Metals and Metallurgists in Sub-Saharan Africa: Three Case Studies

撒哈拉以南非洲的金属和冶金学家：三个案例研究

• 批准号: 9602033
• 负责人: David Killick
• 金额: $ 8.8万
• 依托单位: University of Arizona
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 1996
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 1996-08-01 至 1999-07-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=9602033&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Metals; Metallurgists; Sub; Saharan; Africa

With National Science Foundation support, Dr. David Killick and his colleagues will pursue three related anthropological projects which will shed new light on past and present metal working practices in sub Saharan Africa. What links the three is the examination of the relationship between metalworking technology and the ability to use such information to sidelight on social organization. In a first study Dr. Killick will examine the techniques used to work iron in the Mandara region of Cameroon and Nigeria. While prehistorically many sub-Saharan peoples smelted and worked iron to produce a range of artifacts, in very few instances have these practices continued into modern times. In the Mandara region anthropologists have observed and videotaped two instances of iron smelting and collected information about many more. Dr. Killick will coordinate and synthesize the data which has been collected. He will also conduct metallurgical analyses of the slags which were produced and the finished products. One major goal of the work is to examine the relationship between ethnic affiliation and metallurgical technology and the extent to which specific techniques are ethnically determined. Because archaeologists work primarily with the material byproducts of human behavior and attempt to reconstruct social organization through such remains, the insights which Dr. Killick will provide will be a great methodological interest. Secondly, Dr. Killick and colleagues will analyze a body of data collected at archaeological sites in northern South Africa. These include finished metal products and slags which date to the last 2,000 years. Archaeologists wish to reconstruct the social organization of such Iron Age societies which gave rise to the Zulu empire and other ethnographically known groups. Because the geology of the region is well known and iron ore deposits vary in chemical composition, it is possible to examine the results and byproducts of smelting and match archaeologically recovered objects with ore source. On this basis it is then possible to reconstruct trade networks and gain insight into large scale social and economic organization. The research team will undertake such an analysis and also reconstruct prehistoric southern African metal working techniques. In a third part of this project the research group will examine a series of materials recovered from archaeological contexts on the East Coast of Africa. Swahili culture which is dominant in this region consists of a mix of African and Islamic elements and it appears that several thousand years ago traders from the Near East settled in this region. Anthropologists are very interested in the mechanisms which underly culture contact and interaction and in the Swahili case several models have been proposed. It is unclear to what extent, over millennia, interaction has occurred and whether the `immigrants` remained culturally and materially distinct. Through the analysis of metal objects Dr. Killick hopes to gain insight into this question. Since the smelting technologies of the Near East and Eastern Africa are quite distinct, and it should be possible to determine whether they are blended or remain separate on the East African coast. This research is important for several reasons. It will help to develop a robust methodological tool which will help scientists to gain insight into past social behavior. It will help to answer a series of interesting areal questions and provide data of interest to many archaeologists.

在国家科学基金会的支持下，戴维·基里克（David Killick）博士和他的同事将进行三个相关的人类学项目，这些项目将为撒哈拉以南非洲的过去和现在金属工作实践提供新的启示。这三个联系的是检查金属加工技术与使用此类信息使社会组织占上风的能力之间的关系。 在第一项研究中，基里克博士将研究用于在喀麦隆和尼日利亚曼德拉地区生产铁的技术。虽然史前许多撒哈拉以南人民都冶炼和努力生产一系列文物，但在很少情况下，这些做法一直持续到现代。在曼陀罗地区，人类学家观察到并录制了两个铁质冶炼的实例，并收集了有关更多信息的信息。 Killick博士将协调并综合已收集的数据。他还将对生产的矿渣和成品进行冶金分析。这项工作的一个主要目标是检查种族隶属关系与冶金技术之间的关系以及在种族化确定特定技术的程度。由于考古学家主要与人类行为的物质副产品合作，并试图通过此类遗体重建社会组织，因此基里克博士将提供的见解将是一个极大的方法论利益。 其次，基里克（Killick）博士及其同事将分析在南非北部考古遗址收集的一系列数据。其中包括成品金属产品和矿渣，历史可追溯至最近2，000年。考古学家希望重建这样的铁器时代社会的社会组织，从而引起祖鲁帝国和其他人种学众所周知的群体。由于该地区的地质是众所周知的，铁矿石沉积在化学组成方面有所不同，因此可以检查冶炼的结果和副产品，并与考古恢复的物体与矿石源相匹配。在此基础上，可以重建贸易网络并深入了解大规模的社会和经济组织。研究团队将进行这样的分析，并重建史前的南部非洲金属工作技术。 在该项目的第三部分中，研究小组将研究从非洲东海岸的考古环境中回收的一系列材料。斯瓦希里语在该地区占主导地位的文化由非洲和伊斯兰元素组成，看来几千年前的近东交易者定居在该地区。人类学家对基本培养接触和相互作用的机制非常感兴趣，在斯瓦希里语案例中，已经提出了几种模型。目前尚不清楚几千年来发生的互动以及“移民”在文化上和物质上是否存在。通过对金属物体的分析，基里克博士希望能够深入了解这个问题。由于近东和东非的冶炼技术非常明显，因此应该可以确定它们是在东非海岸混合还是保持分离。 这项研究很重要，原因有几个。它将有助于开发一种强大的方法论工具，这将帮助科学家深入了解过去的社会行为。这将有助于回答一系列有趣的问题，并向许多考古学家提供感兴趣的数据。