Explaining the evolution of ironmaking recipes – An example from northwest Wales

Charlton, Michael; Crew, Peter; Rehren, Thilo; Shennan, Stephen

doi:10.1016/j.jaa.2010.05.001

Cited by 95 publications

(104 citation statements)

References 37 publications

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“…Crew and Charlton 2007;Charlton et al 2010). Due to the chemical similarities manganese bears with iron, which it neighbours in the periodic (Tylecote 1962: 191;Rostoker and Bronson 1990: 19;Charlton et al 2010). This effect was observed in the manganese-rich slag samples from Mwenge, the olivines of which contained levels of manganese oxide between 15 and 30wt%.…”

Section: Manganese and Iron: Technical Impactsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The exploitation of manganese-rich ‘ore’ to smelt iron in Mwenge, western Uganda, from the mid second millennium AD

Iles

2014

Journal of Archaeological Science

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Section: Manganese and Iron: Technical Impactsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Manganese and Iron: Technical Impactsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The exploitation of manganese-rich ‘ore’ to smelt iron in Mwenge, western Uganda, from the mid second millennium AD

Iles

2014

Journal of Archaeological Science

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“…Cyril Stanley Smith observed that as products of high temperature processes, both metallurgical remains, retain partial histories of the processes which they have undergone (Bachmann, 1982). This observation enchanted archaeometallurgists because it allowed them to read not just the technological particularities, such as temperatures operating in the furnaces and smelting recipes (Charlton et al 2010), but also the skills of the smelters and their ability to influence and modify the technical sequences (Morton and Wingrove, 1972;Rehren et al 2007). This information is central to defining a group's technological practice and inter-site or regional comparison of technological practices can shed light on technological cross borrowing, human interaction and group identity (Gordon and Killick, 1993).…”

Section: 2: Materials Culture and Group Identitymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In the present study, the positive identification of metals worked and their associated techniques was important because, as discussed in Chapter 1, this thesis sought to identify all the metals worked pre-colonially and to expose their technology. Additionally, reconstructing metallurgical techniques would also enhance our knowledge of issues such as technological cross borrowing, metal specialisation, interaction and trade Charlton et al 2010). Over and above the practical metallurgical concerns, such as the types of ores worked, metal production was also affected by cultural choices and the broader socio-political economy (Childs and Killick, 1993;Childs, 2000;de Barros, 2000;Haaland, 2004;Barndon, 2004).…”

Section: 1: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Archaeology and Technology of Metal Production in the Late Iron Age of the Southern Waterberg, Limpopo Province, South Africa

Bandama

2014

Azania: Archaeological Research in Africa

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The inception of metallurgy in southern Africa was relatively late, compared to other regions in Africa, and as a result, this part of the sub-continent was mistakenly thought to have been less innovative during the Iron Age. On the contrary, dedicated materials analyses are showing that starting from the terminal first millennium AD, southern Africa is replete with innovations that include the growth of state systems, specialised long-distance trading, the re-melting of glass beads, the working of ivory, and the weaving of cotton using ceramic spindle whorls.Additionally, the appearance of gold and tin production, against a background of on-going iron and copper metallurgy, has been interpreted by some as intimating innovation in metal technology. While some research energy has been invested into these novelties, there has only been incidental concern with the innovation in tin and bronze production. This study investigates the context of this novelty in the metallurgy of the Southern Waterberg, an area that hosts one of the unequivocal cases of pre-colonial tin mining in southern Africa. Recent trace element studies have indicated that bronzes from several elite sites in the region, were produced using tin that was sourced from the Southern Waterberg. The current chronology from the Southern Waterberg does not capture the full tin sequence that is implicated by the trace-element analyses of tin and bronze from dated contexts elsewhere and falls short by at two centuries. To bridge this gap, the present study sought, to explore the visibility of tin production in the Southern Waterberg at sites that are contemporary with the appearance of tin and bronze in southern Africa, and to investigate how this innovation was integrated into on-going iron and copper production.Rigorous methodological and theoretical approaches that include ethno-historical, archaeological and archaeometallurgical studies were employed in order to glean relevant information required to address these issues.

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“…In cases where we know a lot more about these goals and constraints, hypotheses can be more closely framed and at least in principle more readily tested. Recently, Charlton and colleagues [30,31] have taken an evolutionary approach to understanding ironsmelting technology in a case study from northwest Wales. Here, there can be no doubt about the goal (at least in general terms) and the conditions required to successfully smelt iron are well understood, arising as they do from universal properties of the materials involved.…”

Section: The Evolution Of Complex Technologiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Descent with modification and the archaeological record

Shennan¹

2011

Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B

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Recent years have seen major advances in our understanding of the way in which cultural transmission takes place and the factors that affect it. The theoretical foundations of those advances have been built by postulating the existence of a variety of different processes and deriving their consequences mathematically or by simulation. The operation of these processes in the real world can be studied through experiment and naturalistic observation. In contrast, archaeologists have an 'inverse problem'. For them the object of study is the residues of different behaviours represented by the archaeological record and the problem is to infer the microscale processes that produced them, a vital task for cultural evolution since this is the only direct record of past cultural patterns. The situation is analogous to that faced by population geneticists scanning large number of genes and looking for evidence of selection as opposed to drift, but more complicated for many reasons, not least the enormous variety of different forces that affect cultural transmission. This paper reviews the progress that has been made in inferring processes from patterns and the role of demography in those processes, together with the problems that have arisen.

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Explaining the evolution of ironmaking recipes – An example from northwest Wales

Cited by 95 publications

References 37 publications

The exploitation of manganese-rich ‘ore’ to smelt iron in Mwenge, western Uganda, from the mid second millennium AD

The exploitation of manganese-rich ‘ore’ to smelt iron in Mwenge, western Uganda, from the mid second millennium AD

The Archaeology and Technology of Metal Production in the Late Iron Age of the Southern Waterberg, Limpopo Province, South Africa

Descent with modification and the archaeological record

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