Changes in Trade Networks of Geumgwan-Gaya Looked atThrough Iron ingots As Burial Goods During the 4th~6th Century

2020 ◽  
pp. 99-138
Author(s):  
Choon Sun Lee
Keyword(s):  
Iron Production ◽  
Southern Coast ◽  
Small Unit ◽  
Trade Networks ◽  
Trade Routes ◽  
Small Areas ◽  
Strong Trend ◽  
Iron Smelting ◽  
Production And Distribution ◽  
Political Structures

This study intended to look into changes in the trade networks of Geumgwan-Gaya by analysis of the iron ingots excavated as burial goods from the 4th ~ 6th century ancient tombs in the areas of Nakdonggang River the southeast coast, and identify the scope and aspects of the interactions in the Geumgwan-Gaya Federation through it. First, this study analyzed the iron ingots buried in the ancient tombs in the areas of the southern coast and the lower Nakdonggang River by the forms and organized the changes in the shape of the iron ingots divided into periods ofⅠ ~ Ⅸ stages through the relics excavated together. Next, this study organized the buried aspects of those iron ingots by the hierarchy through the size of the tombs, and the burial goods of ironware and earthenware. Taking over the form of the plate-shaped iron ax in the middle of the 3rd century, the iron ingots were buried like a rail in the tombs for the highest hierarchy starting from the end of the 3rd century in the areas of Daeseongdong, Gimhae and Bokcheon-dong, Busan, where were the center of Geumgwan- Gaya. Starting from the middle of the 4th century to the early of the 5th century it shows the strong trend in the shape of the iron ingots being standardized into the symmetrical arc from of 15~22cm(ⅢBc), which are buried in bundles concentratedly inside the middle of the tombs for the early and lower hierarchy, and the number of tombs with hierarchy is increasing even in the small and medium-sized ancient tombs as well. After the middle of the 5th century, the symmetrical ones in the 10~15cm with arc blade and narrow-width (ⅣBc) are increased, and the iron ingots are buried also in the tombs for the lower hierarchy out of the small and medium-sized tombs. Together with the iron ingots, it shows noticeable burial goods of iron smelting tools such as hammers, anvils and tongs, evidencing that the hierarchy of ironware making becomes diversified. This shows that the iron ingots, that had been buried as a wealth symbol in the large-sized tombs for the highest hierarchy since the end of the 3rd century and the beginning of the 4th century, were buried in the small and middle-sized tombs for the highest hierarchy who formed the craftman networks in iron production by small regional unit in the middle and latter half of the 4th century, and they took in charge of the production and distribution of the iron ingots for the highest hierarchy of the Daeseong-dong ancient tombs under the control of them. However, after the 5th century, it became possible of iron production function by towns & villages of political structures in small unit areas. Since then, Geumgwan-Gaya, which lost its foreign trade routes, was transformed into a form of trade & distribution between the political structures in the inland area of the Nakdonggang River and the ones in small areas through the southern coast. Thus, those political structures in the small unit areas of the lower Nakdonggang River and the southern coast continued to maintain as the regional political structures of Geumgwan-Gaya even after the southern conquest by Goguryeo Kingdom, while interacting on equally basis as the trade ports of the later Geumgwan-Gaya.

Of myths and metallurgy: Archaeological and ethnological approaches to upland iron production in 9th century CE northwest Laos

2015 ◽  
Vol 47 (1) ◽  
pp. 109-140
Author(s):  
Olivier Évrard ◽  
Thomas O. Pryce ◽  
Guido Sprenger ◽  
Chanthaphilith Chiemsisouraj
Keyword(s):  
Oral Tradition ◽  
Ninth Century ◽  
Iron Production ◽  
Ancient Population ◽  
Iron Smelting ◽  
Immigration And Emigration ◽  
First Millennium

Our recent discovery and excavation of a series of iron smelting furnaces, dated to the eighth and ninth century CE, near upland Rmet villages in northwest Laos, potentially sheds new light on the role of regional upland groups during the immediate pre-Tai period. The oral tradition associated with these furnaces emphasises the role of an ancient population of metallurgists who left the area under pressure from the Rmet. These stories could refer to the actual arrival and departure (immigration and emigration) of a population of metallurgists in that area sometime during the second half of the first millennium CE or they can support the scenario of a dissimilation process. The latter would explain the existence of a Rmet subculture that the locals regard as ‘Chueang Lavae’ villages, a differentiation that Karl G. Izikowitz had labelled ‘Upper Lamet’ in the 1930s. Our finds show that archaeology and ethnology can both contribute to a much-needed reformulation of upland Lao history.

THE MAIN ‘MIDDLE BYZANTINE PRODUCTION’ AND POTTERY MANUFACTURE IN THEBES AND CHALCIS

2014 ◽  
Vol 109 ◽  
pp. 379-422 ◽  
Author(s):  
S.Y. Waksman ◽  
N.D. Kontogiannis ◽  
S.S. Skartsis ◽  
G. Vaxevanis
Keyword(s):  
Thirteenth Century ◽  
Morphological Changes ◽  
Mediterranean Area ◽  
Pottery Production ◽  
Kiln Furniture ◽  
Trade Networks ◽  
Trade Routes ◽  
Two Cities ◽  
Concentric Circles ◽  
The Impact

The article relates the results of archaeometric and archaeological investigations of the relationships between some well-known types of Byzantine table wares and pottery manufacture in Thebes and Chalcis, focusing on the period from the twelfth to the fourteenth centuries ad.We currently accept that several twelfth–thirteenth century types, such as ‘Green and Brown Painted Ware’, ‘Fine Sgraffito Ware’ and ‘Aegean Ware’, form part of a single, main, long-lasting production of Byzantine ceramics, called here main ‘Middle Byzantine Production’ (MBP), which was distributed and diffused in the whole Mediterranean area, and especially in its eastern part. The discovery of kiln furniture and pottery wasters in rescue excavations in Thebes and Chalcis gave the opportunity to define chemical reference groups for the two cities, and to test the hypothesis of a potential origin of the MBP in Central Greece. The results point to Chalcis, then the harbour of wealthy Thebes with a strategic location on maritime trade routes, as the place of manufacture of the MBP. Chalcis, which is now seen as a main pottery production site, is envisaged within its historic context. The persistence of the MBP after the Frankish conquest, without noticeable morphological changes, questions the impact of this conquest on both trade networks and dining habits.The political fragmentation of the thirteenth century gradually changed the conditions that facilitated the predominance of the MBP, and led to the establishment of a number of regional workshops whose ceramics were mainly destined to cover local markets. While continuing earlier techniques, they introduced new types, prominent among which was the ‘Sgraffito with Concentric Circles’ (previously related to ‘Zeuxippus Ware’). Thebes was one of these new workshops probably appearing from the mid-thirteenth century and continuing at least to the early fourteenth century. Chalcis eventually followed the same course, and its production may have carried on well into the Ottoman period.

scholarly journals Did They or Didn't They Invent It? Iron in Sub-Saharan Africa

2005 ◽  
Vol 32 ◽  
pp. 41-94 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stanley B. Alpern
Keyword(s):  
Present State ◽  
Present Knowledge ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
Iron Production ◽  
African History ◽  
African Origin ◽  
The North ◽  
Iron Smelting ◽  
Iron Technology ◽  
Sub Saharan

Judging from a number of recent publications, the long-running debate over the origins of iron smelting in sub-Saharan Africa has been resolved… in favor of those advocating independent invention. For Gérard Quéchon, the French archeologist to whom we owe very early dates for iron metallurgy from the Termit Massif in Niger, “indisputably, in the present state of knowledge, the hypothesis of an autochthonous invention is convincing.” According to Eric Huysecom, a Belgian-born archeologist, “[o]ur present knowledge allows us … to envisage one or several independent centres of metal innovation in sub-Saharan Africa.”Hamady Bocoum, a Senegalese archeologist, asserts that “more and more numerous datings are pushing back the beginning of iron production in Africa to at least the middle of the second millennium BC, which would make it one of the world's oldest metallurgies.” He thinks that “in the present state of knowledge, the debate [over diffusion vs. independent invention] is closed for want of conclusive proof accrediting any of the proposed transmission channels [from the north].” The American archeologist Peter R. Schmidt tells us “the hypothesis for independent invention is currently the most viable among the multitude of diffusionist hypotheses.”Africanists other than archeologists are in agreement. For Basil Davidson, the foremost popularizer of African history, “African metallurgical skills [were] locally invented and locally developed.” The American linguist Christopher Ehret saysAfrica south of the Sahara, it now seems, was home to a separate and independent invention of iron metallurgy … To sum up the available evidence, iron technology across much of sub-Saharan Africa has an African origin dating to before 1000 BCE.

A Reconsideration of Wangara/Palolus, Island of Gold

1981 ◽  
Vol 22 (2) ◽  
pp. 145-158 ◽  
Author(s):  
Susan Keech McIntosh
Keyword(s):  
Niger Delta ◽  
Oral Traditions ◽  
Urban Centre ◽  
Long Distance ◽  
Trade Networks ◽  
Trade Routes ◽  
Niger Delta Region ◽  
Inland Niger Delta ◽  
Alternative Identification ◽  
Major Urban Centre

There is a general consensus among West African historians that the Island of Gold, known to Arab geographers as Wangara and to European cartographers as Palolus, refers to the Bambuk/Bure goldfields. This article examines the evidence for an alternative identification of the Island of Gold with the Inland Niger Delta, where the place name Wangara would be derived from Soninke long-distance traders (Wangara). Many of the details on the Island of Gold provided in the original sources can be shown to apply more convincingly to the Inland Niger Delta than to Bambuk/Bure. Until now, this hypothesis has not received serious consideration, partly because of the belief that the Inland Delta and its most important entrepot, Jenne, did not play a significant role in long-distance trade networks until the fourteenth century. This is contradicted by archaeological evidence for a major urban centre at Jenne-jeno by 900 a.d.The existence in the later first millennium a.d. of the Soninke town of Jenne-jeno, and the oral traditions which maintain that the western Inland Delta was the heartland of the Soninke trade diaspora, combine to indicate that commerce along the Middle Niger was substantial by the early second millennium. Indirect confirmation of this trading activity is found both in al-Bakri's discussion of riverine trade routes along the upper Niger Bend and in al-Idrisi's account of the Wangara along the Middle Niger. The continuing identification of the Inland Niger Delta region as the Island of Gold from the eleventh through the fourteenth centuries implies that part of this trade involved gold. A possible early gold source in Lobi is suggested.

scholarly journals The Makassar Malays: Adaptation and Identity, c. 1660-1790

2001 ◽  
Vol 32 (3) ◽  
pp. 397-421 ◽  
Author(s):  
Heather Sutherland
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Trade Networks ◽  
Trade Routes ◽  
Social Alliances ◽  
Ethnic Classification

Extensive trade networks and Islam shaped Malay identity. The Dutch conquest of Makassar (1666-69) compelled the Malays there to redefine themselves, mastering new trade routes, political arenas and social alliances. During the eighteenth century they both evaded and exploited ethnic classification, as their enforced focus on regional commerce and integration into port society encouraged localisation.

Decline or Survival? Iron Production in West Africa from the Seventeenth to the Twentieth Centuries

1982 ◽  
Vol 23 (4) ◽  
pp. 503-513 ◽  
Author(s):  
L. M. Pole
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Sixteenth Century ◽  
West Africa ◽  
Crucial Role ◽  
Iron Production ◽  
Production Constraints ◽  
Iron Smelting ◽  
Local Sources ◽  
Non Local

In the sixteenth century most iron used in west Africa was produced within the region. Extra demand may have been met from the newly established European factors on the coast. By the end of the nineteenth century, in contrast, it was the residue in demand that was satisfied from local sources, the main bulk of iron being imported via the coast and transported inland. For the larger part of this 400-year period imported iron was cheaper than locally-produced iron. What was remarkable, then, was not that iron smelting eventually died out, but that it survived for so long and could be studied in detail in the second half of the twentieth century.It is argued that, although the decline can be related to production constraints, such as the availability of charcoal, influences originating from the rest of the community can be seen to have prolonged the survival of local iron. The organization of labour of both the iron-smelting and blacksmithing processes, together with the way in which iron was marketed, are central to the analysis. In addition, consumption factors are of the utmost importance. Apart from the prejudice against innovation, the fact that imported iron was plainly not as suitable as local iron for the purposes to which it was put, weakened its impact. Also the ritual attitude to local iron has to be taken into consideration. The present universality of non-local sources has resulted in a change in the regard paid to the metal, but it is argued that the position of the smith is unlikely to alter significantly, since it is more related to his crucial role as supplier of tools for other essential activities such as farming, than to the production of iron itself.

scholarly journals Classification et chronologie de bas fourneaux de réduction du fer à usage unique au sud-ouest du Niger

2016 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 55-82 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rodrigue Guillon ◽  
Christophe Petit ◽  
Jean Louis Rajot ◽  
Amadou Abdourhamane Touré ◽  
Oumarou A. Idé ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Local Market ◽  
Iron Production ◽  
Radiocarbon Dates ◽  
Low Intensity ◽  
Iron Smelting ◽  
Smelting Activity

In southwestern Niger, near Niamey, several thousand singleuse bloomery furnaces have been mapped and identified. The archaeological study of approximately 30 furnaces and their slag reveals the existence of four methods for iron smelting: three types of pit furnace and one slag-tapping type. The slag pit furnaces are clearly differentiated by the form and volume of their pits. All slag-tapping furnaces drain off slag through small openings. The slag is tapped either vertically or laterally. According to radiocarbon dates, the smelting activity developed in the 2nd century AD and intensified through to the 14th century. It continued to evolve until the middle of the 20th century. The low intensity of iron production for these furnaces indicates the products were intended mainly for the local market.

scholarly journals INDUSTRIES OF ANGKOR PROJECT: PRELIMINARY INVESTIGATION OF IRON PRODUCTION AT BOENG KROAM, PREAH KHAN OF KOMPONG SVAY

2018 ◽  
Vol 42 ◽  
pp. 32 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mitch Hendrickson ◽  
T. O. Pryce ◽  
Till Sonnemann ◽  
Kaseka Phon ◽  
Quan Hua ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Preliminary Investigation ◽  
Iron Production ◽  
Multidisciplinary Research ◽  
Large Reservoir ◽  
Radiocarbon Dates ◽  
Iron Smelting ◽  
Iron Workers ◽  
Intensive Investigation ◽  
Ground Penetrating

<p>The Industries of Angkor Project (INDAP) is the first intensive investigation into the history and role of iron production at Preah Khan of Kompong Svay (Preah Khan), the largest regional enclosure complex built by the Angkorian Khmer (9<sup>th</sup> to 15<sup>th</sup> c. CE) in Cambodia. We present the initial multidisciplinary research of the primary iron smelting sites located on Boeng Kroam, a large reservoir located north of Preah Khan’s central temple complex. Ground-penetrating radar surveys and excavation at Location 1, a slag concentration on top of the reservoir bank, revealed that it is a deposit of metallurgical waste from a nearby furnace. Multiple radiocarbon dates from Location 1 indicate that the smelting activities took place in the early 15<sup>th</sup> century during the time of Angkor’s ultimate collapse as the political centre of the Khmer world. This indicates a re-use of spaces by iron workers after the primary occupation of Preah Khan between the 11<sup>th</sup> and 13<sup>th</sup> centuries.</p>

Obsidian source distribution and mercantile hierarchies in Postclassic Aztatlán, West Mexico

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Daniel E. Pierce
Keyword(s):  
Coastal Plain ◽  
Source Distribution ◽  
Costly Signaling ◽  
Least Cost Path ◽  
Sociopolitical Organization ◽  
University Of Missouri ◽  
Trade Networks ◽  
Trade Routes ◽  
Theoretical Perspectives ◽  
West Mexico

[ACCESS RESTRICTED TO THE UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI AT AUTHOR'S REQUEST.] In Precolumbian Mesoamerica, trade was central to social organization, the spread of ideas, and the widespread distribution of goods across the landscape. For the Aztatlán tradition of Postclassic (AD 900- 1350) West Mexico in particular, far-reaching trade networks were a defining characteristic. One important trade item spread throughout the region was obsidian. While West Mexico features a wide array of excellent quality obsidian sources, they were differentially used in particular ways. In this study, I have macroscopically and geochemically analyzed over 14,000 total obsidian artifacts from seven different Aztatlan sites: San Felipe Aztatán, Coamiles, Chacalilla, Amapa, Peñitas, Huistla, and Santiaguito. Through these analyses, I have identified differences in how various obsidian sources were utilized nonrandomly not only within sites, but also among them. Results indicate that while the source closest to the coastal plain was utilized for generalized reduction and expedient tool use, more distant and presumably more costly sources were likely imported as prepared cores and finished prismatic blades. These obsidian analyses are supplemented with a geospatial study in which I have proposed the most efficient trade routes from each site to the utilized obsidian sources using a GIS Least Cost Path. With this, I have also identified likely direct trade between the regional centers on the coastal plain and secondary sites in Western Jalisco As a result, I have argued that obsidian sources were utilized in a manner dictated by the ideological value of particular sources based largely upon exclusivity and cost. To explore this hypothesis, I have utilized tenets of Neo-Marxist archaeological theory and Costly Signaling theory. With these theoretical perspectives, I argue that the greater cost, in and of itself, would have incentivized individuals with more wealth and prestige to preferentially use more distant obsidians. This utilization may have served to bolster their elevated status within local communities through the demonstration of greater access to resources, allies, esoteric knowledge of foreign lands, and trade partners. In this way, obsidian provides a window into better understanding the sociopolitical organization of the Aztatlán tradition.

The Structure of Greater Ashanti (1700–1824)

1967 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 65-85 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kwame Arhin
Keyword(s):  
Political Community ◽  
The Political ◽  
Religious Institutions ◽  
Southern Coast ◽  
Political Structure ◽  
Trade Routes ◽  
The North ◽  
European Trade ◽  
Open Trade

Between the years 1700 and 1820 the Ashantis of central Ghana fought a number of wars in nearly all the territories now comprising modern Ghana. Most interpretations of these wars have linked them with the European trade posts on the southern coast and the Muslim trade settlements in the north. The Ashanti wars were therefore either raids or attempts to open trade-routes to the trade-posts. These interpretations have been possible because writers have ignored the Ashanti expansionary movement before 1700, and have also been unable to interpret correctly the political significance of the institutions by which the Ashanti attempted to extend their rule into some of the conquered territories, and to integrate them into what the Ashanti conceived as ‘Greater Ashanti’—a political community incorporating the conquered Akan states under the rule of the Golden Stool, the supreme stool of Ashanti.When, then, the pre-1700 Ashanti tradition and the introduction of Ashanti judicial, political and politico-religious institutions into some of the conquered territories are carefully considered, it becomes clear, in the writer's view, that the so-called Ashanti ‘empire’ should be divided into three categories of states: provinces, ‘protectorates’ and tributaries, on the basis of their political distance from Ashanti. The provinces—like the Ashantis mainly Akan-speaking peoples—were considered and treated as part of a Greater Ashanti ‘political structure’. The ‘protectorates’ were treated as allies or protected peoples according as economic or political circumstance dictated. The tributaries formed the economic and manpower base of the Ashanti expansion. But it must be noted that these relationships were fluid, and fluctuated with Ashanti military and political fortunes. Finally, the Ashanti political experiment was halted by the British and was therefore inconclusive. The student can, therefore, hardly reach rigid conclusions.Lastly it appears that, pre-literate in areas where the history student is faced with an absence of the historian's usual materials, the analysis of institutions is probably one of the most fruitful approaches.

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