Читать книгу Great Zimbabwe, Mashonaland, Rhodesia. An account of two years' examination work in 1902-4 on behalf of the government of Rhodesia онлайн

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Mr. Bent spoke of Zimbabwe as a “city,” and recent discoveries show the employment of this title to be fully justified, for not only is the Ruins’ Area vastly extended, but the formerly conjectured area can now be shown by recent excavations to have been much more crowded with buildings than could possibly have been seen in 1891. For instance, 2,300 ft. of passages have recently been discovered within the heart of the old Ruins’ Area buried some feet under the silted soil below the veld in spots where the siltation is rapid, the existence of which structures had been altogether unsuspected. In some instances the native paths, used by visitors inspecting the ruins, crossed these passages from 3 ft. to 5 ft. above the tops of the passage walls. The enormous quantity of débris, evidencing occupations in several periods, scattered over both the old and the extended area, is simply astonishing, and judging by the value of “finds” made during the recent work, it seems quite possible that further exploration would, in the intrinsic value of relics as relics, largely reimburse the expense of its continuance, while securing the opening up of fresh features of architecture and probably some definite clues as to the original builders of the numerous periods of occupation respectively; would bring an immense addition to scientific knowledge, while the more important ruins themselves, having been cleared of silted and imported soils and wall débris, are now ripe for the further examination for relics.