THE GOLDEN RHINOCEROS

A National Treasure

Gold was mined in southern Africa long before 1886, when the first South African gold mine was commissioned. The first major complex society, or state, in the area was called Mapungubwe. It was a large, hierarchical kingdom with a vast trade network covering most of what is today Botswana, Zimbabwe, southern Mozambique and the northern provinces of South Africa. Mapungubwe also had international trade links that stretched across the Indian Ocean to the Middle East and India.

During this time, gold was primarily mined from what is today Zimbabwe. The people of Mapungubwe bartered with other African farmers and also with traders on the east African coast who came from Arabia and traded in turn with India and China. When Mapungubwe was abandoned in about 1270, Great Zimbabwe became the new centre of the gold trade for the following two centuries.

The Golden Rhinoceros

Found in a royal grave at Mapungubwe in the early 1930s, the rhinoceros is made of thin gold leaf pinned with gold tacks to a carved wooden base. The size of the golden rhino is 15.2 X 4.2 X 5.5cm. A gold-plated bowl and gold sceptre were found in the grave alongside the rhino. All of these objects represented symbols of leadership to the Mapungubwe people but the rhino was the most powerful symbol, since rhinos in nature are known to be aggressive, solitary and fierce. The horn of the rhino symbolises the role of the leader as the protector of the people.

This gold rhino is one of South Africa's most recently discovered and important symbols of heritage. The government declared the figure a Cultural Treasure in 1997.