Metals and Metallurgists in Sub-Saharan Africa: Three Case Studies

在美国国家科学基金会的支持下，大卫·基利克博士和他的同事将进行三个相关的人类学项目，这些项目将为撒哈拉以南非洲过去和现在的金属加工实践提供新的视角。将这三者联系起来的是对金属加工技术与利用这些信息来侧面说明社会组织的能力之间关系的考察。在第一项研究中，基利克博士将研究喀麦隆和尼日利亚曼达拉地区用于炼铁的技术。虽然史前许多撒哈拉以南的人民冶炼和加工铁来生产一系列的人工制品，但在极少数情况下这些做法一直持续到现代。在曼达拉地区，人类学家观察并录下了两个冶炼铁的例子，并收集了更多的信息。基利克医生会协调并综合收集到的数据。他还将对生产的炉渣和成品进行冶金分析。这项工作的一个主要目标是研究民族归属与冶金技术之间的关系，以及特定技术在多大程度上是由民族决定的。因为考古学家主要研究人类行为的物质副产品，并试图通过这些遗骸重建社会组织，基利克博士将提供的见解将是一个巨大的方法论兴趣。其次，基利克博士及其同事将分析在南非北部考古遗址收集的大量数据。其中包括2000年前的成品金属制品和炉渣。考古学家希望重建这种铁器时代社会的社会组织，这种社会组织产生了祖鲁帝国和其他民族志上已知的群体。由于该地区的地质情况众所周知，铁矿床的化学成分各不相同，因此有可能检查冶炼的结果和副产品，并将考古发现的物体与矿石来源相匹配。在此基础上，就有可能重建贸易网络，并深入了解大规模的社会和经济组织。研究小组将进行这样的分析，并重建史前南部非洲的金属加工技术。在该项目的第三部分，研究小组将检查从非洲东海岸考古环境中恢复的一系列材料。斯瓦希里文化在这一地区占主导地位，由非洲和伊斯兰元素混合而成，似乎几千年前近东的商人就定居在这一地区。人类学家对文化接触和互动的机制非常感兴趣，在斯瓦希里语的案例中，已经提出了几个模型。目前尚不清楚几千年来，相互作用发生了多大程度，以及“移民”是否在文化和物质上保持了独特性。基利克博士希望通过对金属物体的分析来深入了解这个问题。由于近东和东非的冶炼技术非常不同，应该有可能确定它们是混合在一起还是在东非海岸保持分离。这项研究之所以重要，有几个原因。这将有助于开发一种强有力的方法论工具，帮助科学家深入了解过去的社会行为。它将有助于回答一系列有趣的实际问题，并为许多考古学家提供感兴趣的数据。

With National Science Foundation support, Dr. David Killick and his colleagues will pursue three related anthropological projects which will shed new light on past and present metal working practices in sub Saharan Africa. What links the three is the examination of the relationship between metalworking technology and the ability to use such information to sidelight on social organization. In a first study Dr. Killick will examine the techniques used to work iron in the Mandara region of Cameroon and Nigeria. While prehistorically many sub-Saharan peoples smelted and worked iron to produce a range of artifacts, in very few instances have these practices continued into modern times. In the Mandara region anthropologists have observed and videotaped two instances of iron smelting and collected information about many more. Dr. Killick will coordinate and synthesize the data which has been collected. He will also conduct metallurgical analyses of the slags which were produced and the finished products. One major goal of the work is to examine the relationship between ethnic affiliation and metallurgical technology and the extent to which specific techniques are ethnically determined. Because archaeologists work primarily with the material byproducts of human behavior and attempt to reconstruct social organization through such remains, the insights which Dr. Killick will provide will be a great methodological interest. Secondly, Dr. Killick and colleagues will analyze a body of data collected at archaeological sites in northern South Africa. These include finished metal products and slags which date to the last 2,000 years. Archaeologists wish to reconstruct the social organization of such Iron Age societies which gave rise to the Zulu empire and other ethnographically known groups. Because the geology of the region is well known and iron ore deposits vary in chemical composition, it is possible to examine the results and byproducts of smelting and match archaeologically recovered objects with ore source. On this basis it is then possible to reconstruct trade networks and gain insight into large scale social and economic organization. The research team will undertake such an analysis and also reconstruct prehistoric southern African metal working techniques. In a third part of this project the research group will examine a series of materials recovered from archaeological contexts on the East Coast of Africa. Swahili culture which is dominant in this region consists of a mix of African and Islamic elements and it appears that several thousand years ago traders from the Near East settled in this region. Anthropologists are very interested in the mechanisms which underly culture contact and interaction and in the Swahili case several models have been proposed. It is unclear to what extent, over millennia, interaction has occurred and whether the `immigrants` remained culturally and materially distinct. Through the analysis of metal objects Dr. Killick hopes to gain insight into this question. Since the smelting technologies of the Near East and Eastern Africa are quite distinct, and it should be possible to determine whether they are blended or remain separate on the East African coast. This research is important for several reasons. It will help to develop a robust methodological tool which will help scientists to gain insight into past social behavior. It will help to answer a series of interesting areal questions and provide data of interest to many archaeologists.