Eiland crucibles and the earliest relative dating for tin and bronze working in southern Africa

Bandama, Foreman; Hall, S; Chirikure, Shadreck

doi:10.1016/j.jas.2015.07.007

Cited by 11 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 24 publications

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“…A diachronic study of metallurgy at Great Zimbabwe reveals that iron and copper were the first metals worked. With the flourishing of trade with the Swahili world, tin, gold, bronze and brass were also introduced to Southern Africa in the early second millennium ad (Killick ; Bandama et al ). The flat‐based crucible from Period II levels (Robinson ) on the hill is based on external technology, probably from the Swahili coast.…”

Section: Discussion: the Production Consumption And Distribution Of mentioning

confidence: 99%

The Production, Distribution and Consumption of Metals and Alloys at Great Zimbabwe

et al. 2016

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The legacy of vandalism and almost a century of continuous focus on drystone wall masonry is that little is known about metal craft production and consumption activities at Great Zimbabwe. Within these limitations, this paper attempts to explore the metallurgy of Great Zimbabwe, guided by the framework of archival, chronological and fieldwork‐ and laboratory‐based studies. The paper contends that residents of various components of Great Zimbabwe worked and processed their own metal, pointing to homestead‐level production and consumption. Metal from local and regional sources sustained long‐distance trade with the Indian Ocean rim.

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Section: Discussion: the Production Consumption And Distribution Of mentioning

confidence: 99%

The Production, Distribution and Consumption of Metals and Alloys at Great Zimbabwe

et al. 2016

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“…In some cases, the sherds were used to make scrappers for working leather (Hall et al, 2006), whereas in others, they were ground into circular perforated discs used as flywheels in the spinning of cotton ( kupakasa ) using Indigenous looms (Ruwitah, 1998). Often, the sherds were ground into a granular powder and mixed with clay as temper, thereby introducing the timeworn into fresh production (Bandama et al, 2015; Gosselain, 1999).…”

Section: Historical Background – Cultural and Functional Value Of Pot...mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…What is instructive here is that the artefacts were given different names, showing that reuse and recycling were associated with the transformation of meaning and or values. The grinding of pottery sherds to make temper or grog to enhance performance of pottery is an example of recycling old pottery to make the new (Bandama et al, 2015). Pottery making and use in southern Africa was symbolically loaded and shrouded in rituals and metaphors of transformation (Collett, 1993; Gosselain, 1999; Ndoro, 1996).…”

Section: Historical Background – Cultural and Functional Value Of Pot...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Recycling and the material science tetrahedron: Everyday strategies of making in high temperature technologies of Iron Age southern Africa

Chirikure

2022

Archaeometry

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This paper applies the Material Science Tetrahedron concept to explore practices of pottery recycling in selected craft activities performed in first and second millennium CE southern Africa. It combines analyses of pottery decorative style on vessels and their fragments used for metal processing with fabric inclusion mineralogy and chemical composition to show that recycling was a sociotechnical endeavour integral to making and remaking everyday things in society. Recycling weaved, along the chaîne opératoire, tapestries of materialities formed by and flowing from relationships between crafting, materials, containers, and humans as part of daily routines of making, provisioning, and consumption.

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“…These include metallurgical artefacts (Herbert 1996;Chirikure 2007;Thondlana and Martinon-Torres 2009;Bandama et al 2015;, both glass and shell beads (Bvocho 2005;Antonites 2014), ivory remains (Reid and Segobye 2000;Forssman et al 2014;Coutu forthcoming), and faunal remains (Voigt 1983;Thorp 1995;Shenjere-Nyabezi 2013). In the few cases where these have been studied, they have been studied separately and independently of each other, and have not contributed much to the discourse on the development of the Iron Age in the region.…”

Section: Materials Culture Studies In Southern Africamentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The second millennium also witnessed the appearance of gold and bronze in the archaeological record. Bronze has been recorded from a number of sites in the region, including Mapungubwe, Great Zimbabwe, Danangombe, Thulamela, Bosutswe, Matendera and Ingombe Ilede (Bandama et al 2015). In terms of organisation, it has been argued that the specialist production of metals was critical in the rise of centres of power; these centres of power were dominated by independent specialists who came to play a leading role in sociopolitical centralisation in the region through the control of metal-production activity (Calabrese 2000;Chirikure 2007: 94, Herbert 1996.…”

Section: Overview Of Studies On Craft Production In Southern Africamentioning

confidence: 99%

An archaeological study of the Zimbabwe Culture capital of Khami, southwestern Zimbabwe

Mukwende¹

2016

Azania: Archaeological Research in Africa

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This study sought to understand the archaeology of the Zimbabwe Culture capital of Khami through synchronic and diachronic analyses of its material culture. The research employed a number of methodological approaches that included a review of historic documents, surveying and mapping, excavations, museum collection analysis, and artefact studies, in order to collect datasets from various sections of the site, including the walled and the nonwalled areas. The main indication is that there is a great deal of similarity in material culture distribution across the whole site. An analysis of objects by stratigraphic sequence exposes continuity and change in local and imported objects. Dry stone-wall architectural data suggests that the site was constructed over a long period, with construction motivated by a number of expansionary factors. The study confirms that Khami began as a fully developed cultural unit, with no developmental trajectory recorded at Mapungubwe or Great Zimbabwe, where earlier ceramic units influenced later ones. Consequently, this study cautiously suggests that Khami represents a continuity with the Woolandale chiefdoms that settled in the south-western parts of the country and in the adjacent areas of Botswana. On the basis of the chronological and material culture evidence, Khami is unlikely to have emerged out of Great Zimbabwe. However, more research is needed to confirm these emergent conclusions, and to better understand the chronological and spatial relationships between not just Woolandale and Khami sites but also Khami and the multiple Khami-type sites scattered across southern Zambezia.ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

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Eiland crucibles and the earliest relative dating for tin and bronze working in southern Africa

Cited by 11 publications

References 24 publications

The Production, Distribution and Consumption of Metals and Alloys at Great Zimbabwe

The Production, Distribution and Consumption of Metals and Alloys at Great Zimbabwe

Recycling and the material science tetrahedron: Everyday strategies of making in high temperature technologies of Iron Age southern Africa

An archaeological study of the Zimbabwe Culture capital of Khami, southwestern Zimbabwe

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