The Lost City of Solomon and Sheba (36 page)

Nowadays the word ‘apocryphal' is used to warn of texts that need to be taken with a pinch of salt. But is the original Apocrypha a rather more reliable record than we thought? Does it offer any clues to a refugee tribe, or remnants of that tribe, which worked its way down to south-central Africa and there made a seminal contribution to the creation of a unique culture which would go on to build monumental temple-cities, one of which, Great Zimbabwe, is, dimensionably, a mirror image of Marib, the temple of the Queen of Sheba, in the deserts of modern Yemen?

All the ancient translations aver that the Assyrians did drive out ten of the twelve Hebrew tribes which, under Joshua, had taken possession of Canaan, the ‘Promised Land', after the death of Moses. By then, after the death of Solomon, the Jewish kingdom had split in two. Two tribes set up the kingdom of Judah in the south and the remaining ten ruled Israel. These ten tribes of Israel then vanish from the face of the earth. They remain arguably the greatest missing persons (or mass murder) mystery of history and the search for them has never stopped; indeed, it goes on at this very moment via the Internet. The Apocrypha (IV Ezra) says the lost tribes were forced into arid lands beyond the ‘Mountains of Darkness', uninhabited by human beings. The Zeng, remember, were even in much more recent times regarded by Arabians as subhuman. A later, more detailed, account describes them as vanishing into a country of great mountains and rivers where they were trapped behind a river, the Sambatyon, with magical properties. It defied anyone crossing it during the week but calmed down on the Sabbath, a most effective trap for Israelites immobilised by their holy day of rest!

Be that as it may, I think we have finally reached the end of the road. I strongly suspect that it is a road that can now only be retraced by the genetic scientists and they alone may some day give the answer to a question that I would never have dreamed of asking when I began this enquiry: did the Shona plateau become the promised land of a lost tribe of Israel?

Whatever the truth, these Semitic refugees did not build the Zimbabwe culture alone; indeed, by the time the great
zimbabwes
were built they would, as Frederick Courtney Selous first suggested, have been indistinguishable from the local people, just as now they are but genetic traces.

This is Zimbabwe's matchless heritage. I pray that before too long Zimbabweans may be in a position to rejoin the commonwealth of nations, spearhead the research into their exotic past, and promote lucrative access to the ancient architectural treasures they alone possess.

Ardrey, R.
African Genesis
, London, Collins, 1961

Baines, T.
The Gold Regions of South East Africa
, London, Stanford, 1882

Barnard, A.
Hunters and Herders of South Africa; a Comparative Ethnography of the Khoisan People
, Cambridge University Press, 1922

Barros, J. de.
De Asia
, Lisbon, 1552

Beach, D.T.
The Shona and Zimbabwe
, London, Heinemann, 1980

Beckingham, C.F.W. and Huntingford, G.W.B. (eds).
The Prester John of the Indies
, Cambridge, Hakluyt Society, 1961

Bent, J.T.
The Ruined Cities of Mashonaland
, London, Green & Co., 1893

Berhard, F.O.
Karl Mauch, African Explorer
, Cape Town, Struik, 1971

Bishop, W.W. and Clark J.D. (eds).
Background to Evolution in Africa
, Chicago and London, University of Chicago Press, 1967

Boozair, E., Malherbe, C., Smith, A. and Berens, P.
A History of the Khoi Khoi of Southern Africa
, Cape Town, David Phillip, 1966

Brentjes, R.
African Rock Art
, London, Dents, 1969

Bruwer, A.J.
Zimbabwe: Rhodesia's Ancient Greatness
, Johannesburg, Hugh Keartland, 1965

Burke, E.E.
The Journals of Carl Mauch, 1869–1872
, National Archives of Rhodesia, 1969

Cann, R.L., Stoneking, M. and Wilson, A.C. ‘Mitochondrial DNA and Human Evolution',
Nature
(1987)

Carroll, S.T. ‘Solomonic Legend: The Muslims and Great Zimbabwe',
International Journal of African Historical Studies
(1998)

Caton-Thompson, G.
The Zimbabwe Culture; Ruins and Reactions
, Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1931

Coupland, R.
East Africa and its Invaders
, London, Oxford University Press, 1938

Dart, R.A.
Foreign Influences of the Zimbabwe and pre-Zimbabwe eras
, Salisbury, NADA, 1965

Deacon, H.J. and Deacon, Janet.
Human Beginnings in South Africa
, Cape Town, David Philips, 2002

Dunn, E.J.
The Bushmen
, London, Collins, 1931

Fagan, B.M.
Southern Africa During the Iron Age
, London, Thames & Hudson, 1965

Fouche, L. (ed.),
Mapungubwe
, Cambridge University Press, 1937

Gardner, G.A.
Mapungubwe, Vol. 2
, Van Schaik, 1963

Garlake, P.S.
Great Zimbabwe
, London, Thames & Hudson, 1973. See also
Journal of African History
9, 11 (1968 and 1970)

Gayre, R.
The Origin of the Zimbabwe Civilisation
, Salisbury, Galaxie Press, 1972. See also
Mankind Quarterly
4 (1964)

Goedicke, H. (ed.).
The Report of Weenamun
, Baltimore, John Hopkins University Press, 1975

Grenville-Freeman, G.S.P.
The Medieval History of the Coast of Tanganyika
, Oxford University Press, 1962

Hall, R.N.
Great Zimbabwe
, London, Methuen, 1905

——.
Prehistoric Rhodesia
, London, Unwin, 1909

—— and Neal, W.G.
The Ancient Ruins of Rhodesia
, London, Methuen, 1902

Harden, D.
The Phoenicians
, London, Thames & Hudson, 1962

Hourani, G.
Arab Seafaring in the Indian Ocean in Ancient and Mediaeval Times
, Princeton, Princeton University Press, 1995

Huffman, T.N. ‘The Rise and Fall of Great Zimbabwe',
Journal of African History
(1972)

Huntingford G. (ed.).
The Periplus of the Erythraean Sea
, Cambridge, Hakluyt Society, 1980. Also known as
The Periplus of the Red Sea

Keppel-Jones, A.
Rhodes and Rhodesia. The White Conquest of Zimbabwe
, Montreal, McGill-Queen's, 1987

Kessler, D.
The Forgotten Jews of Ethiopia
, New York, Simon & Schuster, 1958

Kirby, P.
The Musical Instruments of the Native Races of Africa
, London, Oxford University Press, 1934

Leakey, L.S.B. ‘New Finds at Oldevai Gorge',
Nature
(1961)

Lewis-Williams, J.D.
Discovering South African Rock Art
, Cape Town, David Philips, 1990

Libby, W.T. ‘Chicago Radio-Carbon Dates III',
Science
(1952)

Livingstone, D.
Missionary Travels and Researches in Southern Africa
, London, 1857

MacIver, D.R.
Medieval Rhodesia
, London, Macmillan, 1906

MacKenrick, P.
The Northern Stones Speak
, London, Chapel Hill, 1980

Marinatos, S.
Crete and the Mycenae
, London, Thames & Hudson, 1960

Mathers, E.P.
Zambesia: England's El Dorado in Africa
, Rhodesiana Reprint Library, 1891

Maund, J.E.
On Matabele and Mashona Lands
, Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society, 1891

Mayer, A.
The Archaeological Sites of Greefswald: Mapungubwe Hill
, University of Pretoria, 1996

Menoll, R.P.
The Zimbabwe Ruins near Fort Victoria
, Rhodesian Scientific Association, 1902

Mphelo, M.N. ‘The BaLemba of the Northern Transvaal',
Native Teachers' Journal
(1936)

Mufaka, K.
Dzimbabwe: Life and Politics in the Golden Age
, Harare, 1983

Murray, M.A.
The Splendour that was Egypt
, London, Sidgwick & Jackson, 1949

Pankhurst, R.K.P. (ed.).
The Ethiopian Royal Chronicles
, Addis Ababa, Oxford University Press, 1961

Parfitt, T.
Journey to the Vanished City
, London, Hodder & Stoughton, 1992

Peters, C.
The Eldorado of the Ancients
, London, Pearson, 1902

Potts, D.T.
The Arabian Gulf in Antiquity
, Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1990

Phillipson, D.S. ‘The Excavations at Axsum',
Antiquities Journal
(1995)

Price, T. ‘The “Arabs” of the Zambesi',
Muslim World
(1954)

Rightmire, R.J.
The Evolution of Homo Erectus
, Cambridge University Press, 1990

Robinson, K.R. ‘Excavations on the Acropolis Hill', in Summers, Robinson and Whitty (eds), 1961, pp. 159–92

Schofield, J.F. ‘Zimbabwe: A critical examination of the building methods applied',
South African Journal of Science
38, 81–111

Shinie, M.
Ancient African Kingdoms
, Edward Arnold, 1965

Sicard, H. von.
Lemba Clans
, NADA 39 (1972)

——. ‘Shaka and the North',
African Studies
(1955)

——. ‘The Lemba Ancestor Baramina',
African Studies
(1953)

——.
Lemba Initiation Chants
, Ethnos, 1963

Stayt, H.A. (ed.).
The Bavenda
, London, 1931

Summers, R.
Inyanga: Prehistoric Settlements in Southern Rhodesia
, Cambridge University Press, 1958

——.
Excavations in the Great Enclosure
, in Summers, Robinson and Whitty (eds), National Museums of Southern Rhodesia, 1963, pp. 236–88

——.
Zimbabwe; a Rhodesian Mystery
, Johannesburg, Nelson, 1963

——.
Ancient Ruins and Vanished Civilsations of Southern Rhodesia
, Cape Town, T.V. Bulpin, 1971

Theal, G.M.
Records of South Eastern Africa
, vols I–IX, Cape Town, C.J. Rhodes, 1893–1903

Ullendorff, E.
The Ethiopians
, Oxford University Press, 1960

Van Warmelo, N.J.
The Copper Mines of Musina and the Early History of the Zoutspanberg
, Pretoria, 1940

Walker, E.A.
Arabs and East Coast Africa
, London, Longmans Green, 1957

Walton, J. ‘The Soapstone Birds of Rhodesia',
South African Archaeological Bulletin
(1955)

Whiteway, R.S.
The Portuguese Expedition to Abyssinia in 1541–3
, London, Haklut Society, 1902

Whitty, A.
A Classification of Prehistoric Stone Buildings in Mashonaland and the Origin of Stone Architecture at Zimbabwe
, National Museums of Southern Rhodesia, 1957 and 1959

Willoughby, J.
A Narrative of Further Excavations at Zimbabwe
, London, George Phillip, 1893

Wilmot, A.
Monomatapa-Rhodesia
, London, 1896