Geometric copper alloy weight for weighing gold, in form of triangular based stepped pyramid.

Collection type: Object
Description: Geometric copper alloy weight for weighing gold, in form of triangular based stepped pyramid.
Geographical reference: Ghana
Africa > Western Africa > Ghana; Coomassie
Cultural groups: Asante
Person: Field collector Robert Powley Wild; PRM source Robert Powley Wild
Date / Period: Date made: 1500-1720, uncertain
Date collected: 24 January 1927
Acquisition information: Donated: 1927
Materials and processes: Material Copper Alloy Metal, Process Lost Wax Cast
Dimensions: Height: max 13 mm, Width: max 26 mm, Length: max 34 mm, Weight 20 g
Object numbers: Accession number: 1927.30.40
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.

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