Browsing by Author "Bredwa-Mensah, Y."
Now showing 1 - 7 of 7
Results Per Page
Sort Options
Item An Archaeological Investigation Conducted at Okai Koi Hill (Ayawaso) and Its Significance for Iron Age archaeology in Ghana(University of Ghana, 1990-03) Bredwa-Mensah, Y.Archaeology in Ghana has a long and respectable tradition especially in relation to other areas in the West African sub-region. Despite this encouraging situation, significant gaps still exist in our understanding of the History of some early societies in Ghana. The need to apply an archaeological research strategy holistic in approach as a means of reconstructing a general and broad history of ancient Ghanaian societies, to fill in the gaps, cannot be over-emphasised. It is in this vein that this research on the Ga of the Greater Accra Region of Ghana was undertaken. The Ga,who occupy the western Accra Plains, founded early settlements some of which are in ruins, from the coast to a few kilometers inland. This research, focused on Ayawaso, the former capital of the Ga, which was referred to in early European written documents as Great AccraItem Chemical characterization of ancient pottery from the greater Accra region of Ghana using neutron activation analysis(Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research, Section B: Beam Interactions with Materials and Atoms, 2009-06) Tandoh, J.B.; Bredwa-Mensah, Y.; Dampare, S.B.; Akaho, E.H.L.; Nyarko, B.J.B.Archaeology in Ghana has a long and respectable tradition. Despite this encouraging situation, significant gaps still exist in our understanding of the history of some early societies in Ghana. Accumulated evidence revealed that the Ga (Ayawaso), Dangme-Shai and the Wullf had trade and other cultural contacts with their Akan and Guan neighbours as well as the various European factors that traded and established footholds in the Accra coast. In an attempt to reconstruct the early history of the Ga, Dangme-Shai and Wullf, the archaeological material remains recovered from these communities during excavation have been studied. In all, 15 trace elements were determined in 40 pottery shards using instrumental neutron activation analysis. The elemental concentrations were processed using multivariate statistical methods, such as cluster, factor and discriminant analyses. The results revealed patterns of trade between these communities and also classified the 40 samples into two major groups based on variations in elemental compositions. The groupings suggested a clear separation between the shards from Shai and Ayawaso. The shards from Wullf scattered amongst the two groups, consistent with the archaeological findings that the Wullf community never produced their own pots. © 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.Item Global encounters: Slavery and slave lifeways on nineteenth century Danish plantations on the Gold Coast, Ghana(Journal of African Archaeology, 2004-10) Bredwa-Mensah, Y.The global processes unleashed due to the European maritime exploration and commercial activities as from 1500 AD onwards affected indigenous peoples and cultures of the Atlantic world. In West Africa, the European presence precipitated the Atlantic slave trade, which involved the exportation of millions of Africans into slavery. In the nineteenth century a so-called legitimate trade in colonial agricultural commodities replaced the Atlantic slave trade. As a result, the Danes established agricultural plantations on the Gold Coast and exported tropical crops for processing and consumption in Denmark and the West Indies. Enslaved Africans were used by the Danes to cultivate the plantations in the foothills of the Akuapem Mountains and along the estuary of the Volta River. This paper combines information from written sources, ethnography, oral information and archaeology to investigate the living conditions of the enslaved workers on the plantations. The archaeological data was recovered from the Frederiksgave plantation at Sesemi near Abokobi in the Akuapem Mountains of southeastern Gold Coast (Ghana).Item Investigation of trace elements in ancient pottery from Jenini, Brong Ahafo region, Ghana by INAA and Compton suppression spectrometry(Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research, Section B: Beam Interactions with Materials and Atoms, 2007-10) Nyarko, B.J.B.; Bredwa-Mensah, Y.; Serfor-Armah, Y.; Dampare, S.B.; Akaho, E.H.K.; Osae, S.; Perbi, A.; Chatt, A.Concentrations of trace elements in ancient pottery excavated from Jenini in the Brong Ahafo region of Ghana were determined using instrumental neutron activation analysis (INAA) in conjunction with both conventional and Compton suppression counting. Jenini was a slave Camp of Samory Toure during the indigenous slavery and the Trans-Atlantic slave trade. Pottery fragments found during the excavation of the grave tombs of the slaves who died in the slave camps were analysed. In all, 26 trace elements were determined in 40 pottery fragments. These elemental concentrations were processed using multivariate statistical methods, cluster, factor and discriminant analyses in order to determine similarities and correlation between the various samples. The suitability of the two counting systems for determination of trace elements in pottery objects has been evaluated. © 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.Item Provenance of pottery determined by soil physico- Chemical and chemometric methods: A case study from Frederiksgave, Ghana(Geografisk Tidsskrift, 2009-01) Rasmussen, L.H.; Bredwa-Mensah, Y.; Borggaard, O.K.; Koch, C.B.; Breuning-Madsen, H.The suitability of using traditional soil chemical and mineralogical methods combined with chemometrics to trace provenance of archaeological samples was tested on potsherds from Frederiksgave, a former Danish plantation in southern Ghana, in use from 1830-1850. Soil and six potsherds from Frederiksgave, together with potsherds from two likely production sites at Ga and Dangme Shai, were investigated by visual inspection, total element analysis and X-ray diffraction and the results analyzed by principal component analysis (PCA) and cluster analysis. The investigation clearly showed that the Frederiksgave pots were not locally produced but came from other production sites indicating trading interaction between the plantation and surrounding settlements. One sample undoubtedly originated from Dangme Shai and another one must have been produced at a third (unknown) site. The provenance of the remaining samples is uncertain, but possibly three of them came from Ga and maybe one from Dangme Shai. Ill-defined compositional variation at Dangme Shai and Ga sites is thought to be the main reason for the observed difficulties in tracing the precise provenance of the Frederiksgave samples.Item A scientific evaluation of the agricultural experiments at Frederiksgave, the Royal Danish plantation on the Gold Coast, Ghana(Geografisk Tidsskrift, 2001-01) Awadzi, T.W.; Bredwa-Mensah, Y.; Breuning-Madsen, H.; Boateng, E.In the 1830s agricultural experiments were carried out at the Danish state plantation Frederiksgave at the Danish Gold Coast Establishments, in order to establish an economical sustainable plantation system which could produce export crops to among others the European market. Experiments were made with coffee, tobacco, sugar cane and some other crops and spices, but they failed. Based on climatic data from Frederiksgave for the year 1835 and from nearby climatic stations in the 20th century combined with soil data from the dominant soil types analysed in 1999, the natural reasons for the lack of success are discussed.Item The use of INAA technique in provenance studies of ancient pottery from the Greater Accra region of Ghana(Journal of Radioanalytical and Nuclear Chemistry, 2010-06) Tandoh, J.B.; Nyarko, B.J.B.; Dampare, S.B.; Bredwa-Mensah, Y.; Gyampo, O.; Ahiamadjie, H.The field of Archaeological in Ghana has been in existence for a very long time, gaining respect in some areas in the West African sub-region. The history of some early societies in Ghana with relation to pottery making and its uses still has a lot to be discovered. Provenance or source analyses are vital in exchange studies by finding the sources of artifacts. Through characterization studies, archaeological materials can be shown to have originated from particular areas enabling archaeologists to demonstrate human interaction. The Ga (Ayawaso) and the Dangme-Shai had cultural contacts and trade with neighboring towns and with the various European factors that traded in the coasts of Accra. The archaeological material remains recovered from these communities (Ayawaso, Wullf and Shai) during excavation were investigated using Scientific Nuclear Analytical technique. In all, the concentrations of 15 trace elements (i.e. Ce, Co, Cr, Eu, Fe, Hf, La, Lu, Mn, Rb, Sc, Ta, Tb, V, Yb) were determined in 40 pottery samples and clay samples from Afuamang (Ayawaso) and Doryumu (Shai) using instrumental neutron activation analysis (INAA). Raw clay samples from Doryumu and Afuamang normalized perfectly with pottery samples from the Shai and Ayawaso Township, respectively. Pottery samples from Wullf also normalized well with clay from Afuamang than it did with those from Doryumu. This is construed that the Wullf community did not produced their own pots but traded more with the potters from Ayawaso which was the closest potting town. © 2010 Akadémiai Kiadó.