Iron Fabrication during the "Age" of Tin and Bronze in the Southern Waterberg of Limpopo Province, South Africa
Abstract
Abstract Ever since the 1908 re-discovery of the pre-colonial tin mines at Rooiberg in the Southern Waterberg of Limpopo Province of South Africa, archaeologists have focused much on tin and bronze production in and immediately around the mines. The interest in this metallurgy means that iron and copper have been overlooked despite the fact that the Southern Waterberg is also home to iron and copper ores that were exploited even before the second millennium CE inception of tin and bronze production in this area. This article explores iron production and consumption patterns at the second millennium CE sites of Rhenosterkloof 1 and Tembi 1 in the Sand River Valley of the Southern Waterberg. The present study specifically examines iron smithing technology through the analyses of blooms and metallic objects. To glean relevant information from the blooms and metallic objects, metallographic approaches of Optical Microscopy (OM) and Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) were used. The key findings of this study suggest that the objects are products of indigenous bloomery iron technology, which was widely used in southern Africa during the pre-colonial period. Careful hot and cold working was done to achieve optimal qualities of these pre-dominantly non-utilitarian iron objects. It is also clear that iron consumption patterns in the Southern Waterberg were embedded in the local and regional trade networks that serviced southern Africa in precolonial times. Key words: Iron smithing, blooms, Southern Waterberg, Rooiberg, metallographyReferences
References
Bachmann, H. G. (1982). The identification of slags from archaeological sites.
London: Institute of Archaeology Occasional Papers 6.
Bandama, F. (2013). The archaeology and technology of metal production in
the Late Iron Age of the Southern Waterberg, Limpopo Province, South
Africa. Ph.D. Thesis, University of Cape Town, Cape Town.
Bandama, F. Hall, S., & Chirikure, S. (2013). Ores sources, smelters and
archaeometallurgy: Exploring Iron Age metal production in the
Southern Waterberg. Journal of African Archaeology, 11(2), 24-267.
Bandama, F. Hall, S. & Chirikure, S. (2015). Eiland crucibles and the earliest
relative dating for tin and bronze working in southern Africa. Journal of
Archaeological Science, 62, 82-91.
Bandama, F., Chirikure, S., Hall, S., & Tinguely, C. (2018). Measly but motley
and manifest: The typological and chemical characterisations of glass
beads from the Southern Waterberg, Limpopo Province of South Africa.
Journal of Archaeological Science, 18, 90-99.
Baumann, M. (1919). Ancient tin mines of the Transvaal. Journal of the Chemical,
Metallurgical and Mining Society of South Africa, 19, 120-132.
Brown, J. (1995). Traditional metalworking in Kenya (Cambridge Monographs in
African Archaeology 38). Oxford: Oxbow Books.
Brick, R. M., Gordon, R., & Phillips, A. (1965). Structure and properties of alloys.
New York: McGraw-Hill.
Childs, T. S. (1991). Technology and iron smelting furnaces in Bantu-Speaking
Africa. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology, 331-359.
Childs, S. T. (1991). Iron as utility or expression: Reforging function in Africa.
In R. M. Ehrenreich (ed.). Metals in society: Theory beyond analysis (pp.
Studies in the African
-670). Pennsylvania: MASCA, University Museum, University of
Pennsylvania.
Childs, S. T., & Dewey, W. J. (1996). Forging symbolic meaning in Zaire and
Zimbabwe. In P. R. Schmidt (ed.) The Culture and Technology of African
Iron Production (pp.145-171). Gainesville: University Press of Florida.
Childs, T., & Killick, D. (1993). Indigenous African metallurgy: Nature and
culture. Annual Review of Anthropology, 22, 27-72.
Chirikure, S. (2015). Metals in past societies: A global perspective on indigenous
African metallurgy. New York: Springer International Publishing.
Cleere, H. F. (1981). The iron industry of Roman Britain. PhD. Thesis, London
University, London.
Crew, P. (1996). Bloom refining and smithings slags and other residues. Historical
metallurgy archaeology data sheet 6. London: Historical Metallurgy
Society.
de Barros, P. (1988). Societal repercussions of the rise of traditional iron
production: A West African example. African Archaeological Review, 6,
-115.
Denbow, J., & Miller, D. M. (2007). Metal working at Bosutswe, Botswana.
Journal of African Archaeology, 5, 271-313.
Friede, H. M. (1979). Iron-smelting furnaces and the metallurgical traditions
of the South African Iron Age. Journal of the South African Institute of
Mining and Metallurgy, 79, 372-381.
Friede, H. M., & Steel, R. H. (1985). Iron Age iron smelting furnaces of the
western/central Transvaal - their structure, typology and affinities.
South African Archaeological Bulletin, 40(141), 45-49.
Friede, H. M., & Steel, R. H. (1986). Traditional smithing and forging of South
African bloomery iron. South African Archaeological Bulletin, 41, 81-86.
Studies in the African Past - Vol. 13/14 17
Frobenius, L. (1931). Erythrea. Berlin: Atlantis Verlag.
Gavriljuk, V. G. (2003). Decomposition of cementite in pearlitic steel due to
plastic deformation. Materials Science and Engineering, 345, 81-89.
Grant, M. R. (1994). Iron in ancient tin from Rooiberg, South Africa. Journal of
Archaeological Science, 21, 455-460.
Greaves, R. H., & Wrighton, H. (1957). Practical microscopical metallography.
London: Chapman and Hall.
Hall, S. (1981). Iron Age sequence and settlement in the Rooiberg, Thabazimbi
area. MSc Thesis, University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg.
Herbert, E. W. (1996). Metals and power at Great Zimbabwe. In G. Pwiti & R.
C. Soper (eds.). Aspects of African archaeology: Papers from the 10th
Congress of the Pan African Association for Prehistory and related studies
(pp. 641-647). Harare: University of Zimbabwe.
Holl, A. F. C. (2000). Metals in precolonial African society. In M. S. Bisson, S. T.
Childs, P. de Barros & A. Holl. (eds). Ancient African metallurgy. Walnut
Creek: Altamira Press.
Holl, A. F. C. (2009). Early West African metallurgies: New data and old
orthodoxy. Journal of World Prehistory, 22, 415-438.
Killick, D. J. (1990). Technology in its social setting: Bloomery iron-workings at
Kasungu, Malawi, 1860 €“1940. PhD Thesis, Yale University, Yale.
Killick, D. J. (2009). Cairo to Cape: The spread of metallurgy through eastern
and southern Africa. Journal of World Prehistory, 22(4), 399-414.
Maggs, T. M. (1992). My father ' s hammer never ceased its song day and night:
The Zulu ferrous metalworking industry. Natal Museum Journal of
Humanities, 4, 65-87.
Miller, D. (1992a). Iron Age metal working at Tsodilo Hills, northern Botswana.
PhD Thesis, University of Cape Town, Cape Town.
Studies in the African Past - Vol. 13/14
Miller, D. (1992b). Pioneering metallurgical analyses of indigenous metal artifacts
from southern Africa - Material collected by Frobenius expedition of
/1930. South African Archaeological Bulletin, 56, 108-115.
Miller, D. (1996). The Tsodilo jewellery: Metal work from northern Botswana.
Cape Town: University of Cape Town Press.
Miller, D. (2001). Metal assemblages from the Greefswald areas: K2, Mapungubwe
Hill and Mapungubwe Southern Terrace. South African Archaeological
Bulletin, 56, 83-103.
Miller, D. (2002). Smelter and smith: Iron Age metal fabrication technology in
southern Africa. Journal of Archaeological Science, 29, 1083-1131.
Miller, D., & Killick, D. (2004). Slag identification at southern African
archaeological sites. Journal of African Archaeology, 2(1), 23-47.
Miller, D., Killick, D., & van der Merwe, N. (2001). Metalworking in the northern
lowveld, South Africa, AD. 1000-890. Journal of Field, 28, 401-17.
Rostoker, W., Bronson, B., (1990). Pre-industrial iron: Its technology and
ethnology. (Archeomaterials Monograph 1). Philadelphia.
Samuels, L. E. (1980). Optical microscopy of carbon steels. Metals Park, Ohio:
American Society of Metals.
Sassoon, H. (1964). Iron smelting in the Hill Village of Sukur, North-Eastern
Nigeria. Man, 64, 174-184.
Schulz, E. H. (1950). Die Zusammensetzung und Aufbau einiger Metallfunde
der Afrika-Expedition von Leo Frobenius 1928/30. Paideuma, 5, 59-66.
Scott, D. A. (1991). Metallography and microstructure of ancient and historic
metals. California: The Getty Conservation Institute.
Stanley, G. H. (1931). Some products of native iron smelting. South African
Journal of Science, 28, 131-34.
Studies in the African Past - Vol. 13/14 19
Sutton, J. E. G. (1983). West African metals and the ancient Mediterranean.
Oxford Journal of Archaeology, 2 (2), 181-188.
Tessmann, G. (1913). Die Pangwe, Völkekundliche Monographieeines WestAfrikanischen Negerstämmes. Berlin: E. Wasmuth.
van der Merwe, N. J. (1980). Production of high carbon steel in the African
Iron Age: The direct steel process. In R. E. Leakey & B. A Ogot (eds.).
Proceedings of the 8thPan African Congress of Prehistory and Quarterly
Studies. Nairobi: International Leakey Memorial Institute for African
Prehistory.
van der Merwe, N. J., & Killick, D. J. (1979). Square: An iron smelting site near
Phalaborwa. South African Archaeological Society Goodwin Series, 3, 86-
