Documenting Knowledge, Skills, and Practices of Dry-Stone Masonry at Great Zimbabwe

This project documents the knowledge, skills and practices of indigenous  dry-stone masonry at Great Zimbabwe, southern Zimbabwe. Once the capital of an Iron Age empire, Great Zimbabwe is an ancient settlement complex with dry-stone structures covering over 720 hectares, now protected and a World Heritage Site. Around it, the communities of Nemanwa, Mugabe, Murinye and Charumbira live, maintaining ancestral connections to it. The most outstanding material remains are stone structures, built without use of mortar or any binding material. This makes Great Zimbabwe a unique expression of a built tradition in Africa and a challenging heritage to manage and conserve.

Traditional dry-stone masonry persists amongst the local communities and remains invaluable for conserving Great Zimbabwe and similar sites elsewhere in Zimbabwe, but also South Africa, Mozambique and Botswana. Today, only very few traditional dry-stone masons are skilled in restoring/repairing ancient structures. Prior to this project, these knowledge, skills and practices have never been recorded in detail.

Engaging Great Zimbabwe’s local dry-stone  masons, the project recorded their knowledge, skills and practices by combining desktop survey of written sources, participatory observations, and focus group discussion. 

The project main objective is to document and preserve the knowledge, skills and practices of traditional stone masonry for maintaining and restoring the dry-stone built structures of Great Zimbabwe. To achieve this, the project pursued three main aims:

1) Production of a census of traditional stone masons around Great Zimbabwe, mapping of their activities in space and time, and participatory assessment of their lasting impact.

2) Documenting knowledge, traditions and practices of: stone quarrying, identification of structural problems and dismantling of walls, and restoration, re-construction and monitoring of stone-built walls.

3) Construction of a digital archive designed as a repository resources for the conservation, transfer and dissemination of traditional stone masonry knowledge and practices.

The results of this project provide a lasting record of a dry-stone masonry knowledge now rapidly disappearing. In addition to its direct relevance to the conservation of Zimbabwe Culture structures, this knowledge is of critical importance for approaching and understanding the dry-stone architecture and traditional practices in Africa and beyond. Furthermore, the new archive, including the production of a guidebook on how to conserve and restore local ancient dry-stone structures, will provide a unique resource for the development of professional and artisanal masonry skills in  Zimbabwe and, hopefully, beyond.

The results of the project creates the basis to develop a digital archive of dry-stone masonry knowledge for EMKP and designed as a repository resource for training, study and public engagement activities. From this, the project will produce a guidebook to conserve and restore dry-stone walls at Great Zimbabwe, and an English-Shona booklet to introduce Zimbabwe dry-stone masonry to the general public. Selected results will also be devoted to scholarly articles.