An Urewe burial in Rwanda: exchange, health, wealth and violence<i>c</i>. AD 400

Giblin, John; Clement, Anna; Humphris, Jeremy L.

doi:10.1080/0067270x.2010.521677

Cited by 27 publications

(16 citation statements)

References 24 publications

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“…Until more systematic research is conducted at other EIA sites on the coast and islands to establish if shell beads were traded in this way, our proposal remains hypothetical, but we note that it is consistent with evidence of local interaction among mainland EIA communities who appear to have traded iron, copal (resin), and other goods (Chami 1992; see also discussion in Crowther et al 2015). It is also noteworthy that pierced cowrie shells have also been found at EIA sites in Rwanda, demonstrating evidence of coast-interior links at this time (Giblin et al 2010). …”

Section: Evidence Of Eia Maritime Tradesupporting

confidence: 48%

Coastal Subsistence, Maritime Trade, and the Colonization of Small Offshore Islands in Eastern African Prehistory

Crowther

Faulkner

Prendergast

et al. 2016

The Journal of Island and Coastal Archaeology

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Section: Evidence Of Eia Maritime Tradesupporting

confidence: 48%

Coastal Subsistence, Maritime Trade, and the Colonization of Small Offshore Islands in Eastern African Prehistory

Crowther

Faulkner

Prendergast

et al. 2016

The Journal of Island and Coastal Archaeology

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“…In addition to a larger body of Urewe ceramic material, EIA burials with grave goods including Urewe ceramics, cowrie shells and iron jewellery (Misago and Shumbusho 1992;Giblin 2008Giblin , 2010Giblin et al 2010), and a significant number of iron smelting furnaces (e.g. In addition to a larger body of Urewe ceramic material, EIA burials with grave goods including Urewe ceramics, cowrie shells and iron jewellery (Misago and Shumbusho 1992;Giblin 2008Giblin , 2010Giblin et al 2010), and a significant number of iron smelting furnaces (e.g.…”

Section: Iron In Western Ugandamentioning

confidence: 99%

The development of iron technology in precolonial western Uganda

Iles

2013

Azania: Archaeological Research in Africa

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The local production of iron was an important technology in eastern Africa up until the earlier twentieth century, when the use and reuse of imported iron overtook vernacular smelting industries and cemented their decline. Prior to this, the utilisation of local ores had produced iron for agricultural implements, household tools and weapons, serving the needs of many generations of farmers and herders across the region. The smelters of western Uganda enjoyed a particularly esteemed reputation in recent history, especially among their neighbours in Buganda. Prior to archaeometallurgical research undertaken in 2007, little was known about the technologies upon which this reputation was fostered. This paper presents an overview of the results of six months of fieldwork in Uganda and subsequent archaeometallurgical analysis, which together revealed the complexities of smelting in Mwenge, western Uganda, between the fourteenth and twentieth centuries. Technological reconstructions indicate that some iron producers in the region were supplementing the iron ores in their smelts with an additional manganese-rich material, imparting a tangible effect on the process and outcomes of these smelting episodes, hypothetically increasing the metal yield and improving operating parameters. Although such harnessing of beneficial manganese-rich minerals was an unexpected and unusual finding, it correlates with existing ethnoarchaeological and ethnohistorical data. Through these avenues, and building upon social approaches to iron technologies, it has been possible to explore this variation in the technological record of western Uganda in the context of the known history of the region.

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“…Azania has seen the inclusion of increasingly scientific approaches to the study of past technologies as time has gone on, especially in the past ten years (e.g. Nixon 2009;MacDonald et al 2009;Giblin et al 2010;Iles 2013;Perkins 2014;Orton 2014), though it is notable that Europeanbased scholars and laboratories have dominated these studies. Some US-based and US-trained scholars who have made major contributions to the study of African metallurgy have never published in Azania.…”

Section: Understanding Past Metallurgymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The symbolism, taboos and rituals of the metal production processes and the metal objects themselves, and the social status of smelters and forgers have also been explored (Robertshaw 1997;Haaland et al 2004;Musa-Mohamed 2004;Giblin et al 2010;Gronenborn et al 2012). These themes have enabled those examining African metallurgy to consider the core socio-technical features of these technologies and particularly how these processes and metals were perceived by those who made and used them.…”

Section: Metallurgical Research In Azania: the Following 25 Years 19mentioning

confidence: 99%

Making metals in East Africa and beyond: archaeometallurgy inAzania, 1966–2015

Iles

Lyaya

2015

Azania: Archaeological Research in Africa

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Over the course of the last 50 years, the field of archaeometallurgy has grown dramatically, becoming firmly established within the realm of archaeological science.The archaeology and ethnography of African metallurgy has made a major contribution to this field, providing valuable information on the impressive range of raw materials and techniques that past metal producers and metalworkers used, as well as providing important insights into the socio-cultural settings that these technologies operated within. This paper summarises the role that Azania played in communicating some of this research, and charts the development of African archaeometallurgy through Azania's pages. KeywordsMetal production, metalworking, iron, copper, Sub-Saharan Africa Metallurgy in eastern Africa: a brief summaryMetals served a variety of roles within African societies, ranging from the functional and the decorative, to the symbolic and the communicative. The process of winning metal from an ore is a difficult procedure, reliant on the procurement of high-quality ores, ceramics and fuels, and the application of complex technical knowledge. It is a resource-hungry and time-hungry technology, which runs a high risk of failure, but when it succeeds it almost miraculously transforms stone into a substance with a new set of material properties. Perhaps for these reasons, rituals and symbolism often accompanied the activities surrounding metal production and metalworking, manifest in the items used to create or manipulate metal (furnaces, medicines, bellows, tuyères and tools) or the songs, movements and behaviours associated with the processes themselves. By studying the objects and the processes used to make them, the broader

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An Urewe burial in Rwanda: exchange, health, wealth and violencec. AD 400

Cited by 27 publications

References 24 publications

Coastal Subsistence, Maritime Trade, and the Colonization of Small Offshore Islands in Eastern African Prehistory

Coastal Subsistence, Maritime Trade, and the Colonization of Small Offshore Islands in Eastern African Prehistory

The development of iron technology in precolonial western Uganda

Making metals in East Africa and beyond: archaeometallurgy inAzania, 1966–2015

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