The civilization

The Kingdom of Mapungubwe (pronounced mah-POON-goob-weh) was an ancient state located at the confluence of the Shashe and Limpopo rivers in present day South Africa, south of Great Zimbabwe. The capital's population was 5,000 by 1250, and the state likely covered 30,000 km2 (12,000 sq mi). Around 1000 CE, some Leopard's Kopje people moved across the Limpopo to Bambandyanalo where they practiced agropastoralism, moving large cattle herds to other communities' grazing land which fostered socio-political relations, while also engaging in the Indian Ocean trade via Swahili city-states on the East African coast. Over the centuries, increased wealth among the growing population produced inequalities for which Bambandyanalo's spatial arrangement was unsuited.

Field notes

period

1,075 CE — 1,220 CE

region

Sub-Saharan Africa

known sites

1