Chumnungwa

Chumnungwa was a dry-stone-walled centre in the gold-bearing country of Mberengwa. Its surroundings offered resources for crop cultivation and cattle keeping as well as deposits of gold, iron and soapstone. The settlement belonged to the Zimbabwe tradition of stone building, whose centres stood across the plateau between the Limpopo and Zambezi rivers. From the fourteenth to the seventeenth century, Chumnungwa flourished alongside better-known centres such as Great Zimbabwe, Khami and Danamombe. Its inhabitants used locally acquired materials together with goods brought from farther afield. Although set between larger centres of power, Chumnungwa was itself an important place in Mberengwa, connected to both its neighbours and wider regional networks.