Shallow reef workings and alluvial diggings in the greenstone belt north of Mapela (the belt lies within 20 km of Mapela hill).
Gold mining on the plateau was not extensive before about the eleventh century (Huffman 1974); the gold of Mapungubwe's thirteenth-century graves and of the coast's trade came from belts like this one. Individual workings cannot be dated; the point marks the belt, not a mine.
Who holds it
- Title
- Not known
- Since
- Not pinned
- Confidence
- low
Lord in 1200
Not known: the local Leopard's Kopje communities; Mapela's lord may have controlled the trade.
How things stand that morning
Probably being worked; not pinned for any single working.
Charter
None: a settlement under a chief, without written privileges.
Fairs and markets
No fixed markets are known; exchange at the chief's court and with visiting traders.
Trade and crafts
Gold dust and small ingots.
Where the sources disagree
Evidence: General dating of plateau gold mining; no dated working here known to me.
Primary sources for Plateau chiefdoms
Chronicles, registers, sagas and inscriptions written in or near 1200 that cover this entry. Each has its own page with editions, translations and where to read it.
- Mapungubwe, the Zimbabwe plateau, Toutswe and the Comoros: the archaeological record (no text; radiocarbon-dated sites). There is no written word from the interior south of the Zambezi or from the Comoros in 1200; all that is known is from excavation. Read online
Sources and studies
- Huffman, Ancient mining and Zimbabwe, Journal of the South African Institute of Mining and Metallurgy (1974)
- Chirikure, Manyanga, Pollard, Bandama, Mahachi and Pikirayi, Zimbabwe culture before Mapungubwe: new evidence from Mapela Hill, PLoS ONE 9 (2014)
Last revised 4 November 2026. Published 4 November 2026. Suggest a correction on the OMNIA Discord.