UNESCO Ancient Civilizations of Africa (Editor G. Mokhtar)

Ancient Civilizations of Africa
Copper deposits have a far more restricted distribution than do those of
iron. The main areas in southern Africa where such deposits occur are on
the Zambezi/Congo watershed stretching from the modern Copperbelt
westwards to Solwezi, in the Hook of the Kafue area, in the Sinoia and
Wankie areas of Zimbabwe, in eastern Botswana adjacent to the Zimbabwean
border, in the Limpopo valley around Messina, and in the Phalaborwa
area of the eastern Transvaal. Deposits farther to the west in Angola and
Namibia need not be considered here because of the virtual absence of
archaeological research in these areas. It is probable that copper deposits
in all the regions noted above were exploited in iron age times, but considerable
difficulty is experienced in determining early, as opposed to later,
activity. Many prehistoric workings have been destroyed or substantially
modified by recent mining. Copper artefacts are, however, widely
distributed on early iron age sites, although they are not so common as they
are on those of later periods. It cannot be demonstrated that copperworking
technology was practised in all areas at such an early date in the
early iron age as were the corresponding techniques for iron; in the Lusaka
region, for example, copper appears to have been known until a late phase
of the early iron age. Knowledge of copper in areas closer to the ore
deposits was considerably earlier, as on the Chondwe group sites, and
in most of Zimbabwe. Copper was clearly regarded as a relative luxury and its
use was largely restricted to the manufacture of small items of personal
adornment such as beads and bangles of thin twisted strip. The metal
was traded in the form of bars, of which the best example from an early
iron age context is that from Kumadzulo. No copper-smelting furnaces
of the early iron age have been investigated. Since potsherds characteristic
of the wares of several far-flung regions are recorded from early iron age
sites adjacent to Zambian Copperbelt mines, notably at Roan Antelope, it
may be inferred that people came from great distances to obtain copper
from these sites, a practice which continued into later iron age times. 66
It may be concluded that in much of southern Africa copper was worked on
a small scale in early iron age times, but that the large-scale exploitation
of this metal was a phenomenon of the later iron age. 67
Iron age gold-mining in southern Africa appears to have been restricted
largely to Zimbabwe and immediately adjacent regions. 68 Small-scale
prehistoric workings in Zambia, South Africa and elsewhere have been
reported, but no detailed investigations have been conducted. In contrast,
well over a thousand prehistoric goldmines have been recorded in
Zimbabwe and closely bordering regions of Botswana and the Transvaal. 69
Most of the ancient workings have been destroyed by further mining
66. D. W . Phillipson, 1972b, pp. 93-128.
67. Research into prehistoric copper-working in south-central Africa, with particular
reference to Zambia, is currently being undertaken by Mr M. S. Bisson.
68. The following account is largely based on that of R. Summers.
69. The actual number of mines must have been several times this figure.
688