Materials Laboratory

archaeology dept, beattie building, 3.15

phone: +27 21 650 2351

fax: +27 21 650 2352

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The Archaeology Materials Laboratory at the University of Cape Town is unique in Africa. It is the only research laboratory employing a modern materials science approach dedicated to the study of the history of African indigenous technology. The Materials Laboratory is run by Dr Shadreck Chirikure.  Dr Duncan Miller is an Honorary Research Associate. 

The 56 square metre laboratory includes the office of the laboratory manager, student work space and a dedicated, air-conditioned, microscope room. It is purpose fitted with an extraction fume hood, sink, sorting bench and storage cupboards, and is equipped for specimen preparation of a range of inorganic and organic materials by diamond sawing, grinding and polishing. The analytical equipment includes two research microscopes, optical refractometers, photographic equipment and computers.  This equipment is complemented by XRF, XRD, ICP-MS, SEM and Electron Microprobe facilities situated in our sister departments such as Geology and the Electron Microscope Unit.

We take full advantage of our unique position on the African continent to carry out leading and diverse research and consultancy on indigenous mining and metallurgy. Our projects reflect this diversity and broad based nature of our expertise.

Projects:

Tin production at Rooiberg, South Africa –  This NRF (South Africa)/NSF (USA) funded project seeks to understand the extractive metallurgy and distribution of tin in southern Africa. It focuses on the well known Rooiberg Valley, located in the northwestern part of Limpopo Province in South Africa. Rooiberg, is one of the two known sources of pre-colonial tin in sub-Saharan Africa. The other one is the Jos-Plateau in Nigeria. However, in contrast to iron and copper which were introduced to the sub-continent in the early first millennium AD, tin was only worked a millennium later when it was alloyed with copper to produce tin bronzes. The tin working evidence at Rooiberg consists of pre-colonial mine shafts, and smelting sites littered with slag and broken tuyeres. It is believed that about 20 000 tons of cassiterite were mined pre-colonially, producing an estimated 2 000 tons of metallic tin. While this some of this metal consumed locally, the remainder was exported into the Indian Ocean trading networks via trading towns such as Great Zimbabwe. Our work at Rooiberg is dedicated towards understanding the little known process of tin smelting in antiquity and tracing the movement of tin in southern Africa using trace element analyses and isotope geochemistry. The project team comprises leading researchers from South Africa (Drs Shadreck Chirikure & Simon Hall), the USA (Professor David Killick) and Germany (Professor Robert Heimann).

Metals beyond frontiers – The consumption of metal were an important aspect of Iron Age communities in southern Africa. Often, the direction in which metals moved is unknown owing to lack of research into the subject. Through a grant from the National Research Foundation, this project seeks to provenance metals found at southern African archaeological sites using trace elements and lead and strontium isotopes. It also strives to build a database of excavated metal objects archived in museums. The initial success of this work has attracted partners such as the Africa Earth Observatory Network (AEON). The project team comprises leading researchers such as Professors Maarten De Wit and Dave Reid, Drs Simon Hall and Petrus Leroux, is headed by Shadreck Chirikure.

The Phalaborwa Copper Project, South Africa – This project is a result of collaboration between the Materials Laboratory and the Institute for Archaeometallurgical Studies (Institute of Archaeology), University of College London. It was initiated to re-orient studies of pre-colonial metallurgy from iron extractive metallurgy towards copper metallurgy. Currently, the ubiquitous amount of data on pre-colonial iron smelting technologies and the associated socio-cultural metaphors contrasts significantly with the limited information on copper production. Yet, South Africa has ubiquitous amounts of copper production debris. This project seeks to explore the technology of copper smelting and fabrication in and around the Phalaborwa area. A PhD student has already been recruited to work on the extractive metallurgy of copper and other opportunities still exist. Dr Shadreck Chirikure and Professor Thilo Rehren who is the director of the Institute for Archaeometallurgical Studies are project leaders. Other team members include Drs Simon Hall and Marcos-Martinon-Torres.

Wesizwe Mining Museum – We take pride in studying indigenous knowledge systems for the present and future generations. As such we take pride in using our expertise towards achieving this goal. The Materials Laboratory is part of a large team of experts (industrialists, geologists, historians and anthropologists) that is designing a soon to be built mining museum in the Northwestern Province of South Africa. (more details to follow)

Opportunities for students – from time to time we get bursaries for students interested in studying ancient technologies. Contact Dr Shadreck Chirikure for more information

Selected Publications:

Hall, S. and Chirikure, S. 2008. The archaeology of southern Africa, herders, farmers and metallurgists. Encyclopaedia of Archaeology 3. New York: Elsevier. 66-71.

Chirikure, S. 2007. Metals and society: specialist iron production in Iron Age southern Africa. Journal of Social Archaeology. Vol 7, 2. 72-100.

Chirikure, S., Hall, S, Miller, D. 2007. One hundred years on – what do we know about tin and bronze production in southern Africa? In Laniece, S, Hook, D. and Craddock, P (eds) Mines and Metal: Studies in Archaeometallurgy. London: British Museum Press. 112-122.

Rehren, Th., Charlton, M, Chirikure, S, Humphris, J, Ige, A, and Veldhuijzen, A. 2007. The human factor in African iron working. In Laniece, S., Hook, D and Craddock, P (eds). Mines and Metals: Studies in Archaeometallurgy. London: British Museum Press. 211-219.

Chirikure, S. 2006. New light on Njanja iron working: towards a systematic encounter between ethnohistory and archaeometallurgy. South African Archaeological Bulletin 61: 142–151.

Chirikure, S. and Rehren, Th. 2006. Iron production in pre-colonial Zimbabwe – evidence for diachronic change from Swart Village and Baranda. Journal of African Archaeology. 4 (1) 37-54.

Chirikure, S. 2004. A review of studies of iron working in southern Africa. In Chami, F, Pwiti, G and Radimilahy, C. (eds). The African Archaeological Network: Reports and a review. Dar es Salam: Dar es Salam University Press. 161 - 179.

Chirikure, S and Rehren, Th. 2004. Ores, furnaces and slags: aspects of iron working in the Nyanga complex. African Archaeological Review. 115-134.Miller, D. & Killick, D. 2004. Slag identification at southern African archaeological sites. Journal of African Archaeology 2:23-47.

Chirikure, S. 2001, Pwiti, G., Pikirayi, A comparative study of Khami pottery Zimbabwe. In Pwiti, G and Chami, F. (eds). Southern Africa and the Swahili World. Dar es Salaam: Dar es Salaam University Press. 112-135.

Chirikure, S. and Paynter, S. 2002. A metallurgical Investigation of iron working remains from Snettisham, Norfolk. English Heritage Centre for Archaeology Monographs 50.

Greenfield, H. & Miller, D. 2004. Spatial patterns of Early Iron Age metal production in southern Africa : metal working remains at Ndondondwane , South Africa . Journal of Archaeological Science 31:1511-1532.

Miller, D.E., Young, S.M.M., Green, W.A., van der Merwe, N.J. & Sandelowsky, B. 2005. Sourcing the ore from the Drierivier copper smelting site in central Namibia, using lead isotope fingerprinting. South African Journal of Science 101:344-346.

Miller, D. 2002. Smelter and smith: metal fabrication technology in the southern African Early and Late Iron Age. Journal of Archaeological Science 29:1083-1131.

Miller, D. 2003. Indigenous copper mining and smelting in pre-colonial southern Africa . In Craddock, P. & Lang, J. eds. Mining and metal production through the ages:101-110. London : British Museum .

Miller, D.E. & Desai, N. 2003. The fabrication technology of southern African archaeological gold. Annals of the South African Museum . 111(2):79-102.