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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Humorous incidents are not absent in the work of excavation in the ruins. For instance, after working for some hours in a trench near the Sacred Enclosure, and passing all soil over boards and through fingers in the search for relics, a common clay pipe of English make was found intact at a depth of over 3 ft. At another spot, after hours of careful but unrewarded work in a trench, at a similar depth a very late brand of soda-water bottle was found. Both these finds delighted the boys infinitely more than had they unearthed a cartload of phalli or other prehistoric relics of value. In some respects the boys are extremely practical. The question “aliquid novi ex Zimbabwe?” can in two senses be answered in the affirmative. Such modern articles found “at depth” afford only another proof that the soil in the interior of the temple, as stated elsewhere, has been turned over and over again by archæologists, and also by unauthorised prospectors, for ancient gold and other relics.

After tjiya, when the day’s work is done, there is still an hour or so of daylight left, and this is usually occupied in wandering among the kopjes or along sequestered valleys, keeping an eye open for fresh traces of the ancients, or in examining and measuring some one of the minor ruins which stud the valley, or in calling at a village to arrange for labour, or in looking out for buck and guinea-fowl for the pot.