Post by Dr Ezekia Mtetwa, Uppsala University, Department of Archaeology and Ancient History, Box 626, 751 26 Uppsala, Sweden. ezekia.mtetwa@arkeologi.uu.se
Threats to archaeological and built heritage are multiple and can be more complex than usually imagined. In Africa, the well-known culprits include unmonitored urban expansion, large-scale agricultural intensification and irrigation projects’ intensification, the prospection and extraction of oil, gas and minerals, large-scale infrastructural development projects (dams, roads, railways, ports etc.), terrorism, and looting. Where these well-meaning development projects take place in the absence of pre-development archaeological impact assessments and mitigation activities, the damage to heritage is unimaginable.
In Zimbabwe, one more factor that is threatening heritage away from public scrutiny is herbivore foraging activities in most protected areas, exacerbated by climate change. In the increasingly arid landscapes of the Hwange National Park (HNP), located along the northwestern border of Zimbabwe and Botswana, the African elephant (Loxodonta africana) foraging activities are adversely affecting various aspects of heritage, not least the stonewalled Zimbabwe settlements, which were recorded in a recent study (Shenjere-Nyabezi et al 2020). The HNP is home to one of the world’s largest elephant populations (Blanc et al. 2007), and continues to grow. Owing to resource scarcity, which coincides with drought, elephants are resorting to utilizing diverse tree species for food, particularly the baobab (Adansonia digitata). Studies in Gonarezhou National Park, southeast Zimbabwe, shows that elephant damage to baobab trees is higher around permanent water sources than around seasonal waterholes (Kupika et al 2014).
Coincidentally, some of the baobab trees, which are known to live for more five centuries, grow right within the confines of stonewalled Zimbabwe sites (Sagiya 2022). Past inhabitants of these sites would have tended some of these baobab trees within the settlements, but the trees possibly grew naturally within the sites later from seeds dispersed by baboons (Papio ursinus). The clustering together and correlation of baobab trees, water sources and archaeological sites in the HNP has come to mean that the foraging activities of elephants is damaging both the baobabs and archaeological sites. As elephants walk around the sites stripping the barks of baobab trees for food, they trample and demolish the stonewalled structures in the process. The same effect occurs when elephants traverse the sites to and from permanent water sources. Studies also noted that more baobabs are located closer to water sources, in rocky outcrops (Mpofu et al 2012), the ideal locations of the Zimbabwe Culture settlements. While the damage on baobabs and stonewalls cannot be seen from satellite imagery, the baobab trees are so large that one can see them from space, and so they can be digitised in Google Earth and QGIS. In so doing, mapping baobab trees and permanent waterholes in the HNP and elsewhere has the potential to yield verifiable endangerment to heritage sites through selective archaeological surveys in areas that have received inadequate research coverage.
Sources
Blanc, J. J. et al. 2007. African elephant status report an update from the African elephant database. Occasional Paper of the IUCN Species Survival Commission No. 33.
Kupika, O.L., Kativu, S., Gandiwa, E. and Gumbie, A., 2014. Impact of African elephants on baobab (Adansonia digitata L.) population structure in northern Gonarezhou National Park, Zimbabwe.
Mpofu, E., E. Gandiwa, P. Zisadza-Gandiwa & H. Zinhiva. 2012. Abundance, distribution and status of African baobab (Adansonia digitata L.) in dry savanna woodlands in southern Gonarezhou National Park, southeast Zimbabwe. Tropical Ecology 53: 119-124.
Sagiya, E. M. 2021. An Investigation into Archaeological Heritage Governance with Special Reference to Hwange District, Northwestern Zimbabwe (Unpublished PhD Dissertation, University of Zimbabwe).
Shenjere-Nyabezi, P., Pwiti, G., Sagiya, M., Chirikure, S., Ndoro, W., Kapumha, R. and Makuvaza, S., 2020. Style, Chronology and Culture. The South African Archaeological Bulletin, 75(212), pp.4-16.
Images by (and with the kind permission of) Dr Plan Shenjere-Nyabezi.