KING SOLOMON’S MINES

Hokitika Guardian, 19 April 1929, Page 7

KING SOLOMON’S MINES

EXPLORATION BY AIR

Exploration by aeroplane is to he one •d tiie thrills of Miss Gertrude CatonTliompson, whom the cablegrams announced recently as ready to leave London on a trip to .Southern Rhodesia co visit King Solomon’s mines.

-Miss Caton-Tlionipson will he accompanied by Miss Norie, a professional architect, and Miss K. Kenyon, daughter of Sir Frederick Kenyon, director of the British Museum. The scene of Lbeir future work is the legendary site o. King Solomon’s mines. On this site stands the Zimbabwe ruins, consisting of large circular walls with fortified gateways; which are commonly supposed to he fortresses and temples. Local legends say that King Solomon and tne Queen of Sheha were associated with an older civilisation there, and the iatc Sir Rider Haggard has perpetuated these legends in his books. Ail aeroplane will probably lie used by Aliss Caton-Tliompson in a preliminary survey of the ruins. ' She considers the aeroplane of the greatest value in exploration work, and hopes to obtain a machine from Bulawayo, the nearest town of importance.

“I shall lie glad when I can get to grips with my job,” Miss CatonTliompson declared before her departure. “It is a long tourney, and the preliminary work is very tedious.” A (001, self-possessed young woman, she is of medium height. Her face is still slightly tanned by the hot sun of Egypt, where she did brilliant work for the Royal Anthropological institute. “On the outward journey f shall spend some time in Egypt,” she stated. “I am going up-country to collect equipment. ’ PRELIMINARY INVESTIGATIONS “I shall take a boat at Port Said and land at Beira, in Portuguese East Africa, and then go straight to Southern Rhodesia, The whole of February and probably March will lie occupied with prospecting, gleaning information, and finding local labour. My assistants are joining me in March. I selected Miss Norie because, as l think it will be extremely valuable to have thorough architectural records of the ruins.

Miss Kenyon lias just come down from Oxford Universiy, and this will be her first introduction to excavation work. The British Association has been granted permission to excavate two important groups of ruins—one at Zimbabwe and the other at Dlilo-Dhio (pronounced Flo-Flo). Dhlo-Dhlo lies to the north of Bulawayo. I hope to begin work as soon as the rainy season ends, probably early in March.”

Describing tiie objects of her expedition, Miss Caton-Tliompson said there was conflicting opinions in the archaeological world as to the probable date of the ruins. There is a strong feeding in favour of their being remote, prehistoric B.C. There is, on the other hand, an equally strong and well- authenticated view that they are not earlier than mediaeval. YEARS OF EXCAVATION.

‘The advocates of both points of view have made out quite a good case, but the evidence on neither side is conclusive. In my opinion the solution to the problem will be found only by prolonged and careful excavation and observation, carried out over probably a number of years in different parts of Rhodesia. It is not my job to bold preconceived theories as to which is correct.

The job oi excavator is to be as accurate an observer and recorder as is possible. If the ruins are mediaeval they are conceivably native work executed with a certain infiltration of outside ideas—probably borrowed from mining prospectors. The other school would see in them a definite foreign civlisation, entering purely for the purpose of mining.” Miss Caton-Thompson would not commit herself on the question of whether King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba wore ever associated with the district. ‘Mt is an old legend,” she stated. “Wo know that the Queen of Sheba and King Solomon had very large dealings in gold, and that Rhodesia is a gold mining country, but there is no other literary or archaclogical evidence for that view. One doesn’t rule out the possibility of Asiatic influence, of course

SITES OF ANCIENT DWELLINGS

“It is conceivable that you might got people from the direction of Asia Minor but it is pure speculation. There is not a fragment of evidence that it was so. When the early Portuguese and Dutch settlers reached the coast of Mozambique, in the Middle Ages, they found a very strong triliul organisation There. The most famous ruler of the kingdom was called Mono Motapa. Many tales of the inhabitants, showing the magnificence of tiie kingdom, have been handed down to us by early colonisers. My main object will be to discover the dwelling sites of those ancient people.” Miss Caton-Thompson and her party will lie armed, but they do not anticipate any occasion for using their weapons. “I shall report the result ol my first season’s investigations to the meeting of the British Association, which takes place in South Africa next August,” she added.