Tin and Bronze Production in the Iron Age of Southern Africa

南部非洲铁器时代的锡和青铜生产

• 批准号: 0542135
• 负责人: David Killick
• 金额: $ 14.67万
• 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: 2006
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2006-05-01 至 2009-04-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0542135&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Tin; Bronze; Production; Iron; Age

The Rooiberg valley in northwest South Africa, close to its border with Botswana, is notable for its abandoned prehistoric tin mines and associated furnaces for smelting tin, and for alloying tin with copper to make bronze. When tin mining was restarted here in the early 1900's, mining engineers estimated prehistoric production at about 2000 tons of tin metal. These are the only known instances of tin or bronze production in southern Africa, but after a century of unsystematic research at Rooiberg, basic questions remain unanswered. When did tin mining begin here, and why? When did it end, and why? And what happened to the large quantities of tin produced here? With National Science Foundation support, a team of American, British, South African and Zimbabwean researchers will begin to study these questions through one field season of excavations in 2006. This will be followed by a year of intensive scientific analysis of the excavated remains, and of related materials from prior excavations and museum collections in both South Africa and Zimbabwe. The fieldwork will concentrate upon locating and excavating smelting sites. We anticipate that the earliest evidence of tin production can be dated by radiocarbon. We do however expect that the peak of smelting activity was from the 17th through the early 19th centuries CE, a period in which radiocarbon dating is unusable. Sites in this period will be dated by optically-stimulated luminescence, backed up by the use of archaeomagnetism as a relative dating technique.The technology of tin and bronze production in the Rooiberg valley will be reconstructed by chemical analysis, metallography and thin-section petrography of the excavated remains. Since it is certain that the large quantity of tin mined here was not consumed in the Rooiberg area (which appears to have been lightly populated throughout the presumed time period of production) a major aim of this project is to develop trace element and isotopic fingerprints for tin and bronze produced from Rooiberg tin and copper ores. We will measure the concentrations of trace elements in excavated tin and bronze by plasma mass spectrometry, and the ratios of stable lead isotopes by high-precision multicollector plasma mass spectrometry. The final stage of the project will be to compare the trace element fingerprints for Rooiberg tin and bronze to those of tin and bronze objects from archaeological sites elsewhere in south Africa, Botswana and Zimbabwe, and to tin produced from other potential ores in southern Africa. The archaeological finds range in age from the 13th through the 19th centuries CE, while the find spots are up to 700 km distant from Rooiberg. Thus the main aim of the project is to document the emergence of an indigenous southern African industry and the extent of the trade network through which its products passed. The project will provide valuable postdoctoral training for a Zimbabwean archaeological scientists and predoctoral training for at least three graduate students from South Africa and one from America.

南非西北部的鲁伊贝格山谷靠近博茨瓦纳边境，以其废弃的史前锡矿和相关的锡熔炉以及将锡与铜合金化以制造青铜而闻名。当 1900 年代初这里重新开始锡开采时，采矿工程师估计史前锡金属产量约为 2000 吨。这些是南部非洲唯一已知的锡或青铜生产实例，但在鲁伊贝格进行了一个世纪的非系统研究后，基本问题仍然没有得到解答。这里何时开始开采锡矿？为什么？ 它什么时候结束的，为什么？而这里生产的大量锡又去了哪里呢？在国家科学基金会的支持下，由美国、英国、南非和津巴布韦的研究人员组成的团队将通过 2006 年的一个实地发掘季节开始研究这些问题。随后将对出土遗骸进行为期一年的深入科学分析，并来自南非和津巴布韦先前发掘和博物馆收藏的相关材料。现场工作将集中于冶炼场的定位和挖掘。我们预计锡生产的最早证据可以通过放射性碳测年。然而，我们确实预计冶炼活动的高峰期是从公元 17 世纪到 19 世纪初，在此期间放射性碳测年法无法使用。 这一时期的遗址将通过光刺激发光进行测年，并使用考古磁学作为相对测年技术。鲁伊伯格山谷的锡和青铜生产技术将通过化学分析、金相学和薄片岩相学重建出土的遗骸。 由于可以肯定的是，这里开采的大量锡并未在 Rooiberg 地区消耗（该地区在整个假定的生产期间似乎人口稀少），因此该项目的主要目的是开发微量元素和同位素指纹由鲁伊贝格锡矿和铜矿生产的锡和青铜。我们将通过等离子体质谱法测量出土的锡和青铜中的微量元素浓度，并通过高精度多接收器等离子体质谱法测量稳定铅同位素的比率。 该项目的最后阶段将把鲁伊伯格锡和青铜的微量元素指纹与来自南非、博茨瓦纳和津巴布韦其他地方考古遗址的锡和青铜物品的微量元素指纹，以及与南部非洲其他潜在矿石生产的锡进行比较。考古发现的年代从公元 13 世纪到 19 世纪不等，而发现地点距离鲁伊贝格最远 700 公里。因此，该项目的主要目的是记录南部非洲本土工业的兴起及其产品通过的贸易网络​​的范围。 该项目将为津巴布韦考古科学家提供宝贵的博士后培训，并为至少三名来自南非和一名来自美国的研究生提供博士前培训。