South Africa has handed back to Zimbabwe ancestral human remains and a centuries-old soapstone carving of the Zimbabwe bird (Chapungu), a sacred national emblem depicted on the country's flag, currency, and coins, in a ceremony held at the Iziko South African Museum in Cape Town on 14 April. The carved bird, the first of several looted from the ancient stone complex of Great Zimbabwe (built between the 11th and 13th centuries), was torn from its pedestal by a British explorer in the late 19th century and sold to Cecil John Rhodes, the influential mining magnate and prime minister of the Cape Colony. Eight flag-draped coffins containing human remains — unethically exhumed during the colonial era — were also returned, with Zimbabwean officials saying the items would be further studied before being laid to rest in their rightful place.