Discussion
For decades, descendants of the people who built Great Zimbabwe were told by colonial archaeologists that they couldn't possibly have built it. This despite all the evidence & Zimbabwe meaning 'houses of stone' in the Shona language.
The ancient aliens industry applies the same logic to Sacsayhuamán in Peru.
Yet nobody questions who built the impressive structures in Rome or Greece.
Sunday's Drystone Diary will explore Whose History Is Worth Keeping?
@kristiedegaris it’s an amazing place. Lucky enough to visit almost 30 years ago.
@kristiedegaris Honestly, it's more surprising there aren't more ruins from super early civilisations in the entire Eastern half of Africa given the people who settled there likely had a leg up on the Greeks and Romans by virtue of not having to travel as far to get to the place where the thing was built.
@kristiedegaris Wow!
The Great Zimbabwe structure immediately reminds me of the ancient dún fortresses here in Ireland, such as Dún Aonghusa.
Thank you for sharing this (and f'ck colonialists and racism!).
(Image source: https://heritageireland.ie/visit/places-to-visit/dun-aonghasa/)
@kristiedegaris The 'other side' of putting the lime in the coconut, is mixing lime with a natural binder, like coconut 'hair', then packing it into dirt blocks/construction.
I hear is holds up quite well.
@kristiedegaris A friend just came back from Peru, sent me several pictures of Sacsayhuamán, including one with a person standing in front, to show size. What an achievement! And I've shared pics with you of the amazing walls in Chaco Canyon. Humans did amazing things with stone. (Not aliens.)
@kristiedegaris The walls in Peru feature in a Netflix series which really wound me up. The presenter argued that ancient peoples had some kind of fire sword to cut the stone and give the "melted" appearance.
@kristiedegaris Classical archaeology has been plagued by similar colonialist and racist attitudes, which sought to undermine continuity from ancient Athenians or Mycenaeans or Romans to the populations of the emerging nineteenth-century nation states. You can still see it in arguments defending the retention of the Parthenon sculptures, for example.
@kristiedegaris Zimbabwe mentioned! 😁😁😁
@kristiedegaris "I am a drystone waller/All day I drystone wall./ Of all appalling callings/Drystone walling's worst of all." - Pam Ayres (Though I suspect she never tried hedging with thorn bushes.)
@kristiedegaris Amusing that the Greeks called the Mycenaean walls "Cyclopean", because they didn't believe their ancestors could have shifted the enormous boulders themselves, and it must have been the Cyclopes (one-eyed giants) who did it.
@kristiedegaris Ah, the oldest trope in archaelogy pop culture; Egyptians didn't build the pyramids and if they did then they Ancient Egyptians have nothing whatsoever to do with Modern day Egyptians! (whose DNA has got corrupted or something)
🙄
@kristiedegaris Sacsayhuamán is awesome! This "aliens" discussion is so frustrating, especially considering that a key reason we know little about how they built those structures is because of colonial powers systematically destroying indigenous documents.
@kristiedegaris sorry, that's very interesting, I knew nothing about it
There's still someone that says they are not local creation? I read that these theories were demolished in 1930 as even before...
History has always been bent for other interests, political and economical ones
Even the same European history has been deformed and used, so many times...
@kristiedegaris
Wow I live I africa but I have heard about it
Do you live in africa
@Timothyswallehz No, I live in Scotland.
@kristiedegaris
How do you come to know some facts of Zimbabwe
@Timothyswallehz I am interested in stone structures and Zimbabwe has some of the best
@kristiedegaris A lot of white people in apartheid South Africa firmly believed Zimbabwe was "obviously" built by the Phoenicians.
A lot of the stone structures across South Africa were just demolished by white farmers for building materials.
@SecondUniverse I can't even imagine the treasures that were lost. What still exists in Zimbabwe is truly some of the most intricate and best drystone in the world.
Install bonfire.cafe
Get the full app experience
