River (Pikirayi 1993), attests to the existence of royal palaces in Mukaranga area prior to and during the time of the Portuguese. These, as well as the trading settlement at Baranda Farm near the Mukaradzi Valley, are of Great Zimbabwe origin, at least in terms of architectural style or as in the case of Baranda, associated local pottery. Although more details are required, the archaeological evidence confirms that the areas around Mr Fura including the auriferous Mukaradzi valley witnessed the development of early zimbabwe.

With considerable quantities of locally manufactured well-finished graphite-burnished pottery (Fig. 6, Table 4), could the site of Baranda have been some Mutapa capital, attracting large volumes of trade from the Indian Ocean coast? The presentation of Massapa essentially as a trading settlement could have been conditioned by Portuguese written accounts that put emphasis on trade over everything else (Beach 1980, pp. 121–131). It appears that the Portuguese assert their dominance over matters of trade by manipulating the historical identity of the settlement to their own advantage, sidelining the long-established trading networks involving the much earlier Swahili traders (Mudenge 1988, pp. 43–45). In contrast to the written narrative, archaeology presents the settlement as essentially African in character and is at variance with the Portuguese description of the site. The archaeological evidence indicates a zimbabwe (albeit no stone walling) community living in the Mukaradzi valley and trading with the coast (Sinclair et al. 1993). The Portuguese ‘identity’ at Baranda is only suggested by imports, but perceiving it as such would undermine the complexity of the contact process.

Table 4 Local pottery from Baranda and loopholed stone structures
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It is suggested here that the Mukaradzi valley saw the development of early royal courts or palaces of the Mutapa state in the area, one of which became the ‘Portuguese’ Massapa. Following initial attempts by the Portuguese to conquer the state in the 1570s, the royal court was moved to the area across the Ruya, as indicated in the sixteenth-century cartographic specimens (see Pikirayi 1993, pp. 101–109). This also explains why Massapa grew as a major centre during the seventeenth century, a development only synonymous with royal courts, which attracted large numbers of people. Portuguese presence at Massapa could have been confined to the precincts of the main site for we have not been able to locate buildings like the church mentioned in their accounts. The nearest fortification, most likely the stone structures on Chenguruve Hill, is much later in date and totally out of character with that constructed by the Portuguese elsewhere (Pikirayi 1993, pp. 52–3).

Consequences of Mutapa–Portuguese Contacts and Interaction

It is argued here that feira trade may have resulted in the emergence of royal capitals or centres, which were no longer built in stone. Early trade in the Mutapa state was conducted in the confines of royal courts (Bhila 1983), such that some of the feiras were an extension of these settlements. However, with increased European presence in northern and eastern Zimbabwe, feira trade assumed a different character, resulting in the establishment of special centres designated for the conduct of trade. The introduction of Portuguese mercantile activity in northern Zimbabwe led to the creation of a settlement system, which competed with that of royal palaces. The decision by Mutapa kings to set up trading settlements outside the royal courts was to create zones of commercial interaction in between major centres of state power while at the same time regulating the conduct of trade. The regional location of the trading centres, particularly those in the eastern half of northern Zimbabwe, shows some regularity in terms of spacing. The settlements also display an orientation towards the lower Zambezi valley, thus serving as lines of retreat and defense in the event of an uprising in the interior. It would not be advantageous, therefore, to overstretch the trading network as long as sufficient markets existed in the Mutapa state to meet the demands of the traders. Thus, the domination of an essentially African settlement system by the Portuguese is seen from the conduct of trade from the late sixteenth to the early seventeenth centuries, with feiras becoming competing centres of economic and, to some extent, political power. This challenged the traditional social formation in the region, that which controlled access to productive resources and specific territory and depended on agricultural production to support the subsistence needs of local population.

Portuguese mercantile capital was to exert excessive demands on the local population, which had to mine more gold, we are told, thereby investing more time in the activity at the expense of agriculture. This shift in productive and accumulation patterns also undermined the Mutapa political system as it meant reduced tributary inflows to the royal palaces. Besides, continued Portuguese interference with the politics at court meant increasing weakening of central political power. The widespread distribution of imported goods suggests increased individual participation in external trade, which further deprived the ruling elite of potential sources of wealth, with people contributing more towards their own enrichment rather than meeting the demands of the palace. Thus, the articulation of merchant capital and social formation in the region transformed Mutapa society and political power. As a result of all these developments, we witness the first major decline of the Mutapa state in northern Zimbabwe with a gradual loss of neatly constructed zimbabwe, with royal palaces increasingly losing control in the conduct of the trade with eastern Africa. This forced kings to negotiate their relationships with the traders, an approach which failed when violence engulfed the region during the seventeenth century.

Another consequence of the feira trade is exemplified by fortifications built in Mukaranga and adjacent regions of northern Zimbabwe during the period in question and, it would appear, for a greater part of the seventeenth century. Fortifications are a salient feature of state developmental process. The identification of these fortifications is based on siting considerations and a regional settlement pattern that is out of character with that obtaining from other types of sites in the region. Written sources allude to four categories of fortifications: hill refuges used by rebels against Mutapa–Portuguese attacks, earthworks built by the Portuguese outlaws and prazo holders to control the gold producing areas of the Mutapa state and part of the Zambezi, fortified hills used by the Mutapas to protect their capitals from attack, and wooden stockades (chuambos) used especially by rebels operating in the lower Zambezi. The use of earthworks as bulwarks was a feature well known in the lower Zambezi and probably dates to the late sixteenth century. It was introduced in response to firearms, which in turn triggered siege warfare. Portuguese observers connect this development with the Zimba, of Maravi origin, who earned a reputation for savagery and cannibalism.

One area mentioned in Portuguese written accounts in connection with fortifications is the mountain of Chizinga, a largely inaccessible granite formation in the middle Mazowe valley. Here are rough stone structures on the summit that served purposes of fortification. Besides, the ceramic material recovered from the mountain compares with that excavated from some of loopholed stone structures (Pikirayi 1993, p. 44). Other areas mentioned in the written sources in connections with fortifications such as Matarira mountain and the territory of ‘Nhomboe’ await positive identification. The lower Zambezi valley for which written sources present vivid accounts on earthwork fortifications are only now beginning to receive systematic archaeological attention (Macamo 2006). The lower Zambezi conflicts give us an idea on the use of loopholes in fortifications, and by extension, stone structures with similar features found in the middle Mazowe-Ruya basin. Thus, Mahonje tradition stone structures were primarily used for defence and reflect unstable political conditions in the Mutapa state for much of the seventeenth century following the demise of feiras in Mukaranga.

An aspect often overlooked in the subject of African–Portuguese trading contacts is the potential environmental degradation, triggered by excessive external demands for gold. Fortifications should also be linked with environmental degradation, which took place in the middle Mazowe-Ruya basin. After the death of Gatsi Rusere in 1624, the Mutapa state was engulfed in a civil war, with one faction supported by the Portuguese. This ushered into the state a wave of violence generated by the Portuguese prazo holders and their Chikunda armies from the Zambezi against successive Mutapas who were politically and militarily weak. There are references to attacks made on the people of Mukaranga, some of whom were enslaved and forced to work in the goldmines by the Portuguese. Some fled, leaving the core of the state largely depopulated. Some Portuguese, in collusion with local rulers, seized some land that belonged to the Mutapa and tried to convert them into prazos.

From the late 1620s onwards, the Portuguese seem to have gained unlimited concessions from the ruling Mutapas to mine gold in the state, and any attempt to control their destructive behaviour, by confining them to the feiras, failed. So impacting were their activities that it has been reported in the written sources that Mukaranga was affected by disease and subsequently depopulated. The Mutapa state lost the plateau area to the ravaging trading practices of the Portuguese. With the demise of the feira-based trade, the Mutapa state faced an increase in European manufactured goods, which depreciated the values of goods traded previously. The unpopularity of these goods is suggested by the forced mining of gold in Mukaranga, evidently under very insecure conditions. This destroyed state regulation in the conduct of the trade, resulting in increased individual participation, which in turn impacted on the profitability of the enterprise. What we see with regards to the Mutapa state from the 1620s onwards is additional structural transformation, leading to a further reduction in state power. The fortified settlements located in a region of Mukaranga are testimony to this. The archaeological evidence points towards a chaotic, haphazard settlement patterning, lack of centralised regulation pertaining to matters of trade, increased industrial activity in the form of iron smelting and gold processing, which undermined the local agricultural subsistence base, and violence attested by the fortified settlements, during the seventeenth centuries. Given these developments, the Mutapa state clearly failed to adapt to rapidly changing circumstances and was consequently forced to relocate.

Diseases and epidemics are vaguely alluded to in written sources during the later periods of the early Atlantic Age, in connection with the Portuguese destructive mining campaigns. Connected with this is the depopulation experienced in Mukaranga, the heartland of the state. In other parts of the African continent, the disease factor slowed down the initial contacts between Europeans and Africans (Curtin 1990). It is clear from the onset that consequences of African–European contact should not be discussed in isolation as they occurred in multiple contexts. Environmental consequences of contact have been ignored in such discussions, as they often beg the question as to how Africans responded to them. For southeastern Africa, the prazo system was parasitic in character and a major source of conflict and violence in the lower Zambezi and adjacent regions. It also affected agricultural production, resulting in hunger and periodic famines in environmentally sensitive areas of the adjacent states. Depopulation was experienced in these areas.

Since 1629, following a treaty conceding all gold mines to the Portuguese crown, the Mutapa state experienced weak and insecure reigns; Mutapa rulers failed to confine the Portuguese traders to the feiras. Thus, a combination of a highly parasitic system of landownership in the lower Zambezi, a depressed economy, weak governance, violence and conflict triggered other consequences. Small pox, measles and plague are reported in Portuguese sources to have decimated the population of the inhabitants south of the Zambezi during this period. Many settlements and crops pending harvest were abandoned. Very few people remained to work in the gold mines (Beach 1980; Mudenge 1988). It is my observation with regards to the Mutapa state that catastrophic droughts and famine occurred when violence intensified scarcity and that violence was the main ingredient of the early Atlantic Age in this part of Africa (Pikirayi 2003, p. 70). Measures aimed at preventing famine and crop failure-food storage, supplementing of food sources through hunting, gathering of wild resources and exchange, mutual aid, clientage ties between commoners and the powerful could not be effectively put into operation in a violent atmosphere. The land reallocation exercise practiced by Mutapa Mukombwe after 1560 was aimed at stemming population decline, securing the state's agricultural base and protecting the state in a lawless world controlled by warlords.

Conclusion

Referring to both early and later European settler communities during the “Age of Discovery,” Fagan (1998) sees the consequences of contact with Europeans leading to the “withering” of many parts of the world, with the Europeans believing “...they had the right to carve out a new life in an alien land without any reference to the indigenous population....” (p. 23). In presenting consequences of African–European contact, one is often tempted to provide an attribute list indicative of the results of cross-cultural interactions. These would include clash or confrontation of and between different cultures, brutal and sometimes abortive military campaigns, unequal but profitable trading, land grabbing, traumatic cultural exchanges, population decimation due to slavery, disease and epidemics, foreign domination and African resistance and adaptation and transformation of African social, political and economic structures, among many others. A study of trading centres and royal courts in the Mutapa state shows that, if such consequences are examined locally, the broader complexity of various contact settings is better understood.

African societies underwent considerable changes following contact with Europeans (see, e.g., Gray and Birmingham 1970; Kelly 1997). On the Zimbabwe plateau, we see a shift in political power from the southern parts towards the north, with dynasties of the Mutapa state strategically controlling the goldfields of Mukaranga. This repositioning should be understood in the context of the demise of Great Zimbabwe, as well as continuity of its culture system elsewhere on the Zimbabwe plateau. Discussion on the demise of Great Zimbabwe vaguely alludes to this but neglects the impact of early European contact with Africans (Pikirayi 2006). Northern Zimbabwe provides examples of how socio-political complexity was lost or retained in the wake of new developments on the African continent. The competition posed by the trading centres threatened the security of royal courts. As a result of destructive Portuguese commercial activities in northern Zimbabwe and adjacent Zambezi valley, the Mutapa state nearly collapsed in the seventeenth century. However, adaptation to changing circumstances ensured that it survived these external threats.

More research is required to document the impact of diseases and epidemics, something that forensic archaeology may assist with if some of the human remains dating to this period are re-analysed (Garlake 1969). This may be connected to the environmental degradation associated with destructive mining campaigns launched by the Portuguese, and recent experiences in gold and diamond mining in Zimbabwe demonstrate how problematic this is when it comes to regulation by authorities. The Portuguese destroyed the basis of contact with the Mutapa state when they tried to wrestle control and dictate the terms of the gold trade. Such parasitic tendencies heavily impact on agricultural production and political instability as what clearly happened in Mukaranga. While this investigation managed to extract more from existing Portuguese sources and used archaeology to inform some of the events of the sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Mutapa state, it is now appropriate to exploit the rich vein of oral data available (e.g., Beach 1994). This provides the basis for interrogating the appropriateness of privileging European texts in understanding local, indigenous African histories and historicities. As discussed briefly at the onset of this paper, future research in historical archaeology in Africa, and on the Mutapa state in particular, would benefit immensely by taking this trajectory.