Documenting skills and practices of dry-stone masonry at Great Zimbabwe: Towards capturing a fading material knowledge

Abstract

The preservation of Great Zimbabwe, a dry-stonemasonry-built archaeological site in southern Zimbabwe,is anchored by two diametrically positioned conservationapproaches; one inspired by modernist conservationpractices and the other by local knowledge and skills. InZimbabwe, dry-stone masonry is a skill and practiceembedded in the local knowledge epistemologies. Thereare no formal institutions that train dry-stone masons. Itis largely believed that the dry-stone masonry knowledgeand skills have been inherited from the ancestral buildersof the ancient dry-stone-built settlements predominatelyfound in Zimbabwe, with some few in the neighbouringcountries of Botswana, Mozambique, and South Africa.Only a few dry-stone masons are skilled in restoringthese ancient structures. The knowledge and practices ofdry-stone masonry have never been recorded in detail,not only in Zimbabwe but also in other southern Africancountries where these monumental stone buildings arealso found. This paper discusses the findings of adocumentation project of dry-stone masonry at GreatZimbabwe, conducted under the auspices of the BritishMuseum ' s Endangered Material Knowledge Programme(EMKP). The project created a digital archive designed asStudies in the African Past Volume 16, 2022: 30 - 77Volume 16, 2022 31 Studies in the African Pasta repository resource for the conservation, transfer anddissemination of indigenous dry-stone masonryknowledge and practices.Keywords: Dry-stone masonry, Great Zimbabwe, Restoration,Stonemasonshttps://dx.doi.org/10.56279/sapj.v16.2