Archaeometallurgical Explorations of Bloomery Iron Smelting at Mutoti 2, an Early Iron Age Site in Venda, Northern South Africa

Abstract

When established, bloomery iron smelting profoundly transformed farming communities that settled in Africa south of the Sahara. Sustained research in the Lowveld region of northern South Africa identified multifarious evidence of metal working dating to the Early Iron Age (Common Era 200-900). Not surprisingly, the region is celebrated in oral traditions, myths, legends, and other reservoirs of local knowledge for its highly skilled metallurgists who reduced exceptionally rich magnetite (Fe3O4) and hematite (Fe2O3) ores at locales such as Tshimbupfe, Tshirululuni, Vuu, Thomo, and Thengwe. However, the technology of iron smelting and how the smelted iron (Fe) transformed producer and user communities in the region is a subject that, until recently, attracted limited archaeometallurgical work. We present the results of archaeometallurgical analyses of iron production remains from Mutoti 2 using complementary macroscopic (physical examination), microstructural (Optical Microscopy), and compositional techniques (WD-XRF). The results show that the technology of iron smelting fitted within the bloomery method. However, the quantities of iron production remains at the site suggest a scale and organization of production geared for needs beyond single villages. This embedded first-millennium CE iron production into the socio-economic, political, and environmental transformations that shaped the political economy of farming communities of the time.