Editing Great Zimbabwe (section)

===Gokomere===
Archaeologists generally agree that the builders spoke one of the [[Shona language]]s,<ref>{{cite journal|doi=10.1017/S0021853700016431|title=Pastoralism and Zimbabwe|last=Garlake|first=Peter|author-link=Peter Garlake|journal=The Journal of African History|volume=19|year=1978|pages=479–493|issue=4|s2cid=162491076}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|doi=10.2307/3858132|title=Archaeology and early Venda history|first=Jannie H. N.|last=Loubser|journal=Goodwin Series|volume=6|pages=54–61|jstor=3858132|year=1989}}</ref> based upon evidence of pottery,<ref>{{cite journal|doi=10.1086/203694|title=On why pots are decorated the way they are|last=Evers|first=T.M. |author2=Thomas Huffman |author3=Simiyu Wandibba|journal=Current Anthropology|volume=29|year=1988|pages=739–741|jstor=2743612|issue=5|s2cid=145283490|author2-link=Thomas Huffman}}</ref><ref>Summers (1970) p195</ref> oral traditions<ref name="SAAB"/><ref>Summers (1970) p164</ref> and anthropology<ref name="current"/> and DNA evidence <ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Bodiba |first1=Molebogeng |last2=Steyn |first2=Maryna |last3=Bloomer |first3=Paulette |last4=Mosothwane |first4=Morongwa N. |last5=Rühli |first5=Frank |last6=Bouwman |first6=Abigail |date=2019 |title=Ancient DNA Analysis of the Thulamela Remains: Deciphering the Migratory Patterns of a Southern African Population |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/26869049 |journal=Journal of African Archaeology |volume=17 |issue=2 |pages=161–172 |doi=10.1163/21915784-20190017 |jstor=26869049 |issn=1612-1651}}</ref> and recent scholarship supports the construction of Great Zimbabwe (and the origin of its culture) by Shona and Venda peoples,<ref name="Ndoro, W 19972">[[Webber Ndoro|Ndoro, W.]], and Pwiti, G. (1997). Marketing the past: The Shona village at Great Zimbabwe. Conservation and Management of Archaeological Sites 2(3): 3–8.</ref><ref name="Beach, D. N. 19942">Beach, D. N. (1994). A Zimbabwean past: Shona dynastic histories and oral traditions.</ref><ref name="Huffman20092">{{cite journal |last1=Huffman |first1=Thomas N. |author-link=Thomas Huffman |year=2009 |title=Mapungubwe and Great Zimbabwe: The origin and spread of social complexity in southern Africa |journal=Journal of Anthropological Archaeology |volume=28 |pages=37–54 |doi=10.1016/j.jaa.2008.10.004}}</ref><ref name="Nelson 2019 102">{{Cite book |last=Nelson |first=Jo |title=Historium |publisher=Big Picture Press |year=2019 |pages=10}}</ref> who were probably descended from the [[Gokomere]] culture.<ref name="Huffman2009" /> The Gokomere culture, an eastern Bantu subgroup, existed in the area from around 200 AD and flourished from 500 AD to about 800 AD. Archaeological evidence indicates that it constitutes an early phase of the Great Zimbabwe culture.<ref name="antiquity" /><ref name="SAAB">{{cite journal|title=The chronology of Great Zimbabwe|first=Thomas N.|last=Huffman|author-link=Thomas Huffman|author2=J. C. Vogel|author-link2=Johann Carl Vogel|journal=The South African Archaeological Bulletin|volume=46|year=1991|pages=61–70|jstor=3889086|doi=10.2307/3889086|issue=154}}</ref><ref>Summers (1970) p35</ref><ref name="Chikuhwa2013">{{cite book|last=Chikuhwa|first=Jacob W.|author-link=Jacob Chikuhwa|title=Zimbabwe: The End of the First Republic|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zQ49AQAAQBAJ&pg=PR19|date=October 2013|publisher=Author House|isbn=978-1-4918-7967-2|page=19}}</ref> The Gokomere culture likely gave rise to both the modern [[Shona people|Mashona]] people,<ref name="Copson2006">{{cite book|last=Copson|first=Raymond W.|title=Zimbabwe: Background and Issues|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2AM7XUBrrqkC&pg=PA43|date=1 January 2006|publisher=Nova Publishers|isbn=978-1-60021-176-8|page=43}}</ref> an ethnic cluster comprising distinct sub-ethnic groups such as the local Karanga clan{{citation needed|date=October 2015}} and the [[Rozwi]] culture, which originated as several [[Shona people|Shona]] states.<ref>Isichei, Elizabeth Allo, ''A History of African Societies to 1870'' Cambridge University Press, 1997, {{ISBN|978-0521455992}} page 435</ref> Gokomere peoples were probably also related to certain nearby early Bantu groups like the [[Mapungubwe]] civilisation of neighbouring North eastern South Africa, which is believed to have been an early Venda-speaking culture, and to the nearby Sotho.