Mines and smelting sites on a carbonatite complex rich in copper and iron, now destroyed by modern mining.
Radiocarbon dates place the earlier metal-working phase in the tenth to thirteenth centuries, when iron and copper were smelted in low-shaft furnaces and tin-bronze and brass appeared towards its end; communities making Kgopolwe pottery settled the area in the eleventh to thirteenth centuries to work its minerals.
Who holds it
- Title
- Not known
- Since
- Not pinned
- Confidence
- low
Lord in 1200
Not known: the local metal-working communities.
How things stand that morning
Worked by local communities on 1 January 1200.
Charter
None: a settlement under a chief, without written privileges.
Fairs and markets
No fixed markets are known; exchange at the chief's court and with visiting traders.
Trade and crafts
Copper and iron ingots and ornaments; salt nearby.
Where the sources disagree
Evidence: Archaeometallurgy and radiocarbon (Miller, Killick and van der Merwe 2001).
Sources and studies
- Miller, Killick and van der Merwe, Metal working in the northern Lowveld, South Africa, AD 1000-1890, Journal of Field Archaeology 28 (2001)
- Koedoe 66 (2024): article on the Iron Age sites of the Letaba in the Kruger National Park (Le6 and Le7), with a review of the Lowveld sequence
Last revised 4 November 2026. Published 4 November 2026. Suggest a correction on the OMNIA Discord.