Dating the Mapungubwe Hill Gold

Stephan M Woodborne · Marc Pienaar · Sian Tiley-Nel

13 citations0/0 files storedJournal of African Archaeology

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Metallurgy and Cultural Artifacts Archaeology and ancient environmental studies Archaeology and Rock Art Studies

Abstract

This paper presents direct dating evidence for the manufacture of some of the gold artefacts from the Iron Age archaeological site of Mapungubwe Hill (South Africa). The results confirm that the artefacts are contemporaneous with the occupation of the site and are the product of a mature indigenous metalworking tradition. The Mapungubwe Hill gold artefacts were manufactured at a time when a substantial reorganisation of society led to the separation of royals and commoners and a change in the role of cattle as a form of wealth. These changes are clearly manifest in the use of gold. Whereas gold had previously been traded with the East coast, it became symbolic of power, wealth and status at Mapungubwe Hill.

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References

2000Mapungubwe and the Origins of the Zimbabwe Culture 1986Archaeological evidence and conventional explanations of southern Bantu settlement patterns 2000Metals, Ideology and Power: The Manufacture and Control of Materialised Ideology in the Area of the Limpopo-Shashe Confluence, c.AD 900 to 1300 1984Gold in the Southern African iron age 2003Shona ethnography and Iron Age burials

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2011A Raman spectroscopic study of glass trade beads excavated at Mapungubwe hill and K2, two archaeological sites in southern Africa, raises questions about the last occupation date of the hill 2014The cultural and symbolic significance of the African rhinoceros: a review of the traditional beliefs, perceptions and practices of agropastoralist societies in southern Africa 2012Mapungubwe: Interpretation of the Gold Content of the Original Gold Burial M1, A620 2018Past Imperfect : the contested early history of the Mapungubwe Archive 2023Human Responses to Climate Change in the Second Millennium AD 2026Isotopic and chemical evidence for long-distance trade of copper and tin into east-central Botswana, c. cal. AD 800–1650

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