The Hammers of Mawu: Ironworking Traditions in the Togo Hills, Ghana

Pole, Len

doi:10.1007/s10437-010-9069-x

Cited by 7 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 6 publications

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“…These sites are contemporaneous with but not earlier than the Nok sites notwithstanding the radiocarbon date of 2000 BC iron smelting site of Lejja in Nsukka area Eze-Uzomaka (2009). Pole (2010) has however, expressed some reservations on the Lejja date. From the available evidence, it could be argued that the northern Igboland, Nsukka area, in particular, assumed one of the important centers of iron smelting technology in Nigeria.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This fact was achieved by possibly itinerant iron workers that moved from one location to another based on availability of the raw materials haematite ore and hard wood for charcoal making. For better understanding of the impact of early ironworking the issue of origin(s), according to Pole (2010) need to be de-emphasized because of its implicit racial and/or ethnic superiority. Instead, the socio-cultural, as well as economic contexts, should be explored.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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New Radiocarbon Dates From Archaeological Sites in Parts of Igboland, Southeastern Nigeria

et al. 2022

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This paper presents new results of radiocarbon (14C) ages from archaeological sites in northern Igboland. The study was designed to shed more light on early human occupation and activities in the study area based on sediments from cave and iron-smelting sites. The approach consisted of ethnographic, archaeological, palynological, and slag analyses; these were complemented with 14C dates. The technology adopted as well as the paleoenvironmental conditions that prevailed during the period of human settlement in both sites was revealed. These data, complemented by 14C dates, highlight the human behavioral and subsistence patterns within the region and are comparable to those from similar sites in southeastern Nigeria.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

New Radiocarbon Dates From Archaeological Sites in Parts of Igboland, Southeastern Nigeria

et al. 2022

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“…Junner (1936), for example, reports the use of cylindrical furnaces that were about 5 feet high with a diameter range of 10-12 inches for iron smelting in some parts of the Lawra-Tumu district in the Northern Territories of the Gold Coast. Experimental reconstructions of ironworking processes and studies of oral historical accounts undertaken by Pole (1974;2010) have provided information on sources of ore, variations in furnaces and their construction, the techniques of smelting, and the socio-cultural and symbolic circumstances that surrounded the processes of iron working between various Ghanaian communities north of the Adome area.…”

Section: A Brief Background To Ancient Ironworking In Ghanamentioning

confidence: 99%

“…It is our view that long-term studies on the ironworking remains at Adome will enable a comparative analysis to be conducted with found iron working remains from the Togo Hills (Pole, 2010).…”

Section: A Brief Background To Ancient Ironworking In Ghanamentioning

confidence: 99%

Alternative Site Conservation Strategies in Ghana: The Adome Ancient Ironworking Site

Gavua

Apoh

2011

Conservation and Management of Archaeological Sites

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“…Apart from the individual GTM languages being distinct from each other, they are as a group also distinct from these neighboring Gbe, Akanic and Guang languages. Furthermore, the GTM groups are known for the cultivation, storage, consumption and ritual use of rice (Teeken 2015), and for ironwork (Pole 2010). These are not practices indigenous to the neighboring Ewe or Akan groups.…”

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confidence: 99%

The Ghana-Togo Mountain languages: Introduction

Ameka

2017

STUF - Language Typology and Universals

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Background The present issue of Language Typology and Universals is devoted to studies of comparative, historical and descriptive typology of the Ghana-Togo Mountain (GTM) languages of West Africa. They are a group of fifteen languages spoken by groups or polities that inhabit the Akuapem-Togo-Atakora hills. The languages and peoples of these groups have continued to puzzle and fascinate researchers from myriad disciplinary perspectives. The hilly location as well as the geographical distribution of the groups cuts across low-level genetic affiliations. Their histories and the complexity of the origins of the different people intertwined with migration and settlement of segments of individual groups provide an interesting network of "allochthone" and "autochthone" dichotomies. This pattern has a significant socio-historical linguistic aspect: The majority incomers tended to acquire and adopt the language of the minority autochthones and appropriate hegemony over them. This seems to be what happened in the history of the Likpe, Nyagbo and Avatime, among others (Nugent 2005; Brydon 2008; Kropp Dakubu 2009). The Akuapem-Togo-Atakora hills begin in southeastern Ghana ranging in a southwest-northeast line across the Ghana-Togo border and continuing eastward across the Togo-Benin border into the Niger Delta. These hills are significant for several reasonsgeological, geographical, historical and ethnographic. They also seem to have served as a refuge zone for people fleeing wars and slave raids in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries (Nugent 2005). One of the languages, Basila (Anii), is the northernmost member of the group and is also an outlier spoken across the Togo-Benin border. The other languages spoken along and on both sides of the Ghana-Togo border are found clustered in three geographical groups in a north-to-south arrangement (see Map 1): Adele, Animere (North), Akebu, Ikposo, Lelemi, Igo (Ahlon), Tuwuli, Siwu (Lolobi-Akpafu), Sɛlɛɛ (Santrokofi), Sɛkpɛle (Likpe) (Central) and Ikpana (Logba), Siya(sɛ) (Avatime), Nyagbo (Tutrugbu) and Tafi (Tɪgbɔ) (Southern). Each cluster of languages is

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The Hammers of Mawu: Ironworking Traditions in the Togo Hills, Ghana

Cited by 7 publications

References 6 publications

New Radiocarbon Dates From Archaeological Sites in Parts of Igboland, Southeastern Nigeria

New Radiocarbon Dates From Archaeological Sites in Parts of Igboland, Southeastern Nigeria

Alternative Site Conservation Strategies in Ghana: The Adome Ancient Ironworking Site

The Ghana-Togo Mountain languages: Introduction

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