1934.68.7

Collection type

Object

Description

Copper alloy weight for weighing gold, rectangle with raised geometric design and lead inset on top.

Long description

Copper alloy weight for weighing gold, rectangle with raised geometric design on top. The top of the rectangle has a piece of corroding lead. [MJD DDF Body Arts Project 2010/2011 25/03/2011]

Geographical reference

Ghana

Africa > Western Africa > Ghana

Cultural groups

Asante

Person

Field collector Unknown Collector

PRM source James Thomas Hooper

Date / Period

Date made: 1700-1900, uncertain

Date collected

By 1934

Acquisition information

Purchased: 1934

Materials and processes

Material Copper Alloy Metal, Material Lead Metal, Process Lost Wax Cast

Dimensions

Length: max 18 mm, Width: max 17 mm, Weight 36 g

Object numbers

Accession number: 1934.68.7

Research and responses

This weight was one of 97 studied by Ryan Brown, an MSc student at Cranfield University, between 2015-2016. Ryan used HH-XRF analysis to determine that the gold weights matched the composition of contemporary Portuguese brasses thus corroborating the literature that identifies Portugal as the source of Akan copper alloys. He also found that across the five centuries of gold weight production their composition did not greatly vary and it is therefore difficult to infer any datable information. The title of his Master’s thesis was “Non-Destructive Compositional Analysis of Akan Copper-Alloy Goldweights from Ghana, in the Pitt Rivers Museum, University of Oxford: Characterisation and Provenance” and a copy can be found in RDF under 1938.18.

Search terms: Measurement, Metallurgy, Gold Weight, Measuring Device