Compositional Practice in Turbulent Times: Investigating Ritually Charged Deposits in a West African Metallurgical Workshop

Author(s): Ann Stahl

Year: 2025

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Ritual Closure: A Global Perspective" session, at the 90th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

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The workshops of West African metallurgists were transformative locations where metals were forged and tools fabricated, at the same time as they were sites of problem-solving through divination, soothsaying and healing. The social and knowledge networks of skilled metallurgists often reached beyond those of fellow community members and their workshops were sites of improvisational, compositional practice in arenas that scholars often parse as technological or ritual. A rich archaeological example comes from the site of Ngre Kataa in the Volta bend region of west central Ghana where, from the late 13<sup>th</sup> through the early 16<sup>th</sup> centuries CE, skilled metallurgists plied their skills in a single workshop location. Their practice resulted in the buildup of more than a meter of stratified deposits during times when peoples of the Volta bend experienced widening continental and inter-continental connections alongside changing precipitation regimes that culminated in prolonged drought. These ramifying networks provide context for analyzing ritually charged deposits emplaced within the workshop and a sprawling shrine that capped and closed metalworking in this location. My focus is on the dynamics of compositional practice that brought together local and exotic materials, forms and things in ceremonially charged workshop strata during these turbulent times.

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Cite this Record

Compositional Practice in Turbulent Times: Investigating Ritually Charged Deposits in a West African Metallurgical Workshop. Ann Stahl. Presented at The 90th Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. 2025 ( tDAR id: 510106)

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Keywords

General
Architecture • Ritual and Symbolism • Taphonomy and Site Formation • Worldwide

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 51426