Spatial patterning of Early Iron Age metal production at Ndondondwane, South Africa: the question of cultural continuity between the Early and Late Iron Ages

Abstract

The spatial relations of metal working areas and domestic areas in Early Iron Age sites are important because they have implications for models of continuity and change in the southern African Iron Age. Metal working remains recovered during the 1995–1997 field seasons at the Early Iron Age site of Ndondondwane (AD 650–750) offered an opportunity to quantify the distribution of metal working activities. Metal working residues were classified visually, the distribution of various classes of remains plotted, and selected samples analyzed metallographically to confirm the visual identifications. This study revealed the marked spatial and temporal distribution of ore preparation, primary iron smelting, and secondary forging activities on the site. In the earliest of three identified occupational horizons, relatively sparse metal working remains were associated with forging activities near hut floors in the centre of the site. In the intermediate occupational horizon, metal working on the site was confined to ore preparation and forging in the vicinity of the more peripheral domestic areas associated with middens. Any smelting must have been performed elsewhere. In the final occupational horizon, metal working was concentrated in the central area again, where the remains of a furnace and a dump containing about 500 kg of slag attest to primary iron smelting. The implications of this temporal and spatial distribution for models of site organization in the Early Iron Age are discussed, and are indicative of greater cultural continuity in metal production between the Early Iron Age and later periods in the region than hitherto believed.