¹ Ajayi, J. F. Ade and Crowder, Michael (eds), History of West Africa, vol. 2 (London, 1974), 387.Google Scholar

² To my knowledge basins were never made in iron by West African smiths; presumably such imports might have affected other industries such as calabash carving or potting.

³ Williams, Denis, Icon and Image (London, 1974), 69, 72, 86.Google Scholar

⁴ Fernandes, Valentim, Description de la Côte d'Afrique de Ceuta au Sénégal (Paris, 1938), 134.Google Scholar

⁵ Pereira, Duarte Pacheco, Esmeraldo de Situ Orbis (London, 1937), 98.Google Scholar

⁶ Matthews, John, A Voyage to the River Sierra-Leone, on the Coast of Africa (London, 1788), 52.Google Scholar

⁷ Calvocoressi, D. and David, Nicholas, ‘A new survey of radiocarbon and thermoluminescence dates for West Africa’ J. Afr. Hist., xx (1979), 1–20CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Charles, J. A., ‘From copper to iron – the origin of metallic materials’, Journal of Metals, xxxi, vii (1979), 8–13.Google Scholar

⁸ This type is usually found with vertical walls, although it has also been reported as inclined. See, for example, Pole, Leonard, ‘Iron-working apparatus and techniques: Upper Region of Ghana’, W. Afr. J. Archaeology, v (1975), 11–39.Google Scholar

⁹ The most comprehensive bibliography remains Cline, Walter, Mining and Metallurgy in Negro Africa (Menasha, Wisconsin, 1937).Google Scholar

¹⁰ This type has been reported in both Nigeria and Togo where the furnace structure was built on a hill or crevice and tubes placed at the base were reportedly used as outlets for the flow of slag: Hupfeld, F., ‘Die Eisenindustrie in Togo’, Mitteilungen a. d. deutsche Schutzgebieten (1899), 175–94Google Scholar; Bellamy, C. B., ‘A West African smelting house’, Journal of the Iron and Steel Institute, lxvi (1904), 99–126.Google Scholar

¹¹ Schmidt, Peter and Avery, Donald H., ‘Complex iron smelting and prehistoric culture in Tanzania’, Science, cci (1978), 1085–9CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Schmidt, Peter and Avery, Donald H., ‘A metallurgical study of the iron bloomery, particularly as practised in Buhaya’ Journal of Metals (1979), 14–20.Google Scholar

¹² Hyde, Charles K., Technological Change and the British Iron Industry, 1700–1870 (Princeton, 1977), 146–7Google Scholar. On the basis of poorer production in summer months, a cool blast was even thought to be desirable.

¹³ Church, R. J. Harrison, West Africa: A Study of Environment and Man's Use of It (London, 1963), 143–4, 476.Google Scholar

¹⁴ J. Charles, D. Livingstone, L. Pole: personal communications. The charcoal also plays a crucial role in stabilizing the smelting temperature: Dechamps, Roger, ‘Le Zizyphus, combustible des premiers foyers de fonte du fer du Rwanda’, Africa-Tervuren, xxiv, iv (1978), 1–4.Google Scholar

¹⁵ Jobson, Richard, The Golden Trade or a Discovery of the River Gambra, and the Golden Trade of the Aethiopians (London, 1623), 164.Google Scholar

¹⁶ See, for example, Dechamps, , ‘Le Zizyphus’; Irvine, F. R., Woody Plants of Ghana (London, 1961)Google Scholar; Goucher, Candice L., ‘Notes on Iron-working in the Begho Area’, unpublished field notes, University of GhanaGoogle Scholar, Legon and UCLA; Dennis H. Wood et al., ‘The socio-economic and environmental context of fuelwood use in rural communities of developing countries: issues and guidelines for community fuelwood programs’ Paper submitted to the U.S. Agency for International Development, Bureau for Program and Policy Coordination, 1979.

¹⁷ Cornus is the botanical genus. Cornel-wood, the wood of Cornus mascula, was celebrated for its hardness and toughness.

¹⁸ San Marino, California, Huntington Library, James Brydges: ‘A collection of remarkable papers’ (England, c. 1735)Google Scholar, ST. 28. This transcription appears in several subsequent printed sources: Gamble, David, Bibliography of The Gambia (Boston, 1979)Google Scholar, item 461.

¹⁹ Goucher, ‘Notes’. I am grateful to Professor Merrick Posnansky, UCLA, and the National Geographic Society for the opportunity to participate in the 1979 season of excavations at Begho. The experimental production of charcoal would not have been possible without the advice and participation of Mr Amponsah, Hani. All botanical identifications were generously provided by Professor John Hall, University of Ghana, Legon.

²⁰ Richards, Paul W., ‘The tropical rain forest’, Scientific American, ccxxix, vi (1973), 58–67, p. 65.Google Scholar

²¹ Posnansky, Merrick, ‘Hani and Debibi’, Nyame Akuma, vii (1975), 16–23Google Scholar; Goucher, , ‘Notes’, 13–23.Google Scholar

²² Pole, ‘Iron-working’.

²³ Gimpel, Jean, The Medieval Machine (New York, 1976).Google Scholar

²⁴ Mihalyi, Louis James, ‘Charcoal from the Zambian forests’, Geographical Magazine, xlv, iii (1972), 212–18.Google Scholar

²⁵ Hopkins, Brian, Forest and Savanna (Ibadan, 1974), 81, 105.Google Scholar

²⁶ This may also explain why archaeological sites reflecting transitions from Early Iron Age to Late Iron Age are relatively few. The ecology of an area probably could not sustain a sequence of prolonged Iron Age exploitation.

²⁷ Nicholson, Sharon E., ‘The methodology of historical climate reconstruction and its application to Africa’, J. Afr. Hist., xx, i (1979), 31–49, p. 47.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

²⁸ Ibid. 28.

²⁹ M. Talbot, personal communication.

³⁰ See Cline, Mining, for widespread distributions in West Africa.

³¹ Hopkins, , Forest, 79Google Scholar; Ahn, Peter M., West African Soils (Oxford, 1970), 114–17.1Google Scholar

³² Church, , West Africa, 66.Google Scholar

³³ Wood, et al. , ‘The socio-economic’, 78.Google Scholar

³⁴ Iron technology is particularly effective for clearing grasslands. The prevention of secondary forest regeneration would aid the spread of wild grasses and create the need for intensification of agricultural practices (burning, shortened fallow, further dependence on iron technology, etc.). See Boserup, E., The conditions of agricultural growth (Chicago, 1965)Google Scholar, for one model of this interaction.

³⁵ Woods known as such were provided by Oldfieldia africana, among other species: Dorward, D. C. and Payne, A. I., ‘Deforestation, the decline of the horse, and the spread of the tsetse fly and Trypanosomiasis (Nagano ) in nineteenth-century Sierra Leone’, J. Afr. Hist., xvi, ii (1975), 239–56, p. 247.CrossRefGoogle Scholar As timber, such hardwoods found large markets in the greatly deforested Europe; camwood was used in producing dye. Other minor local industries such as keg-making (for the storage of gunpowder) would have added to the demand for hardwood species: Rodney, W., A History of the Upper Guinea Coast: 1545–1800 (Oxford, 1970).Google Scholar

³⁶ Dorward, and Payne, , ‘Deforestation’, 247Google Scholar; Rodney, , History, 158.Google Scholar

³⁷ Matthews, , A Voyage, 39.Google Scholar

³⁸ Dorward, and Payne, , ‘Deforestation’, 248.Google Scholar

³⁹ It was decreed 20 July 1900: ‘Nul ne peut entre prendre une exploitation forestiere dans les bois du domaine s'il n'est muni d'une autorisation de Gouverneur ou de son délégué‘: Meniaud, Jacques, Haut-Sénégal-Niger (Soudan Français) v. 2: Géographie Economique (Paris, 1912), 300–2.Google Scholar

⁴⁰ Duncan, John, Travels in Western Africa, in 1845–1846 (London, 1847), 2, 132.Google Scholar

⁴¹ Crone, G. R., editor, The voyages of Cadamosto and other documents on Western Africa in the second half of the fifteenth century (London, 1937), 33.Google Scholar

⁴² Hair, P. E. H., ‘Some minor sources for Guinea, 1519–1559: Enciso and Alfonce/Fonteneau’, History in Africa, iii (1976), 19–45: p. 34.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

⁴³ Pereira, Pacheco, Esmeraldo, 128.Google Scholar

⁴⁴ Hair, , ‘Some minor sources’, 29.Google Scholar

⁴⁵ Jobson, , The Golden Trade, 119.Google Scholar

⁴⁶ Rodney, , A History, 186.Google Scholar This phenomenon may reflect the impact of climatic differences between coastal and savanna regions: Nicholson, ‘The methodology’, 47.

⁴⁷ Quoted in Rodney, , A History, 194.Google Scholar

⁴⁸ Duncan, , Travels, 133.Google Scholar

⁴⁹ Rodney, , A History, 194Google Scholar; Rodney's conversion of this unit obtains the value 13 ft 6 in., but this cannot have been based on the Portuguese palmo reckoned at 0 22 m.

⁵⁰ Labat, J. B., Nouvelle relation de l' Afrique occidentale (Paris, 1728), 7.Google Scholar

⁵¹ Knauth, Percy et al. , The Metalsmiths (New York, 1974), 94.Google Scholar

⁵² Togo has been particularly well documented by German observers in the late nineteenth century.

⁵³ Wild, R. P., ‘Iron disc currency from Ashanti’, Man, xxxvi, art. 99 (1936), 78–9.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

⁵⁴ Dapper, Olfert, Naukeurigebeschrijvingeder Afrikaenschegewesten (AmsteTdam, 1676), 419.Google Scholar

⁵⁵ Broecke, Pieter van den, Reizen naar West-Afrika, 1605–1611 (The Hague, 1950)Google Scholar; Ryder, A. F. C., Benin and the Europeans (New York, 1969).Google Scholar

⁵⁶ Op. cit. 210, 335.

⁵⁷ Jobson, , The Golden Trade, 165.Google Scholar

⁵⁸ Davies, K. G., The Royal African Company (London, 1957), 178–9Google Scholar, quotes a request at Cape Coast for both smiths and bellows, including the hides to mend them. This description of bellows could fit the African types of the region. Bellows for goldsmithing were frequently imported from Europe.

⁵⁹ Gemery, H. A. and Hogendorn, J. S., ‘Technological change, slavery, and the slave trade’, in Dewey, C. and Hopkins, A. G., eds, The Imperial Impact: Studies in the Economic History of Africa and India (London, 1978).Google Scholar

⁶⁰ Hyde, , Technological Change, 7.Google Scholar

⁶¹ Preheating of the airblast has also been reported from other parts of Africa. Schmidt and Avery, ‘Complex Iron-smelting’, have discussed at length the significance of this technological innovation for East Africa.

⁶² Todd, Judith, ‘Studies of primitive iron technology’, Ph.D. dissertation (University of Cambridge, 1976).Google Scholar

⁶³ M. Posnansky, personal communication.

⁶⁴ Park, Mungo, Travels in the Interior Districts of Africa (London, 1799), 284.Google Scholar

⁶⁵ Ibid. 348–9, 26.

⁶⁶ Research conducted in Brawhani near Dapaa indicated a specialized vocabulary for techniques such as quenching, with linguistic borrowings for the non-traditional tools and processes.

⁶⁷ A temperature differential of at least 250 °C is involved: Van der Merwe, Nicholas, The Carbon-14 Dating of Iron (Chicago, 1969), 22–4.Google Scholar

⁶⁸ Maddin, James et al. , ‘How the Iron Age began’, Scientific American, ccxxxvii, iv (1977), 122–31.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

⁶⁹ Matthews, , A Voyage, 52.Google Scholar

⁷⁰ Van Dantzig, Albert, The Dutch and the Guinea Coast 1674–1742: A collection of documents from the General State Archive at the Hague (Accra, 1978), 141.Google Scholar

⁷¹ Hyde, , Technological Change, 9.Google Scholar

⁷² van Dantzig, , The Dutch, 208.Google Scholar

⁷³ Rodney, , A History, 184.Google Scholar

⁷⁴ One measure of the centrality and uniformity of the iron bar in the coastal transactions is the adoption of the ‘bar’ as the currency of account (although the exchange rates between the bars and European currencies were different for each commodity): Curtin, Philip, ‘Pre-colonial trading networks and traders: the Diakhanke’, in Meillassoux, Claude (ed.), The development of indigenous trade and markets in West Africa (London, 1970. 236.Google Scholar

⁷⁵ Newbury, Colin W., ‘Credit in early nineteenth-century West African trade’, J. Afr. Hist., xiii, i (1972), 83–4.Google Scholar

⁷⁶ Curtin, P., Economic change in precolonial Africa: Supplementary evidence (Madison, 1975), 92.Google Scholar

⁷⁷ Scrivenor, Harry, History of the Iron Trade (London, 1854), 200.Google Scholar

⁷⁸ Penfold, D. A., ‘Excavation of an iron-smelting site at Cape Coast’, Trans. Hist. Soc. Ghana, xii (1972), 1–15.Google Scholar

⁷⁹ Nicholson, ‘The methodology’.

⁸⁰ Rappaport, Roy A., ‘The flow of energy in an agricultural society’, Scientific American, ccxxv, iii (1971), 116–32.CrossRefGoogle Scholar