ZIMBABWE RUINS.

Putaruru Press, Volume VII, Issue 281, 28 March 1929, Page 3

ZIMBABWE RUINS.

Prehistoric stone trails and temples at Z.mbabwe, popularly associated with King Solomon’s Mines, are to be studied by a well-known British archaeologist, Miss Gertrude Canton-Tompson, who sailed tor Sciuth Africa. The expedition is in preparation for the meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, to be held in South Africa next summer.

As a feature of the meeting, further excavations of South Africa’s mystery city are to be made, and scientists attending the meeting will fcear of the results and visit the ruins. Miss Canto n-Thomps on, who is best known fog her explorations in Egypt, ■was appointed to this task by the council of the association. While the Zimbabwe ruins have been known since 1868, their signi- 1 fieance has never been fully explain- I *d- Early explorers were so impressed by the massive stone walls, at

, timas 14 feet thick, and by the maze J of courts, stairways walls, and towers, that they concluded the civilisation must have been ancient * and must have little or no relation to the present-day natives of the region. Existence of so ambitious a city in South Africa lent credence to the theory that the gold mines which sent Solomon his wealth were in South Africa. This faew was incorporated in Rider Haggard's novel, “King Solomon's Mines/' Articles found in the ruins later, however, were pronounced only four or five centuries old, and some of these were shown to be as old as the foundations of the buildings. The theory generally ac- } oepted at present is that massive stone walls were built about the fo<urteenth century, and that some unusual incentive of ambition, religion, force, or self-defence spurred the natives on in the great task of building such formidable structures. Further explorations may reveal whether the builders were the ancestors of the ‘ modern natives, or some other race.