Intensification in the west African Late Stone Age

A view from central Ghana

Datos Bibliográficos

ID20046975
AutoresEdwin Eme Okafor (autor de correspondencia)
Año2014
Páginas299-311
Fecha de publicación2014-05-22
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessNo
TipoCHAPTER
RevistaArchaeology of Africa (SOURCE_BOOK)
EditorialRoutledge (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.4324/9780203754245-26
OpenAlexW4230535119
ISBN9780203754245
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas16

Initial attempts to study African iron-working were geared towards finding the origin of this technology in the continent rather than towards studying iron-working per se. Nearly all earlier major works on African iron-working were devoted to this question (Lhote 1952; Mauny 1952; Huard 1966; Shinnie 1966; Arkell 1968; Diop 1968; Shaw 1969; Trigger 1969; Tylecote 1970; Tylecote 1975a; Todd 1976, pp. 5–25; Andah 1979, pp. 135–42; Van Noten 1979; Rustad 1980; van der Merwe & Avery 1982, pp. 150–2; Schmidt & Avery 1983, pp. 432–4; Phillipson 1985, pp. 148–86; Kense 1985; Keteku n.d.; Okafor n.d.a). The study of African iron-working should investigate first all the ramifications of the processes of the technology as practised in the various communities of Africa, in order to acquire the data for comparative studies. Without such a database no study of origins will lead to objective conclusions. It is only when the technological processes of bloomery iron-smelting in Africa have been established that we can have the raw data for making comparisons with others. It is only by means of such studies that it can be determined whether early African iron-working was due to diffusion from the posited donor areas or was an independent development or an amalgam of both processes (see Holl, Ch. 17, this volume)

Ancient history · Archaeology · Geography · Evolution and Paleontology Studies · Geological and Geophysical Studies Worldwide · History · Pleistocene-Era Hominins and Archaeology