It is small enough to sit in the palm of a hand: a rhinoceros made of thin gold foil wrapped around a wooden core, with a single horn and short legs. It was found in 1933 in a grave on top of Mapungubwe Hill, near the meeting point of South Africa, Botswana and Zimbabwe. Made around the thirteenth century, the golden rhinoceros has become one of the most famous objects in southern African archaeology and a symbol of a kingdom that flourished long before European colonisation.
Mapungubwe and the discovery
Mapungubwe was a kingdom centred on a flat-topped hill in the Limpopo valley. It flourished between about 1220 and 1300. The kingdom traded ivory and gold with merchants on the Indian Ocean coast, receiving glass beads and other goods from distant lands. The elite lived on top of Mapungubwe Hill, separated from ordinary people living below, a sign of social hierarchy.
In 1933, a group of explorers learned of the hill and found gold objects in graves on the summit.
The rhino and a national treasure
The rhinoceros is made of gold foil tacked onto a wooden core with tiny gold nails. Other gold objects included a bowl and a sceptre. The rhinoceros may have symbolised royal power or been part of ritual objects. The Mapungubwe Cultural Landscape was listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2003. The golden rhinoceros is housed at the University of Pretoria and is regarded as a national treasure.
South Africa’s highest national honour, the Order of Mapungubwe, is named after the kingdom. After Mapungubwe declined, power shifted north to Great Zimbabwe.
Rewriting history and visiting
For years, apartheid-era historians played down evidence of early African states. Mapungubwe challenged those views. Mapungubwe National Park allows visitors to see the hill and learn about the kingdom. The goldsmiths of Mapungubwe hammered gold into thin sheets and attached it to carved wooden shapes, showing considerable skill in metalwork. Human remains taken from the site were later reburied after consultation with communities who claim descent from Mapungubwe’s people.
The golden rhinoceros is only a few centimetres long. It carries the weight of a kingdom that apartheid-era textbooks preferred not to mention.
