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weights "silver" and bronze

comparison of a weight of a silver-colored metal with that of a brass weight.

 

800 or so years ago the Akan were producing these brass weights to weigh gold dust which was their currency, thus the name 'goldweights'.

They were produced by all the Akan people in both Ghana and Ivory Coast. These weights are unique to the Akan and found exclusively in the areas that they occupy.

 

So far the earliest archaeological evidence of goldweights comes from excavations conducted in the 1990's at Adansemanso in the Ashanti region dating from about 1200-1400. The find showed that the full technological complex associated with measuring gold dust was developed by that time.

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Uploaded on September 26, 2010
Taken on September 26, 2010