[6][1]: 50 The kingdom exhibited sacral kingship closely associated with rainmaking, and exported gold and ivory to Swahili city-states on the East African coast into the Indian Ocean trade.

Although traditionally assumed to have been the first kingdom in Southern Africa, excavations in the same region at Mapela Hill show evidence for sacral kingship nearly 200 years earlier.

[10] Motivated by the ivory trade, some Zhizo people moved south around 900 to settle Schroda, near the Limpopo River.

The chief was the wealthiest, and accumulated cattle through court fines, forfeits, tributes, raids, and the high price of marrying one of his daughters.

Some scholars believe their relations to have been hostile and characterised by military conflict, however others insist they were more complex, both socially and politically.

Rainmaking was widespread, and the chief sometimes hired strangers who were believed to have special relationships with the spirits of the land, such as the San, due to their longer habitation.

[1]: 32–34  The hill had been inhabited by the San long ago and a rock shelter on the east side featured some of their art.

[16]: 15  It is unclear to what extent coercion and conflict played in Mapungubwe's growth and dominance due to this being challenging to recognise archaeologically.

[c] Trading routes shifted north towards the Zambezi Basin as traders travelled the Save River to reach the gold-producing interior, which would have dramatically hurt Mapungubwe's economy.

To the north near the Zambezi, Great Zimbabwe, on the fringe of the Mapungubwe state and with a distinct population, rose to become its successor, adopting the same elitist spatial arrangement and sacred leadership.

[1]: 37  Settlements were divided into residential areas under the authority of family heads, and surrounded the hill, forming a protective circle.

[9] Mapungubwe exported gold and ivory, while a large number of glass beads were imported from India and Southeast Asia.

[1]: 52–53 By the end of the 13th century, traders regularly bypassed Sofala and Mapungubwe by travelling the Save River (north of the Limpopo) into the gold producing interior, as Quelimane and Angoche became the main trading hubs.

[9] Spatial organisation in the Mapungubwe, termed dzimbahwe in Shona, involved the use of stone walls to demarcate important areas, embedding class distinction and providing ritual seclusion for the king.

[1]: 46–47 In 2007, the South African Government gave the green light for the skeletal remains that were excavated in 1933 to be reburied on Mapungubwe Hill in a ceremony that took place on 20 November 2007.

[23] Another finding is that the people of Mapungubwe grew well, without a notable frequency of chronic infections, though children sometimes were found with anaemia.

[9] Venda oral traditions hold that the kings Shiriyadenga and Tshidziwelele reigned from Mapungubwe Hill before being replaced by the Vele Lambeu, however this is disputed.

[29] This became a controversial classification, particularly because (as discussed above), the material culture finds from the site are largely in line with known contemporary Iron-Age Bantu practices.

Re-analysis of Galloway's remains is difficult because of poor preservation practice on his skulls,[29] but subsequent analysis on other finds has demonstrated that the majority of those samples from Mapungubwe which were not damaged by poor storage or vulnerable to destruction fall within a general range to be expected of "Bantu" groups.

[24] K2 and Mapungubwe teeth thus probably come from a single population that, although not identical, is broadly similar to the modem 'South African NegroThe reasons for this confusion are manifold.

Firstly, the exceedingly small sample size available means results are liable to coincidental bias (ie: a particularly unique set of individuals is taken as representative of the whole).

[30] Thirdly, many scholars note that the assumption of uniform differentiation between members of Khoisan and Bantu populations through physiological analysis is complicated by the fact that Southern African populations have long been acknowledged to carry mixed traits[31] and to have interacted,[30] and because, as Steyn puts it, "the typological approach, whereby an individual is described by reference to an ideal' individual possessing all the main features of a specific race, is now totally outdated.

"[24] This does not mean, however, that broad 'cluster' differences cannot be ascertained and worked within, as Rightmire 1970 argued by asserting sufficient criteria could, with a very high level of confidence, discern between its set of analyzed Khoisan and "Southern African Negro" samples,[29] and a similar argument was forwarded in Franklin & Freedman 2006.

[33] In either case, actual genetic analysis of the past two decades (as opposed to physiological analysis inferring genetic relationships) supports notable,[34][35] sometimes even substantial,[36][37] mixture between Khoisan and Southern African Bantu populations in history, that is reflected in modern Khoisan and Bantu peoples.

Finally is the very assumption that craniometric OR genetic analysis can by themselves accurately pinpoint ethno-linguistic identities and boundaries of historic peoples, something considered by Brothwell 1963[30] as often problematic, as there exist Khoisan populations with almost entirely 'non-Khoisan' associated ancestry,[36] and some Xhosa samples apparently had a majority non-Xhosa ancestry.

The Van Graans, who were farmers in the Mopane District, heard a legend of "a white man gone wild, who had lived a hermit's life in a cave on the banks of the Limpopo" in the late 19th century who "climbed the sacred hill and found things there".

The African guide "was literally shivering with fright and had to be forcibly detained before pointing out the secret path up the hill".

They uncovered pottery fragments and artefacts of copper, glass, and gold, and the burial of a highly decorated person.

[38] The University of Pretoria, at the time an exclusively Afrikaner institution, gained the rights to the treasure, and the Hertzog government monopolised the site.

The discovery contradicted the White supremacist myth that Africa was a dark and backward continent in need of "saving", as well as the belief that Afrikaners were "champions of civilisation".