Mapungubwe gold-foil work
Orfebrería en lámina de oro de Mapungubwe
- Date
- c. 1250 · confidence medium
- Place
- Mapungubwe Hill, Limpopo, South Africa
- Credited to
- Kingdom of Mapungubwe
- Field
- Matter & energy
What it is
Figures such as the golden rhinoceros, made from thin foil tacked onto a wooden core. They show the first southern African elite to control gold and trade with the Indian Ocean.
Found in 1933; the kingdom declined around 1290, perhaps owing to climatic change, and power passed to Great Zimbabwe.
What it led to
- the first hierarchical state of southern Africa
- gold trade with the Swahili coast
- a direct precedent for Great Zimbabwe