Abstract
Archaeology, archaeometallurgy and geoarchaeology are combined in this research to examine the chronology and development of iron metallurgy and its environmental repercussions in North Pare, Tanzania. Pare was a prominent centre for iron production from at least the second half of the first millennium AD, and it has been assumed that this technology—with its demand for wood charcoal—had a significant and detrimental effect on local forest cover. This research sought to examine this claim by exploring the spatial, chronological and technological characteristics of iron production in Pare in conjunction with geoarchaeological evidence. Contrary to older assumptions, our results demonstrate that erosion processes were well established in North Pare before the documented intensification of smelting and smithing activity, and that iron production continued despite environmental changes. We suggest that although iron production may well have contributed to deforestation and erosion in Pare, it is unlikely to be the sole causal factor.
Highlights
This paper presents the results of combined archaeological, archaeometallurgical and geoarchaeological research on the chronology and development of iron metallurgy and its possible environmental consequences in North Pare, northern Tanzania (Fig. 1)
There are no first-hand accounts of the working practices of Pare smelters that extend beyond technical descriptions, ritual behaviour associated with smelting activity has been well-documented elsewhere in the wider region (e.g., Brock 1965; Barndon 2004) and taboos associated with iron production have been noted in North Pare (Sheridan 2001, pp. 113, 125)
Whereas documentary accounts emphasise the importance of iron smelting in nineteenth-century Pare, thearchaeological evidence in Pare for iron working during the early centuries AD is only circumstantial
Summary
This paper presents the results of combined archaeological, archaeometallurgical and geoarchaeological research on the chronology and development of iron metallurgy and its possible environmental consequences in North Pare, northern Tanzania (Fig. 1). Iron slag and tuyères were found throughout excavations at a site near Usangi Hospital, dating to the second half of the first millennium AD, Fig. 3 Iron smithing items collected by Hans Fuchs in the early twentieth century in North Pare, held in the ethnographic collections of the Náprstek Museum, Prague. In 2010, an initial attempt was made to locate the furnaces associated with this smelting debris, first by investigating a neat pile of approximately 100 used and discarded tuyères (Fig. 8) The lowermost of these tuyères were partially buried by a layer of sandy clay loam containing frequent tuyère fragments and charcoal, a sample of which was dated to between the midfifteenth to mid-seventeenth centuries (Table 2).
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