The property has a long social heritage that extends back from at laest 250,000 years to the early colonial era. This history is represented as archaeological sites, rock paintings, old village remains, graves and various stone and brick-built structures. In July 2017 the National Trust Zimbabwe (NTZ) gave permission to the National Museums & Monuments of Zimbabwe (NMMZ) to conduct a rescue excavation of midden material (ashy village waste and domestic debris) that was being eroded by water channelling down one of the paths. The NMMZ team comprised of six museum curatorial staff namely: Ms Senzeni Khumalo, Mr Lonke Nyoni, Mrs Charity Nyathi, Mr Todini Runganga, Mr Obert Mangwana and Mr Maxwell Fumula.
Here is an extract from one of the first report backs:
“Today we did a one metre by one metre trench at 10cm intervals. The first ten centimetres we recovered 10 glass beads of various colours, pot sherds as well as bones. At 20cm we recovered 40 beads and bones and at 30cm the trench was sterile only two glass beads and a few pot sherds were recovered. A new trench will be dug tomorrow“.
This is great news indeed and many thanks go to and Mrs Khumalo her team for undertaking the very valuable rescue excavation work that was carried out as the archaeological materials were in danger of being lost/damaged further. This news greatly increases the interest of the NTZ site and confirmed that the property was the village of one of the Ndebele indunas (chiefs) in the precolonial era, probably dating to between 1870 and 1890. We eagerly await for the full report.
USE NUMBER: 0775 907 595