UNESCO Ancient Civilizations of Africa (Editor G. Mokhtar)

Ancient Civilizations of Africa
was even brought into the Olduvai Basin by very early stone age tool-users.
By late stone age times manganese, 12 spéculante, 13 and haematite were
being regularly mined at localities in Zambia, Swaziland and in the northern
Cape. 14 An excavation in some of the workings at Doornfontein indicated
regular mining operations involving galleries and chambers from which up
to 45 ooo metric tons of specularite may have been obtained, probably by
Khoisan-speaking groups from the ninth century of our era onwards. It is
likely that the existence of such mines and the implied knowledge of
metallic ores and their properties helped the rapid growth of an iron
technology in the firsthalf of the first millennium of our era.
Elsewhere in sub-Saharan Africa we do not have such clear indications
of mining for iron and it seems that the lateritic crust of the tropical
areas was the most likely source of iron ores. Bog iron, however, was used
in the lower Casamance valley in Senegal 1 ? and at Machili in Zambia. 16
The iron so obtained would have been broken down into very small
pieces and hand-selected for smelting. A region where the mining, as
opposed to the surface collecting, of latérites may have been undertaken
was to the north of the Gambia river in the area of the Senegambian
megaliths, which are themselves upright blocks of latérite. Their use there
as ritual structures and the growth of an iron technology in the area during
the first millennium of our era would indicate that it would be a small step
towards the actual mining of the latérites for smelting. It is possible that
extensive smelting of the latérites was an essential preliminary to the idea
of quarrying the latérite for building purposes. A similar process may have
developed in the Central African Republic where megaliths also occur. It
has been suggested by Wai Andah in Chapter 24 that the ease of Iateritedigging
as opposed to haematite-quarrying may be one of the clues to a
hitherto unsubstantiated claim for an indigenous development of an iron
technology in Africa. Latérite, when damp and buried beneath a soil
profile, is relatively crumbly and far easier to dig through than normal
rock. Unfortunately, except for the southern African mines, no other
certain iron-'mining' areas have been either found or accurately dated. It
is possible that the Uelian stone axes of haematite in north-eastern Zaïre
and Uganda may be of iron age date and fashioned in haematite in
imitation of wrought iron.
Gold
Gold was almost certainly mined in West Africa during the period under
review, as well as being collected by alluvial panning. Though implied by
12. R. A. Dart and P. Beaumont, 1969b, pp. 91-6.
13. A. Bosnier and P. Beaumont, 1972, pp. 2-12.
14. P. B. Beaumont and A. K. Bosnier, pp. 41-59.
15. O. Linares de Sapir, p. 43.
16. J. D. Clark and B. M. Fagan, pp. 354-^71.
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