Ingombe Ilede

An Iron Age site in southern Zambia, occupies in the 14th-15th centuries AD by peoples who engaged in extensive trade in copper and gold. Elaborate graves contained metal bangles, ingots, iron hoes and gongs, bundles of copper wire, woven cotton cloth, marine gastropod shells, gold beads, and imported glass beads. This evidence for development of trade in the Zambezi Valley coincides in date with the decline of Great Zimbabwe.

Located on the north bank of the Zambezi, a short distance downstream of the modem Kariba, Ingombe Ilede was initially an Iron Age settlement of the late 1st millennium ad. Around 1400, however, it was reoccupied by people who were evidently engaged in extensive trade in both copper and gold. It seems reasonable to interpret the site as one where these metals were brought together from their areas of production to the north and south, for transport via the Zambezi Valley to the coast. By the same route large numbers of glass beads and, possibly, Indian cotton cloth found their way into the African interior. It is noteworthy that this evidence for development of trade in the Zambezi Valley coincides in date with the decline of Great Zimbabwe.