Tracing long-distance exchange of copper in southern Africa with lead isotopes (NSF BCS 1852958)

Summary

Overview:

This proposal is for an interdisciplinary study of copper artefacts from multiple archaeological

excavations in the southern third of the African continent; the sites that yielded these artefacts date

between about 300 AD and 1850 AD. Many of these archaeological sites are a long way from any

potential source of copper ore. We will undertake chemical and lead isotopic analyses of some 250

copper artefacts with the goal of identifying the parent ore deposits. To do this we will match the lead

isotope ratios of the artefacts to those in a database that we created of 559 lead isotopic ratios of ore

minerals from the geological literature for southern Africa. We will supplement this by measuring an

additional 150 ore specimens obtained from mineral collections in universities and geological survey

departments in southern Africa. Our goal for this project is to begin to reconstruct changing patterns of

long-distance exchange of copper over this period.

Intellectual Merit:

Some of the richest gold deposits on Earth are located in southern Africa, and one of the major issues in

southern African archaeology over the past two decades has been whether external demand for gold

(from the Islamic World and India) stimulated the formation of the first states between the Zambezi and

Limpopo Rivers. Neither side in this debate has yet paid much attention to the apparently parallel

development of the Luba state in the Katanga Province of southern Congo, which was clearly not

connected to the Islamic trade networks of the Indian Ocean. The wealth of this state derived from its

proximity to, and exploitation of, the Katangan/Zambian Copperbelt, the world's largest source of copper.

This proposal seeks to break new ground in southern African archaeology by focusing upon trading

networks within the subcontinent, using the movement of copper as a proxy for trade. The focus will be

on links between the sequence of states that rose and fell on and around the Zimbabwean plateau -

Mapungubwe (ca. 1220-1300), Great Zimbabwe (ca. 1100-1550), Butua/Torwa (ca. 1450-1680), Mutapa

(ca. 1450-1760) and Rozwi (1680-1835) - and the major copper deposits of this region. These are the

Copperbelt to the north, and the major mines of eastern Botswana and northern South Africa.

Broader Impacts:

At a time when the USA faces growing international disapproval, the research proposed here has the

potential to generate a modest quantum of goodwill for our nation. Archaeology matters to the nations of

southern Africa. Both Zimbabwe and Malawi take their names from precolonial states, and the highest

civic honor in South Africa is the Order of Mapungubwe, named for the first precolonial state in the

entire region. Mining is a major portion of Gross Domestic Product in South Africa, Botswana,

Zimbabwe and Zambia today, but most of its citizens are not aware of the extent of precolonial mining, or

of trade in copper in this region. The anticipated results of this project on ancient copper mining and

trade will likely be widely covered in African print and electronic news media, and will be incorporated

(with our active assistance) into educational materials for African schools and universities. In publicizing

our findings we will emphasize that this is a project funded by the taxpayers of the United States, and a

token of continuing commitment to collaboration between American and African researchers.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Data Collected during NSF BCS 1852958

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Dave Killick; Jay Stephens

Source Collections

Zimbabwe Museum of Human Sciences Livingstone Museum National Museum of Botswana University of the Witwatersrand University of Cape Town