An Investigation of Manekweni, Mozambique

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Abstract
This article gives an account of the first British Institute project in Mozambique, carried out under the auspices of Eduardo Mondlane University, Maputo. The site concerned is of particular interest, being among the earliest of the stone structures of the type known as mazimbabwe, and far distant from those previously recorded. It is not far from the coast, and its construction in limestone, as opposed to the usual granite, is also remarkable. Mr. Garlake, who directed the excavation, brings to the project knowledge of the Great Zimbabwe culture acquired when he was Senior Inspector of Monuments in Rhodesia. He is now a lecturer in the Department of Anthropology, University College, London. The first season of excavations at Manekweni, a stone-built ruin in the coastal lowlands of southern Mozambique, is described. Architecture, building techniques, pottery and other artefacts demonstrate Manekweni's close connections with the Great Zimbabwe culture, of which the present nearest known sites are a considerable distance inland. A series of radiocarbon dates indicate that it is contemporary with Great Zimbabwe and was occupied between the twelfth and seventeenth centuries. Chinese porcelain and large numbers of glass beads are evidence of its trading connections in the later phases. Manekweni appears to have been a Shona capital, like that of Gambe in Tonge, described in sixteenth-century missionary records.

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