2005, p. 288 in Herbert 1993:ch.6). Steel is also used in the safety industry for personal vests and vehicle armour. South Africa - South Africa - The Iron Age: Because the first farmers had knowledge of ironworking, their archaeological sites are characterized as Iron Age (c. 200 ce). Recently Asked Questions What themes do you see emerging in the Tao Te Ching? Nearly 70% of the South African iron ore operations are conducted by Kumba Iron Ore Limited – one of the world’s top suppliers of seaborne iron ore. Kumba operates three mines, Kolomela and Sishen in the Northern Cape Province and Thabazimbi in the Limpopo Province. Iron-Making Techniques in the Kivu Region of Zaire: Some of the Differences Between the South Maniema Region and North Kivu. The Brazilian mining corporation Vale is the largest iron ore producer in the world. The smelting process is carried out entirely by men and often away from the village. Fortescue Metals Group Ltd, also an Australian supplier has greatly contributed to bringing Australia to the second place. Shop anything you can imagine: TVs, laptops, cellphones, kitchen appliances, toys, books, beauty & more. J. O. "Decisions set in slag: the human factor in African iron smelting". The roots of southern Africa's Iron Age are in something called the Bantu expansion. It is a capital intensive industry that requires significant investment in infrastructure. "New Evidence on Early Iron-Smelting from Southeastern Nigeria". 26 jobs in Africa on totaljobs. [51], MetalAfrica: a Scientific Network on African Metalworking, Archaeological evidence for the origins and spread of iron production in Africa, Duncan E. Miller and N.J. Van Der Merwe, 'Early Metal Working in Sub Saharan Africa', Minze Stuiver and N.J. Van Der Merwe, 'Radiocarbon Chronology of the Iron Age in Sub-Saharan Africa'. Iron smelters and smiths received different social status depending on their culture. What do we know about African iron working? A In summary, there is no proof that iron working technology was taken across the Sahara into sub-Saharan Africa; nor is there proof of independent invention. These techniques are now extinct in all regions of sub-Saharan Africa, except, in the case of some of techniques, for some very remote regions of Ethiopia. Given the multitude of potential problems with radiocarbon dating in the first millennium BC, archaeologists trying to date the earliest African metallurgy need to make routine use of luminescence dating of the baked clay from smelting furnaces. Unfortunately most radiocarbon dates for the initial spread of iron metallurgy in sub-Saharan Africa fall within this range. In a village square in Lejja, located about 15 kilometers south of the university town of Nsukka in southeastern Nigeria, lies what appears to be the oldest iron-smelting site in the the world.Arranged in crescent shapes with mounds in the middle across a wide sitting … It took over the Kumba Resources when the operations of coal as well as other heavy minerals died off back in November 2006. This statistic shows the world iron ore reserves as of 2018, by major countries. Person, G. Quéchon and J.-F. Saliège (1992). Many historians believe that Iron Age people reached the lake of central Africa in about 300 bc. "Iron Technology in the Middle Sahel/Savanna: With Emphasis on Central Darfur". It is a major iron ore mine in South Africa. The first people in Mapungubwe were early Iron Age settlers. [26][27][28] According to Augustin Holl (2018), there is evidence of ironworking dated to 2,153–2,044 BC and 2,368–2,200 BC from the site of Gbatoro, Cameroon. Iron in sub-Saharan Africa. This is a particular problem in Niger, where the charred stumps of ancient trees are a potential source of charcoal, and have sometimes been misidentified as smelting furnaces. How did this happen? Some Early Iron Age Sites in Southern and Western Zambia. Its name translated in Shona means 'stone building'. Archaeologists from the University of Chile have discovered a 12,000-year-old iron oxide mine in the north of the country. Kiriama, H.O., 1993. In both these stages the Bantu expansion seems to have coincided fairly closely with the spread of the Iron Age; and, if the spread of the Iron Age through the area north of the southern woodlands can now be traced in something like the detail which we already have for Zambia and Rhodesia, the mystery of the Bantu … [21][22] At Oboui they excavated an undated iron forge yielding eight consistent radiocarbon dates of 2000 BC. What is happening in Africa in 500CE. As time passed, very large settlements emerged in certain places, usually on hilltops or other elevated sites. Bassar: a quantified, chronologically controlled, regional approach to a traditional iron production centre in West Africa. Then, one day, they were smelting (making) iron. de Barros, P., 2000. Relatively little metallography of ancient African iron tools has yet been done, so this conclusion may perhaps be modified by future work. All indigenous African iron smelting processes are variants of the bloomery process. Independence: 17 August 1960 Area: 267,667 km2 Mining fact: In the 1970s, uranium was mined in Gabon to supply the French nuclear power industry. [6] Although some nineteenth-century European scholars favored an indigenous invention of iron working in sub-Saharan Africa, archaeologists writing between 1945 and 1965 mostly favored diffusion of iron smelting technology from Carthage across the Sahara to West Africa and/or from Meroe on the upper Nile to central Africa. Iron ore is an essential rock mineral, which the formation came as a result of combined chemical reactions of oxygen and iron in marine and freshwaters.. Iron … The myth of Meroe and the African Iron Age. [39][40] But not all large scale iron production in Africa was associated with natural draft furnaces – those of Meroe (Sudan, first to fifth centuries AD) were produced by slag-tapping bellows-driven furnaces,[41] and the large 18th-19th century iron industry of the Cameroon grasslands by non-tapping bellows-driven furnaces. The residents of Mapungubwe were, like the people of Thulamela, the ancestors of the Shona people of southern Africa. The fuel used was invariably charcoal, and the products were the bloom (a solid mass of iron) and slag (a liquid waste product). The Anglo-Australian companies BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto are second. Although some nineteenth-century European scholars favored an indigenous invention of iron working in sub-Saharan … 1, pp. Fast, reliable delivery to your door. Shaw, T., Sinclair, P., Bassey, A., Okpoko, A (eds). A much wider range of bloomery smelting processes has been recorded on the African continent than elsewhere in the Old World, probably because bloomeries remained in use into the 20th century in many parts of sub-Saharan Africa, whereas in Europe and most parts of Asia they were replaced by the blast furnace before most varieties of bloomeries could be recorded. Much of the evidence for cultural significance comes from the practises still carried out today by different African cultures. Azania: Archaeological Research in Africa: Vol. Clist, B. Mining Iron Ore in Africa. Get Answer. 8, No. Although some assert that no words for iron or ironworking can be traced to reconstructed proto-Bantu,[30] place-names in West Africa suggest otherwise, for example (Okuta) Ilorin, literally "site of iron-work". [4] At Gbabiri, also in the Central African Republic, Eggert has found evidence of an iron reduction furnace and blacksmith workshop with earliest dates of 896-773 BC and 907-796 BC respectively. de Maret, P and F. Nsuka (1977) History of Bantu metallurgy: some linguistic aspects. Iron Age Sites in North-Eastern Tanzania. Importantly, from a cost perspective iron ore currently only accounts for between 11–13% of ArcelorMittal’s (AMSA) total steel production costs at interim prices. Iron did not replace other materials, such as stone and wooden tools, but the quantity of production and variety of uses met were significantly high by comparison. Ethnographical information has been very useful in reconstructing the events surrounding iron production in the past, however the reconstructions could have become distorted through time and influence by anthropologist's studies. Two reviews of the evidence from the mid-2000s found major technical flaws in the studies claiming independent invention, raising three major issues. It was used for coins and currencies of varying forms. South Africa - South Africa - The Late Stone Age: Basic toolmaking techniques began to undergo additional change about 40,000 years ago. This resulted in fairly harmonious co-existence as no tribe needed to be or was sufficiently more … Opinion among African archaeologists is sharply divided. During the period from about 1 100 - 1 050 years ago, the capitals of certain important states, such as Toutswe in the present Botswana, and Mapungubwe in the present-day Limpopo Province of South Africa were … "[12] It is still not known when iron working was first practiced in Kush and Meroe in modern Sudan, but the earliest known iron metallurgy dates from Meroe and Egypt do not predate those from sub-Saharan Africa, and thus the Nile Valley is considered unlikely to be the source of sub-Saharan iron metallurgy. Unlike bloomery iron-workers in Europe, India or China, African metalworkers did not make use of water power to blow bellows in furnaces too large to be blown by hand-powered bellows. The second issue was the possible effect of "old carbon": wood or charcoal much older than the time at which iron was smelted. (2004) Review Essay. This page was last edited on 7 December 2020, at 15:22. Pringle, H. 2009. Next map, Africa 500 CE. Martinelli, B., 1993, "Fonderies ouest-africaines. While the origins of iron smelting are difficult to date by radiocarbon, there are fewer problems with using it to track the spread of ironworking after 400 BC. Even the bolts, screws and nails that keep the structures together are fabricated with steel. ), Ferrous metallurgy § Africa south of the Sahara, "Iron and its influence on the prehistoric site of Lejja", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Iron_metallurgy_in_Africa&oldid=992870367, Articles with unsourced statements from March 2016, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, Killick, D. 2004. Review Essay: "What Do We Know About African Iron Working?". Muhammed, I.M., 1993. Small finely worked stone implements known as microliths became more common, while the heavier scrapers and points of the Middle Stone Age appeared less frequently. van der Merwe, N. J. (2012) Vers une réduction des prejugés et la fonte des antagonisms: un bilan de l’expansion de la métallurgie du fer en Afrique sud-Saharienne. In the 1990s, evidence was found of Phoenician iron smelting in the western Mediterranean (900–800 BC),[11] though specifically in North Africa it seems to date only to the 5th to 4th centuries BC, or the 7th century BC at the earliest, contemporary to or later than the oldest known iron metallurgy dates from sub-Saharan Africa. Iron Age farmers have inhabited the eastern half of South Africa for most of the last two thousand years. History in Africa 33: 321-361. During this time, the Oklo reactor zone was … The second component is the construction of a railway line, which will be approximately 650km long, to transport the extracted ore. SANS 1115:1976 Prescribe dimensional and quality requirements for cast iron gratings for gullies and … Tools for cultivation and farming made production far more efficient and possible on much larger scales. Prospection archéologique du massif du Termit (Niger). This was the innovative precursor to modern metallurgy and steel production. There are many strict taboos surrounding the process. These items, in addition to the production of other iron goods helped stimulate economic activity, the rise of chiefdoms and even states. Shaw, T., Sinclair, P., Bassey, A., Okpoko, A (eds). The followup was the formation of Kumba Iron … Magnetite sand, concentrated in streams by flowing water, was often used in more mountainous areas, after beneficiation to raise the concentration of iron. [4] According to archaeometallurgist Manfred Eggert, "Carthage cannot be reliably considered the point of origin for sub-Saharan iron ore reduction. 2005 pg 288). Farmer settlements reached KwaZulu-Natal … [50], Some cultures associated sexual symbolism with iron production. Seeking Africa's first iron men. The Roman provinces of North Africa have shared in the troubles of the declining Roman empire. They were directly ancestral to the Bantu-speaking peoples who form the majority of South Africa… Because iron ore is the key ingredient of steel, and nearly 95% of the metal used every year around the world is steel – iron is the most frequently used metal in the world. They are twisted iron rods ranging from <30 cm to >2m in length. This is partly because sub-Saharan Africa has much less potential for water power than these other regions, but also because there were no engineering techniques developed for converting rotary motion to linear motion. Although the origins of iron working in Africa have been the subject of scholarly interest since the 1860s, it is still not known whether this technology diffused into sub-Saharan Africa from the Mediterranean region, or whether it was invented there independently of iron working elsewhere. Iron ore deposits found in abundance in Nigeria, West Africa with up to 3 billion tonnes are in Nigerian states like Kaduna, Enugu, Kogi, Niger, Kwara, Bauchi and Zamfara. "Ideology and the Archaeological Record in Africa: Interpreting Symbolism in Iron Smelting Technology". Mining Jobs in Africa Find a Mining Job Opportunity Mining Jobs in South Africa, Nigeria, Gabon, Ivory Coast, Uganda and beyond. This city rose during Africa's Iron Age. Examples of these date back as far as the early Iron Age in Tanzania and Rwanda (Schmidt 1997 in Childs et al., 2005 p. Furnaces used in the 19th and 20th centuries ranges from small bowl furnaces, dug down from the ground surface and powered by bellows, through bellows-powered shaft furnaces up to 1.5 m tall, to 6.5m natural-draft furnaces (i.e. Uses. However the steady spread of iron meant it must have had more favourable properties for many different uses. Smelting is integrated with the fertility of their society, as with natural reproduction the production of the bloom is compared to the conception and birth. In the 1960s it was suggested that iron working was spread by speakers of Bantu languages, whose original homeland has been located by linguists in the Benue River valley of eastern Nigeria and Western Cameroon. Warnier, J.-P. and Fowler, I. Chief researcher Diego Salazar said the iron oxide was used by Huentelauquen Indians as a pigment in dying cloth and in religious … African ironworkers did however invent a way to increase the size of their furnaces, and thus the amount of metal produced per charge, without using bellows. The earliest sites in the Limpopovalley are securely dated to the fourth century AD. [33] It seems highly probable that this occurred through migrations of Bantu-speaking peoples. The capitalized proper … It is possible that this also led to tradesmen specialising in transporting and trading iron (Barros 2000, pg152). (2010) ‘On the iron front: new evidence from Central Africa’, Journal of African Archaeology 8:7-23. [25], In the Nsukka region of southeast Nigeria (now Igboland), archaeological sites containing iron smelting furnaces and slag have been excavated dating to 750 BC in Opi (Augustin Holl 2009) and 2,000 BC in Lejja (Pamela Eze-Uzomaka 2009). In. Ironworkers became experts in rituals to encourage good production and to ward off bad spirits, including song and prayers, plus the giving of medicines and even sacrifices. Iron weapons also influenced warfare. is of grey iron and complies with the requirements for grade 150 cast iron of SANS 1034 or of Spheriodal graphite iron. Morocco and Zimbabwe also produce ore, but only for local use. of the Lake Victoria region. It left millions of people paralysed and forced them to use iron lungs to survive. Ehret, C. (2000) The establishment of iron-working in Eastern, Central and South Africa: linguistic Inferences on technological history. [42] All of the large-scale iron smelting recorded so far are in the Sahelian and Sudanic zones that stretch from Senegal in the west to Sudan in the east; there were no iron-smelting concentrations like these in central or southern Africa. Descoeudres, E. Huysecom, V. Serneels and J.-L. Zimmermann (editors) (2001). For example, an excavation at the royal tomb of King Rugira (Great Lakes, Eastern Africa) found two iron anvils placed at his head (Childs et al. Smelting of magnetite and magnetite-ilmenite ores in the northern Lowveld, South Africa, ca. Minerals: Diamonds, manganese, cement, iron ore, uranium, lead, zinc, marble, niobium, gold and potentially phosphate. Classement comparatif et tendances", in, Martinelli, B., 2004, "On the Threshold of Intensive Metallurgy – The choice of Slow Combustion in the Niger River Bend (Burkina Faso and Mali)". 293). Diop, C.A. The remaining 2% is used in various other applications, such as: powdered iron—for certain types of steels, magnets, auto parts and catalysts; radioactive iron (iron 59)—for medicine and as a tracer element in biochemical and metallurgical research; iron blue—in paints, … The first component is the development of the mine, which is expected to produce 100 million tonnes of iron ore per year. All Rights Reserved. Azania: Archaeological Research in Africa: Vol. It can also mean 'venerated house' due t… (2006) Linguistic evidence for the introduction of ironworking into Bantu-speaking Africa. Alpern, S. B. This was the natural-draft furnace, which is designed to reach the temperatures necessary to form and drain slag by using a chimney effect – hot air leaving the topic of the furnace draws in more air through openings at the base. By the sixth century BC Tamilakam produced steel by using crucibles and carbon sources like local plants. Archaeological evidence clearly indicates that starting in the first century BC, iron and cereal agriculture (millet and sorghum) spread together southward from southern Tanzania and northern Zambia, all the way to the eastern Cape region of present South Africa by the third of fourth century AD. The name Zimbabwe comes from the Shonapeople, who were descendants of the original Bantu inhabitants of the region. [citation needed]. An ancient city of palaces, iron production and pyramids along the east bank of the Nile, Meroë dates back to 800 BC. Shinnie, P.L. Killick, D.J. 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