1930.44.162

Collection type

Object

Description

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

Long description

Copper alloy weight for weighing gold, rectangle with raised geometric design on top. An indent in the design is filled with lead. [MJD DDF Body Arts Project 2010/2011 30/03/2011]

Geographical reference

Ghana

Africa > Western Africa > Ghana

Ashanti

Cultural groups

Asante

Person

Field collector Robert Powley Wild

PRM source Robert Powley Wild

Date / Period

Date made: 1700-1900, uncertain

Date collected

By 1930

Acquisition information

Donated: 1930

Materials and processes

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

Dimensions

Length: max 15 mm, Width: max 12 mm, Weight 18 g

Object numbers

Accession number: 1930.44.162

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, Gold Weight