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Creamer Medias Mining Weekly Scientists from the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) and the Mapungubwe museum, at the University of Pretoria, have opened a door to many of the questions surrounding the history of indigenous gold metallurgy in Southern Africa. With the latest research on the Mapun- gubwe artefacts, which were discovered in 1933, scientists have delved deeper into the metal' s properties, unlocking part of the history of gold. The artefacts were found in three of 27 graves excavated by the University of Pretoria on Mapungubwe Hill and comprise anklets, bracelets, beads, ornaments and wooden forms tacked with gold foil. The forms include a sceptre, a bowl, a headdress, the famous Mapungubwe gold rhinoceros and several other animal forms. The bowl, sceptre and the rhinoceros, in particular, have become iconic in South Africa' s indigenous cultural heritage. In 1997, they were declared national treasures and, in 2002, became official symbols of the highest order of excellence in South Africa, the Order of Mapungubwe. As gold cannot be dated directly using the radiocarbon dating technique, which is a radio- metric method that uses the naturally occurring radioisotope carbon-14 (C14) to determine the age of carbonaceous materials up to about 60 000 years old, scientists used the organic fibres entwined within the helix-shaped gold anklets to determine the date of manufacture of the artefacts. CSIR archaeologist Marc Pienaar explains that, together with his colleagues, Stephen Woodborne and University of Pretoria' s Mapun- gubwe museum curator Sian-Tiley Nel, the carbon dating study was carried out after receiving permission to destroy some of the fibres excavated at the Mapungubwe archeological site. This was perfect for radiocarbon dating, because the fibres inside the bracelet were carbon. We had to pretreat it, but, because the samples were too small for conventional carbon dating, we had to send them for accelerator mass spectrometry to separate the rare isotopes from an abundant neighbouring mass. Radiocarbon is an isotope of C14, which has two more neutrons than normal carbon. We have calibrated the amount of C14 in these fibres and compared them. Measuring the ratio between these two figures, we came to a conclusion. The carbon dating study on the Mapun- gubwe gold artefacts found them to be the oldest examples of gold craftsmanship yet to be discovered in Southern Africa. Their time of manufacture coincides precisely with the occupation of Mapungubwe Hill, confirming that this mighty Iron Age State had a mature indigenous gold-working tradition. It is estimated that the fibres were manufactured in the thirteenth century, the time during which Mapungubwe Hill was a flourishing centre of trade and industry. Mapungubwe is significant to South Africa because it is one of the first places that produced gold. What makes it more interesting is the way these gold artefacts were made, considering that the Mapungubwe residents did not have modern-day techno- logy. It is also evident that Mapungubwe is one of the first places where social complexity occurred. During the Mapungubwe age, a social restructuring took place. The people followed a central kraal pattern, but, with the discovery of gold, the royals distanced themselves from the rest of the colony, moving to the top of the hill. The gold artefacts are on permanent display at the Mapungubwe museum of the University of Pretoria. The findings were documented in a paper produced by Woodborne, Pienaar and Tiley-Nel and published in the Journal of African Archaeology. The results confirm many things about the Mapungubwe society, such as that they had a mature gold-working technology, Woodborne says of the findings. Whereas gold had previously been traded with the East Coast, it became symbolic of power, wealth and status at Mapungubwe Hill. Mapungubwe declined in about 1300 and was not inhabited again for another 700 years. This possibly protected the site, keeping it in the realm of legend, where it remained undisturbed until its rediscovery in 1933. Today, the University of Pretoria curates, promotes and conserves the valu- able archaeological collection for prosperity, Tiley-Nel concludes.
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