Early Iron Age Metal Working from the Site of Kwagandaganda, Natal, South Africa

Miller, Duncan; Whitelaw, Gavin

doi:10.2307/3889226

Cited by 58 publications

(32 citation statements)

References 10 publications

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“…A copper bead (Maggs 1984b) and three short pieces of copper wire (Loubser 1993) were probably also trade items. There is no evidence for local copper production at this time and copper objects were probably traded from copper-rich regions north of the Vaal River (Miller and Whitelaw 1994).…”

Section: Ndondondwanementioning

confidence: 84%

“…It should be noted, however, that not all the marine shells were local species: one was a fragment of the abalone Haliotis midae. The closest recorded occurrence of this species today is at Port St Johns, approximately 250 km south of KwaGandaganda (Whitelaw 1994). Nine copper beads and one copper earring were probably also traded from some distance away.…”

Section: Kwagandagandamentioning

confidence: 96%

“…It is interesting to note the spatial co-distribution of the remains of iron working-a male activity throughout sub-Saharan Africaand ivory working, historically also a male activity amongst southern African Bantu speakers (Shaw 1974;Whitelaw 1994Whitelaw , 1994Whitelaw -1995. The initial excavation of the Mound Area, extending over 40 m 2 , produced 1,960 fragments of ivory waste weighing 1,150 g and also fragments of at least 22 armbands varying in thickness from 5 to 51 mm (Voigt and von den Driesch 1984).…”

Section: Ndondondwanementioning

confidence: 99%

“…KwaGandaganda was excavated from 1986 to 1989 by Whitelaw, as part of a cultural resource management project in the Mngeni Valley before the construction of the Inanda Dam (Whitelaw 1994). The site is now flooded by the dam.…”

Section: Kwagandagandamentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Here, excavations extending across 18 m 2 yielded 3,659.7 g of ivory shavings and 10 fragments of ivory bangles (Whitelaw 1994) ranging in thickness from 18 to 27 mm. Square 25 also yielded Msuluzi phase pottery, metal and ostrich eggshell beads, worked bone, fragments of ceramic sculpture and canine teeth pierced for suspension.…”

Section: Kwagandagandamentioning

confidence: 99%

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Earliest Evidence for the Ivory Trade in Southern Africa: Isotopic and ZooMS Analysis of Seventh–Tenth Century ad Ivory from KwaZulu-Natal

et al. 2016

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KwaGandaganda, Ndondondwane and Wosi were major Early Farming Community settlements in what is today the KwaZulu-Natal province of South Africa. These sites have yielded, among other remains, abundant evidence of ivory and ivory working dating to the seventh-tenth centuries AD, pre-dating by approximately 200 years the better-known ivory artefacts from sites in the Limpopo River Valley and surrounding regions. We report the results of carbon, nitrogen and strontium isotope analysis to explore the origins and procurement of this ivory, in combination with Zooarchaeology by Mass Spectrometry (ZooMS) to identify the species of animals from which it was derived. All of the ivory studied using ZooMS was elephant, despite the presence of hippopotamus remains on all three sites. Some ivory was probably obtained from elephant herds that lived close to the sites, in the densely wooded river valleys favoured by both elephants and early farmers. Other material came from savannah environments further afield. Ivory found at these three sites was drawn from different catchments, implying a degree of landscape/resource partitioning even at this early stage. These communities clearly invested substantial effort in obtaining ivory from across the region, which speaks to the importance of this commodity in the economy of the time. We suggest that some ivory items were for local use, but that some may have been intended for more distant markets via Indian Ocean trade. Afr Archaeol Rev (2016) 33:411-435

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Section: Ndondondwanementioning

confidence: 84%

Section: Kwagandagandamentioning

confidence: 96%

Section: Ndondondwanementioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Kwagandagandamentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Kwagandagandamentioning

confidence: 99%

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