A technological and anthropological study of iron production in Venda, Limpopo Province, South Africa

ABSTRACT

This study investigates the technology and sociology of indigenous iron production in Venda, northern South Africa, within a framework of ethnographies, historical documents and archaeometallurgical analyses. Investigations revealed that indigenous iron production in the study area, like elsewhere in southern Africa, was based on the direct process in which high-grade iron ores were reduced to metallic iron in charcoal fuelled low-shaft furnaces. The technology exploited at the sites under study used high-grade haematite and magnetite ores, which were extracted from open shaft mines within the vicinity of the smelting precincts. Although new furnace types appeared in the mid-second millennium AD, evidence suggests that the technology of iron smelting was relatively stable during the Early (AD 200-900) and Late (AD 1000 to 1900) Iron Ages. Iron smelting in this area was accompanied by rituals and taboos that connected the smelters to the living and the dead. A comparative study of such rituals and taboos with those invested in other categories of practice, such as male initiation, identified notable similarities and differences. This indicates that material culture production and use broadcast ideas and beliefs applicable to both technical and quotidian practices.

ABSTRAIT

Cette étude examine la technologie et la sociologie de la production du fer au Venda, dans le nord de l'Afrique du Sud, utilisant les études ethnographiques, les documents historiques et les analyses archéométallurgiques. Les enquêtes ont révélé que la production du fer dans la zone d'étude, comme ailleurs en Afrique australe, était basée sur un procédé direct par lequel un minerai de fer de haute qualité était réduit en fer métallique dans des bas-fourneaux alimentés par du charbon. La technologie utilisée sur les sites étudiés employait des minerais d’hématite et de magnétite de haute qualité, extraits de mines à ciel ouvert dans le voisinage des lieux de fonte. Bien que de nouveaux types de fourneaux soient apparus au milieu du deuxième millénaire de notre ère, il semble que la technologie de la fonte du fer fut relativement stable au long des Ages du Fer ancien (200-900 ap. J.-C.) et tardif (1000–1900 ap. J.-C.). La fonte du fer dans cette région était accompagnée de rituels et de tabous qui liaient les forgerons aux vivants et aux défunts. L’étude comparative de ces rituels et tabous avec ceux qui sont investis dans d'autres catégories de la pratique, telles que l'initiation masculine, a identifié des ressemblances et des différences notables. Cela indique que la production et l’utilisation de la culture matérielle diffusait des idées et des croyances applicables à la fois aux pratiques techniques et aux pratiques quotidiennes.

KEYWORDS:

• Iron smelting
• technology
• rituals
• taboos
• initiation
• Venda
• South Africa

Acknowledgments

This paper is based on research carried out towards the fulfilment of Eric Ndivhuwo Mathoho’s M.Phil. thesis at the University of Cape Town. The research was funded by an Indigenous Knowledge Systems Grant from the National Research Foundation of South Africa. Additional funding contributions were made by the Africa Knowledge project of the Programme for Enhancement of Research Capacity of the University of Cape Town Research Office. We thank Robert Morell for his usual support and guidance.

Notes on contributors

Eric Ndivhuwo Mathoho is a PhD candidate at the University of Pretoria. His work explores continuity and change in the archaeology and technology of farming communities that occupied much of northern South Africa over the last 1800 years. He is also interested in indigenous knowledge systems and how they contribute to solving contemporary problems.

Foreman Bandama is an archaeometallurgist based in the Department of Archaeology at the University of Cape Town. His post-doctoral research seeks to explore the anthropology and technology of metal production in Zimbabwe Culture states and capitals such as Great Zimbabwe, Khami and Mapela. Foreman’s other interests include crucible metallurgy, metallography and petrography.

Abigail J. Moffett is a PhD Candidate in the Department of Archaeology at the University of Cape Town. Her research deals with the role of metals in the political economy of Iron Age communities that occupied numerous areas in Africa, south of the Equator. Her other interests include investigating hybridity, innovation and improvisation in metal and pottery production to understand cross-craft gender overlaps in material culture production, distribution and use.

Shadreck Chirikure runs the Archaeological Materials Laboratory in the Department of Archaeology at the University of Cape Town. His wide-ranging interests include the technology and sociology of high temperature technologies utilised by Iron Age communities, material culture production and use and refining chronologies using multiple proxies. He is the author of Metals in Past Societies (Springer 2015) and Indigenous Mining and Metallurgy in Africa (Cambridge University Press 2010).