In the vicinity of the temple we also came across
some minor objects very near the surface, which did
not do more than establish the world-wide commerce
carried on at the Great Zimbabwe at a much more
recent date, and still by the Arabians—namely, a
few fragments of Celadon pottery from China, of
Persian ware, an undoubted specimen of Arabian
glass, and beads of doubtful provenance, though one
GLASS B EA D S , CELADON PO T T E R Y , P E R S IA N "POTTERY, AND
ARABIAN GLASS
of them may be considered as Egyptian of the
Ptolemaic period. Glass beads almost of precisely
the same character—namely, black with white encircling
lines—have come from ancient tombs at Thebes,
in Bceotia, And are to be found in almost every collection
of Egyptian curiosities.
The pottery objects must have been brought here
by Arabian traders during the middle ages, probably
when the Monomatapa chiefs ruled over this district
and carried on trade with the Arabians for gold, as
European traders do now with objects of bright
appearance and beads. Similar fragments have been
found by Sir John Kirk in the neighbourhood of
Quiloa, where in mediaeval times was a settlement of
Arabs who came from the Persian Gulf, forming an
hereditary intercourse between the Arabs and the
east coast of Africa until the Portuguese found them
FRA GM EN T OF BOW L O F G LA Z ED PO T T E R Y
there and drove them away three centuries ago. It
is impossible that a collection of things such as these
could have been brought together by any but a
highly commercial race during the middle ages, and
the Arabians alone had this character at the time in
question.
Considering the large quantity of soapstone fragments,
bowls, and other things, the finds of pottery
of a good period at Zimbabwe were not many.