The Ruined Cities of Mashonaland Being a Record of Excavation and Exploration in 1891 J T Bent

The Ruined Cities of Mashonaland Being a Record of Excavation and Exploration in 1891 J T Bent

Hardcover 1969

Rhodesian Reprint Gold Series. Volume 5.

Reprint of the original 1896 book.

Used - Very Good. This book is in very good condition with some slight wear and tanning to the inner boards. The DJ has some wear especially on the edges and spine areas. The book pages are clean, intact and the spine remains undamaged. This book has clearly been well maintained and looked after thus far. The book is now protected with a Cellophane cover which hold the DJ together beautifully. Money back guarantee if you are not satisfied.

An intriguing view of the archaeological relics of pre-colonial African cultures seen through the exploratory eyes of a noted Victorian traveler. J. Theodore Bent, F.S.A., F.R.G.S., and his wife Mabel journeyed widely among the Aegean Islands, in Turkey, through parts of Africa and in Arabia, undertaking archaeological research for the British Museum, the Hellenic Society and the Royal Geographical Society. They made three expeditions to Africa and one of these to the fabulous ruins of Zimbabwe, capital of the medieval Monomotapan Empire of South-Central Africa and legendary location of King Solomon's Mines is the subject of this large work.

Bent was the first archaeologist to excavate Zimbabwe and, although his "Phoenician hypothesis" was later discredited by the results of carbon-dating tests, his observations in The Ruined Cities of Mashonaland are interesting and valuable for the light they throw on the life-style of the indigenous people at the time, and on the nature of the settler administration of Mashonaland in the 1890s.

The book is the best-known of Bent's three works, having run to three editions. Bent led several expeditions to Arabia, where he eventually contracted malaria and died, in London, in 1897