| |
|
wait, is 1000 the middle ages?
Depends who you ask, but I usually think of the middle ages proper as 1066-1485. Traveling to the UK in 1000AD, one would arrive in a pre-conquest Britain. That puts you at the end of the the Dark Ages, sometimes called the early Middle Ages, and a good two lifetimes away from William the Bastard's ascension to William the Conqueror fame.
If you were lucky enough to live a life as long as today's average, you might even be around for King Canute's death, and the reign of Macbeth up here in Scotland.
Sod all that, though. I'd rather go back to present day Zimbabwe for my time travel jaunt. In 1050, the now area around the Limpopo was becoming important.
I'd aim to arrive in Mapungubwe, founded by the Limpopo river around then, rising to prominence in the early years of that millennium.
I'd get in there early, maybe even be a part of the embryonic Southern African capital that gave way to Great Zimbabwe, the great city of the south. Sure, Mapungubwe was no Alexandria, but it had character. It may not have lasted long, but the city that followed it was fucking huge, and the ruins it left more impressive than many. Karl Mauch, the guy who discovered them(although re-discovered is more accurate; he wasn't even first after the inhabitants) assumed they were the ruins of an invaders stronghold. I think he credited the Phonecians, doubting the locals ability. To be fair, he was seeing them after years of war had destroyed their infrastructure and all but wiped out their culture, and there was a well worn trade route between the Shona and the Phoenicians.
Great Zimbabwe is the source of the eight famous soapstone carvings, one of which is represented on the flag of the current Republic of Zimbabwe, a link to history that seems as unfortunate now as did grand in 1980 when Mugabe won control from Ian Smith.
Mapungubwe was the beginning - and Great Zimbabwe the continuation - of a burgeoning class culture in Southern Africa that lasted for a long time, and that some say still guides today's politics underneath it all.
Personally I think that last bit's bollocks. I think Mugabe is just Mugabe. There's no excuse for his wanton and stubborn aggression, no mater how badly regular folks were treated 1000 years ago.
Fuck all that, though; Why am I going?
Well, since the Portuguese destroyed the local civilisation before I got to find out shit about it, and since Rhodes' Southern Africa Company finished the job, I'd love to be able to go and see a culture I have learned loads about without having really learned anything.
So aye.
Zimbabwe, so I can see what it was like.
_______
Refreshed the thread here....
some tribal native
What do you mean by native? Surely most folks were natives back then?
Having done a bit of travel in some relatively undeveloped parts of the world today where conditions aren't all that different from 1000 years ago
Anywhere in particular? |
|
|
