The Ancient Settlement of Mapela May be a New World Heritage Site

There may be a new world heritage site. New research at an excavation site near the border of Botswana in the Shashi-Limpopo region has revealed that the ancient town that once stood there, Mapela, was once a flourishing community that probably traded with locations as far away as India and China.

"Mapela lies virtually untouched in a rather inaccessible area, and is unique in several respects," said Per Ditlef Fredriksen, one of the researchers, in a news release. "We wish to learn more about the relationship between the common population and the elite. Part of Mapela's uniqueness is that this site shows traces of all the three elite cultures in the area. The material culture testifies to this fact. Especially the jewelry, but even the fantastically constructed stone walls are extremely rich in symbols. Our findings in Mapela include traces of the stone walls of Khami."

Mapela was likely larger than the known locality of Mapungubwe, which is where the elite is thought to have lived.  It also is just one of several civilizations in the area. Currently, the researchers are unsure how these various settlements interacted.

The latest excavations reveal a bit more about this ancient settlement. This, in turn, may reveal a bit more about the people of the past.

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