The central stone enclosure complex is built in this tradition, and the find of a Zimbabwe-style iron gong at the site also suggests cultural ties.

However this grass species is found in all countries along the East coast of Africa (GBIF) and so the low number of records in Mozambique may merely reflect a lack of prior collecting.

Barker (1978) has suggested that only the ruling elite at Manyikeni consumed beef, as cattle bones have been found only in the central part of the site.

[1] The stone enclosure was excavated for the first time in 1975 and 1976, shortly after Mozambique independence by the Eduardo Mondlande University Centre for African Studies and the British Institute in Eastern Africa to 1978.

The research in this period determined that the site was a later Iron Age farming community of the Great Zimbabwean tradition, potentially used as a trade outpost with Chibuene.