The Mankhamba excavations yielded the largest assemblage of iron and copper objects ever recovered at an Iron Age archaeological site in Malawi. A silver object and a lead object were also found. The discovery of the non-iron objects was significant, as these metals do not occur in Malawi in commercially exploitable quantities. Their presence at Mankhamba is more evidence that the Maravi were involved in longdistance trade. They obtained copper from the copper belt, an area that includes the Copper Belt Province of Zambia and the Katanga Province of the DRC. The source of the silver and lead objects is currently not known.

The excavation also yielded beads, which included glass, shell and rock crystal beads. Foreign traders began to bring glass beads to eastern and southern Africa before the end of the first millennium, whereas shell beads were made locally. Archaeological research has demonstrated that the shell beads are more common at Late Stone Age rock-shelter sites than at open Iron Age sites. Dry conditions in rock shelters favour their preservation. Rock crystal beads are rare at both types of sites, but it is possible that they too were made locally.

Iron objects

The site yielded more unidentifiable corroded iron objects than identifiable ones. The number of iron implements shown in Table 9.1 is therefore an underrepresentation of what was really available. The excavation also yielded tuyere pipes and iron slag, a byproduct of iron smelting which came out of the furnace partially vitrified. The combined presence of tuyere pipes and iron slag at an Iron Age site is sufficient evidence that iron smelting happened at or close to the site.

Tangs

Commonly known as a shank, a tang is not an implement on its own but is part of a spear or a hoe hafted to or attached to a handle. Tangs are thicker than blades, and so in the archaeological record they do not rust or corrode as quickly, hence their abundance in the excavation. At Mankhamba, they comprised 70 per cent of the iron objects and since they are not implements, they should not have been listed in Table 9.1. However, because each tang represents an implement, it was necessary to list them in order to demonstrate that a large number of implements would have been identified had there not been so much corrosion.