人類學系週五演講系列
| 講 題 | Reconstructing past mining, metallurgy and trade of metals in the southern half of the African continent |
| 講 者 | David Killick (University of Arizona) Jay Stephens (Archaeometry Laboratory, Missouri University Research Reactor) |
| 時 間 | 2024.05.03 (Fri.)14:00-15:20 |
| 地 點 | 國立臺灣大學水源校區行政大樓人201教室 |
| 演講簡介 | Copper and tin are relatively rare metals, so in most regions they had to be obtained through long-distance trade. Since 2015 we have been trying to infer the geological source of archaeological copper, tin and bronze in southern Africa, using lead isotopes, tin isotopes and chemical analysis. So far we have shown that the X-shaped copper ingots found in large numbers in modern Zimbabwe mostly derive from the Central African Copperbelt, some 500-800 km away, and that bronze, found in northern Zimbabwe from the 12th-14th centuries AD, were made with tin from the Rooiberg mines in present South Africa, some 700-1000 km away. There is no evidence so far of state control of mining, metallurgy or trade in either region. We argue that the Rooiberg tin mines were an open resource zone, exploited by groups living at various distances from the ore body. It is not yet clear how copper was transmitted from the Copperbelt to Zimbabwe between the 10th and the 14th centuries, but from the 14th to the 18th we have evidence of a trade diaspora linked the Copperbelt with northern Zimbabwe. |
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