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Kisalian Graves
The Kisalian Graves are a series of burial sites located in the Northern part of the Upemba Depression, Democratic Republic of the Congo. They are a part of a larger collection of archaeological sites all dating back to the Iron Age of the region. Ceramic materials and radiocarbon dating of the graves allow archaeologists to form a chrono-cultural sequence, further dividing the region's Iron Age into distinct phases. The Kisalian Graves date from the Early Kisalian phase (700 - 900 CE) to the Classic Kisalian phase (900 - 1200 CE). Nearly 200 Kisalian graves have been found in the following five cemeteries: Sanga, Katongo, Kamilamba, Kikulu, and Malemba-Nkulu. The grave goods found in the burial sites strongly suggest long-distance trade, metallurgy, social hierarchy, and symbolism within the Kisalian phases. Many of the practices of the Luba people, who currently reside in the Upemba Depression, can be traced back to the Kisalian phases.Pierre de Maret (1979)Luba Roots: The First Co ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Upemba Depression
The Upemba Depression (or Kamalondo Depression) is a large marshy bowl area (Depression (geology), depression) in the Democratic Republic of the Congo comprising some fifty lakes, including 22 of relatively large size including Lake Upemba (530 km) and Lake Kisale (300 km). In an earlier era, the area was probably occupied by one large lake. The area is covered in marshland and is partially within the Upemba National Park in Haut-Lomami District. The Upemba Depression has been populated almost continuously since the 5th century AD, and is considered the origin of the Kingdom of Luba (1585-1889). Chronology based on more than 55 radiocarbon datings and thermoluminescence shows periods of occupation since the Stone Age. The area includes many archaeological sites, such as the Kisalian Graves, and is on the tentative list for UNESCO World Heritage Site. Roughly translated, the citation for its inclusion as World Heritage Site states:This large depression has delivered the la ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Iron Age
The Iron Age () is the final epoch of the three historical Metal Ages, after the Chalcolithic and Bronze Age. It has also been considered as the final age of the three-age division starting with prehistory (before recorded history) and progressing to protohistory (before written history). In this usage, it is preceded by the Stone Age (subdivided into the Paleolithic, Mesolithic and Neolithic) and Bronze Age. These concepts originated for describing Iron Age Europe and the ancient Near East. In the archaeology of the Americas, a five-period system is conventionally used instead; indigenous cultures there did not develop an iron economy in the pre-Columbian era, though some did work copper and bronze. Indigenous metalworking arrived in Australia with European contact. Although meteoric iron has been used for millennia in many regions, the beginning of the Iron Age is defined locally around the world by archaeological convention when the production of Smelting, smelted iron (espe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Metallurgy
Metallurgy is a domain of materials science and engineering that studies the physical and chemical behavior of metallic elements, their inter-metallic compounds, and their mixtures, which are known as alloys. Metallurgy encompasses both the science and the technology of metals, including the production of metals and the engineering of metal components used in products for both consumers and manufacturers. Metallurgy is distinct from the craft of metalworking. Metalworking relies on metallurgy in a similar manner to how medicine relies on medical science for technical advancement. A specialist practitioner of metallurgy is known as a metallurgist. The science of metallurgy is further subdivided into two broad categories: chemical metallurgy and physical metallurgy. Chemical metallurgy is chiefly concerned with the reduction and oxidation of metals, and the chemical performance of metals. Subjects of study in chemical metallurgy include mineral processing, the extraction ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Social Hierarchy
Social stratification refers to a society's categorization of its people into groups based on socioeconomic factors like wealth, income, race, education, ethnicity, gender, occupation, social status, or derived power (social and political). It is a hierarchy within groups that ascribe them to different levels of privileges. As such, stratification is the relative social position of persons within a social group, category, geographic region, or social unit. In modern Western societies, social stratification is defined in terms of three social classes: an upper class, a middle class, and a lower class; in turn, each class can be subdivided into an upper-stratum, a middle-stratum, and a lower stratum. Moreover, a social stratum can be formed upon the bases of kinship, clan, tribe, or caste, or all four. The categorization of people by social stratum occurs most clearly in complex state-based, polycentric, or feudal societies, the latter being based upon socio-economic re ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Luba People
The Luba people or Baluba are a Bantu ethno-linguistic group indigenous to the south-central region of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The majority of them live in this country, residing mainly in Katanga Province, Katanga, Kasai Province, Kasaï, Kasaï-Oriental, Kasaï-Central, Lomami Province, Lomami and Maniema. The Baluba consist of many sub-groups or clans. The Baluba developed a society and culture by about the 400s CE, later developing a well-organised community in the Upemba Depression known as the Baluba in Katanga confederation. Luba society consisted of miners, smiths, woodworkers, potters, crafters, and people of various other professions. Kingdoms of the Savanna: The Luba and Lunda Empires Alexander Ives Bortolot (2003), Department of Art History and Archaeology, Columbia Univ ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Copperbelt
The Copperbelt () is a natural region in Central Africa which sits on the border region between northern Zambia and the south eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. It is known for copper mining and is the second largest global reserve of copper, about the size of the Copper mining in Chile#Geology, Chilean reserve. Traditionally, the term ''Copperbelt'' includes the mining regions of Zambia's Copperbelt Province (notably the towns of Ndola, Kitwe, Chingola, Luanshya, and Mufulira in particular) and the Congo's Haut-Katanga Province, Haut-Katanga and Lualaba Province, Lualaba provinces (notably Lubumbashi, Kolwezi, and Likasi). It arises because of the Katanga Supergroup, a Neoproterozoic sequence of geological formations. In some contexts the term ''Copperbelt'' may exclude the Congo entirely. Zambia's Copperbelt became a province soon after independence in 1964, when it was named "Western province". President Kenneth Kaunda changed the name to its present-day "Copperbelt provin ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cowrie Shells
Cowrie or cowry () is the common name for a group of small to large sea snails in the family Cypraeidae. Cowrie shells have held cultural, economic, and ornamental significance in various cultures. The cowrie was the shell most widely used worldwide as shell money. It is most abundant in the Indian Ocean, and was collected in the Maldive Islands, in Sri Lanka, along the Indian Malabar coast, in Borneo and on other East Indian islands, in Maluku in the Pacific, and in various parts of the African coast from Ras Hafun, in Somalia, to Mozambique. Cowrie shell money was important in the trade networks of Africa, South Asia, and East Asia. In the United States and Mexico, cowrie species inhabit the waters off Central California to Baja California (the chestnut cowrie is the only cowrie species native to the eastern Pacific Ocean off the coast of the United States; further south, off the coast of Mexico, Central America and Peru, Little Deer Cowrie habitat can be found; and furt ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
