On Mon, 3 May 1999, CORRETTI ALESSANDRO wrote:
> As far as I know, iron ore usually doesn't travel so much: trade of
> iron generally takes place as iron-bar, or iron-ingots trade.
> Do You know of iron ore trade in ancient times? (of course I mean
> travelling of iron ore between different communities, on a regional
> scale, excluding very local transport among the territory of the same
> community).
Another region where iron ores were extensively transported before
smelting is the Transvaal Lowveld of South Africa (in the north east
corner of South Africa, along the border with Mozambique)during the late
Iron Age (ca. 1000-1880 AD). Because the iron ores of this region occur in
such distinct geological settings (banded iron formations, bands of
magnetite-ilmenite rock formed as by gravitational settling in an
ultrabasic magma, and two carbonatite complexes) it is relatively easy to
determine, from either slags or from the discarded ore on smelting sites,
from which orebody the ores came. As there were no pack animals or wheeled
vehicles in the area during the late Iorn Age, all ore must have been
transported by human carriers. We have been able to show that substantial
quantities of ore were transported in this manner over quite considerable
distances. In one case, about 220 tons or ore were transported 25 km;
smaller amounts were carried up to 60 km. See N.J van der Merwe and D. J.
Killick, "Square: an iron smelting site near Phalaborwa", South African
Archaological Society, Goodwin Series 3, 86-93, 1979. Duncan Miller and I
have done much more work on this area since that publication and are
curently writing a long article on it.
----------------------
David J Killick
Associate Professor, Department of Anthropology
University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85721-0030
Phone (520)621-8685; FAX 621-2088
[log in to unmask]
http://www.mse.arizona.edu/faculty/killick.html
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