Skip to content
Pitt Rivers Museum
AboutHire the MuseumNewsletterUniversity of Oxford

1930.44.506

Figurative copper alloy weight for weighing gold, representing a double sword.

1930.44.506

Digital asset copyright: Pitt Rivers Museum, University of Oxford

Terms and Conditions

If you wish to order a high-resolution image and/or licence its use for print or web publication, exhibition, film, promotional product or any other use, whether in the academic or commercial sector of any print run, then please visit photographic services.

Collection type
Object
Description
Figurative copper alloy weight for weighing gold, representing a double sword.
Long description
Copper alloy weight for weighing gold representing a double sword. Below the handle where the sword blades join is an animal head. [MJD 21/06/2011]
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: 1400-1720, uncertain
Date collected
By 1930
Acquisition information
Donated: 1930
Materials and processes
Material Copper Alloy Metal, Process Lost Wax Cast
Dimensions
Width: max 47 mm, Length: max 107 mm, Weight 43 g
Object numbers
Accession number: 1930.44.506
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, Weapon, Gold Weight, Sword