mysterious race whom Rhodesians refer to as the "Ancients" preceded the arrival of the Bantu in the country. Archaeological research and the paintings made of them by Bushmen artists suggest that the Ancients were an iron-age people who were pastoralists rather than food-gatherers for they are depicted as driving flocks of fat-tailed sheep and herds of long-horned cattle with them. The Ancients had mastered the principles of primitive agronomy; they built semipermanent settlements of flimsy huts and they became skilled prospectors. They were probably similar to the Hottentots of South Africa.

hodesia in their time must have been a gold-encrusted fairyland; all about the Ancients’ settlements stood outcrops of rock containing visible gold. As they came to appreciate the value of gold, a certain amount of inter-tribal bartering took place, and the gold finally reached Arab traders who were already sending their exploring dhows down the East African coast.

ith the advent of the Bantu, the trade with Moslems in gold and ivory increased. The Karanga, like the Ancients, were skilled prospectors, but few of their mines went down deeper than 100 feet, and the majority were simple open stopes. The gold-bearing ore was hauled out of the mines in baskets, split up by alternate applications of heat and cold, and finally crushed under rocking boulders or in mortars ground into rocks, which can still be seen beside many Rhodesian streams.

he Karanga bartered their gold directly with Moslem traders, and it seems to have been exported at first along a route which crossed the Zambezi near modern Tete and ended at the port of Kilwa which the Arabs had established as early as A.D. 700. A shorter trade route to Sofala subsequently served the Manica gold-fields, while gold from the southern part of the plateau was sent down to a harbour on the Sabi near its confluence with the Lundi River. It has been estimated that 10000 Moslems were resident in Monomatapa during the heyday of the Empire; Indian overseers managed the mining operations while Arabs controlled the carrying trade. Over 600 ancient mines have been identified in Rhodesia, and the amount of gold exported before the arrival of the Portuguese is said to have been worth $150 000 000.