Evidence for indigenous strip-drawing in production of wire at Mapungubwe Hill (1220-1290 AD): towards an interdisciplinary approach

Several cupreous conical tubes with unclear function are among some of the finds in the collections held at the University of Pretoria which were unearthed by archaeologists on Mapungubwe Hill. Most of these are poorly provenanced, particularly those connected with the activities of Guy Gardner (1935-1940) regarding the waste in northern dump. However, a redetermination of the context following the excavations of the 1970s suggests the funnels date to the period of the rise and development of Mapungubwe as a town and centre of a powerful state. The results from neutron tomography, stereomicroscope and SEM-EDS indicate that the tubes were most probably used in iron strip-drawing to produce wire.