Mapungubwe Museum
The Old Arts building houses the museum
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 Location within Gauteng
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| Established | 2000 |
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| Location | Pretoria, South Africa |
| Coordinates | 25°45′18″S 28°13′55″E / 25.755080°S 28.231988°E |
| Type | Archaeology museum |
| Collection size | Mapungubwe Collection |
| Public transit access | N4 and N14 national routes, cnr Lynnwood & Roper St, Loftus Versveldpark Metrorail Station, Tukkies station for the A Re Yeng rapid bus transit system. |
| Website | www |
The Mapungubwe Collection curated by the Department of UP Arts at the University of Pretoria Museums comprises archaeological material excavated by the University of Pretoria at the Mapungubwe archaeological site since its discovery in 1933. The archaeological collection comprises ceramics, metals, trade glass beads, indigenous beads, clay figurines, and bone and ivory artefacts as well as an extensive research collection of potsherds, faunal remains and other fragmentary material. The University of Pretoria established a permanent museum in June 2000, thereby making the archaeological collection more widely available for public access and interest beyond the confines of academia.
The archaeological site of Mapungubwe [pronounced: Mah-POON-goob-weh], is located on the borders of Zimbabwe and Botswana in the Limpopo Province, and is situated near the confluence of the Shashe and Limpopo Rivers in southern Africa. It is here along these major rivers that the rise of complex Iron Age societies first began at the site of Schroda, a Zhizo/Leokwe community (AD 900 - AD 1000). Thereafter, a shift in regional economic and socio-political changes gave rise to the new nearby settlement of K2 (AD 1030–AD 1220). A ruling class emerged and thus the first southern African state came into being at Mapungubwe Hill (AD 1220 - AD 1290). These sites collectively form the core area of a World Heritage Site, recognised for both its natural and cultural landscape that are considered to be of outstanding universal value.
The discovery in 1932 was first attributed to the van Graan family. Mapungubwe Hill however had already been discovered in the early 1890s by an explorer named François Lotrie. Local knowledge of Mapungubwe has also been recorded from oral histories, thus supporting ethnographic and historical evidence about the awareness of Mapungubwe as a sacred hill. Evidence suggests that Mapungubwe therefore cannot be regarded as belonging to any single individual, but is rather symbolically associated with various groups of people. The combination of archaeological research, historical records and oral traditions does nonetheless expand the understanding of pre-colonial societies and their settlement in and around Mapungubwe over periods of time.
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