Mapungubwe Reconsidered

Exploring Beyond the Rise and Decline of the Mapungubwe State

Shadreck Chirikure

Real African Publishers
Johannesburg
2015
English
Paperback
150 pages

Synopsis

The Mapungubwe Cultural Landscape is one of the profound treasures of southern Africa’s social and archaeological history, appropriately declared a World Heritage Site by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (Unesco) in 2003. Contained within this landscape is indispensable information on precolonial state formation, social hierarchies, architecture of stone-walled towns, mineral processing and intercontinental trade.

Review

The book contributes to the body of knowledge about Mapungubwe and the form and impact of southern Africa’s global intercourse in this historical period.

Author

Shadreck Chirikure is an Associate Professor in the Department of Archaeology at the University of Cape Town. He obtained the degrees his PhD in Archaeology (2005) from the Institute of Archaeology, University College London.