Abstract
TWO papers dealing with the primitive working of copper in South Africa, which were presented to Section H at the South Africa meeting of the British Association, are printed in full in vol. 26 of the South African Journal of Science. The late Dr. P. A. Wagner and Mr. Hugh S. Gordon deal with material obtained from ancient smelters on the farm Blauwbank, No. 435, in the Waterberg district of the Transvaal, from which it was deduced that the ancient metallurgists had deliberately set out to make bronze. Further, as the original ingot found on the site some years ago and the prills of bronze here dealt with contain nickel and arsenic in notable amounts, it has been suggested that investigation might throw light on the date of these workings in view of the fact that ancient bronze from Egypt and Mesopotamia contains nickel, and yet no very ancient site is known which could have produced the ore required to make a nickeliferous bronze.
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Early Copper and Bronze in South Africa. Nature 125, 799 (1930). https://doi.org/10.1038/125799a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/125799a0