Copper wire objects from Jahunda and Little Mapela

Technology, value systems and networks in Iron Age southern Africa

Dados Bibliográficos

ID6042403
AutoresForeman Bandama (0000-0002-4664-3410, Sol Plaatje University, autor correspondente), Munyaradzi Manyanga (Materials Laboratory, Department of Archaeology, University of Cape Town, Rondebosch, 7700, South Africa), Shadreck Chirikure (0000-0002-2183-4253, Materials Laboratory, Department of Archaeology, University of Cape Town, Rondebosch, 7700, South Africa)
Ano2018
Volume53
Fascículo4
Páginas528-545
Data de publicação2018-10-02
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessNão
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoAzania Archaeological Research in Africa (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 0067-270X • E-ISSN: 1945-5534
EditoraInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/0067270x.2018.1540213
OpenAlexW2903133885
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas5
Referências citadas34

The present study explores the archaeometallurgy of flexible cuprous wound wires recovered from two precolonial Shona centres of power, Jahunda and Little Mapela, separated by 60 kilometres in Gwanda, southwestern Zimbabwe. Widely believed to have been fashion accessories, archaeologists have traditionally consigned such objects to appendices in site reports and other publications. Chronological and technological information gathered from this category of objects indicates that Jahunda exploited more tin bronzes than pure, unalloyed copper. The converse holds for Little Mapela. However, the presence of copper and its alloys brass (with zinc) and bronze (with tin), in a region with no known sources of any of the raw materials, poses important questions about the role and value of these objects in both their immediate societies and networked regional places. This study shows that as metal objects, flexible wound wires were an important component of the political economy and conjoined diverse worlds — healing, spiritual, decorative, technological and much more — that made their production, circulation and use a microcosm of resilient networks and changing societal values

Ancient history · Archaeology · Bronze · Craft · Ethnology · Political science · Politics · Shona · Value (mathematics) · Archaeology and Rock Art Studies · Colonialism, slavery, and trade · Computer Science · Historical and Cultural Archaeology Studies · History