The Tsodilo Jewellery: Metal Work from Northern Botswana by Duncan Miller

ISDN: 9780799215854

University of Cape Town Press, January 1998

124 pages, Paperback

This monograph documents the archaeological reconstruction of metal working techniques used over a thousand years ago in northwestern Botswana for manufacturing copper and iron jewellery and small tools. An understanding of the principles of metallography is assumed in the analytical descriptions presented in this book, but for the general reader there is a summary in Chapter 3 of the basic metallographic terminology and concepts used, as well as a glossary at the end. In this meticulous study, Duncan Miller has given us our first glimpse of Early Iron Age artisans practising their craft in Southern Africa. As we read through his analyses we follow the step-by-step manufacture of what must have been exquisite pieces of iron and copper jewellery. We are also able to follow the continuity in the structural design and fabrication technology of metal working that appears to characterize the subcontinent from the introduction of metallurgy right through to the nineteenth century. --- About the Author: Duncan Miller holds Ph.D.s in Engineering and in Archaeology. He is currently a Research Associate in the Department of Archaeology at the University of Cape Town. He specialises in the chemical and physical analysis of a wide range of archaeological materials, and for the past six years has concentrated on the history of pre-colonial mining and metallurgy in Southern Africa.