The Ancient Ferrous Metallurgy Sites of Burkina Faso () are a collection of ancient metallurgy sites across five locations in the Nord and Centre-Nord regions of

Burkina Faso Burkina Faso (, ; , ff, 𞤄𞤵𞤪𞤳𞤭𞤲𞤢 𞤊𞤢𞤧𞤮, italic=no) is a landlocked country in West Africa with an area of , bordered by Mali to the northwest, Niger to the northeast, Benin to the southeast, Togo and Ghana to ...

, used to extract iron from

ore Ore is natural rock or sediment that contains one or more valuable minerals, typically containing metals, that can be mined, treated and sold at a profit.Encyclopædia Britannica. "Ore". Encyclopædia Britannica Online. Retrieved 7 Apr ...

. The oldest of these structures are dated from roughly 800 BC, making them the most ancient known examples of metallurgy in Burkina Faso. In 2019, the sites were registered as a

World Heritage Site A World Heritage Site is a landmark or area with legal protection by an international convention administered by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). World Heritage Sites are designated by UNESCO for h ...

UNESCO The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) aimed at promoting world peace and security through international cooperation in education, arts, sciences and culture. It ...

, because of the exemplary evidence of ancient metalworking.

Description

The five metalworking complexes that make up the World Heritage Site are located around the towns of

Douroula Douroula is a town in Burkina Faso. It is the county seat of Douroula Department in the province Mouhoun. Near the town are ruins of a smelting furnace and evidence of ferrous metallurgy dating back to the 8th century BC. This is the oldest c ...

, Tiwêga, Yamané, Kindibo, and Békuy. All together, there are 15 natural draft furnace ruins across the five sites, with smaller furnaces, mines and dwellings surrounding them. The natural draft furnaces reach up to five meters in height and are direct-induction, only requiring ambient airflow to operate. The other, smaller furnaces would have required the use of bellows to operate. Whereas the large, natural-draught furnaces are only found in those regions of Burkina Faso, the smaller furnaces are found throughout the country. The Tiwêga site, located 5 kilometers to the west of

Kaya Kaya may refer to: People *Kaya (given name) *Kaya (surname) Places *Kaya, Burkina Faso, a town in Burkina Faso, capital of the department *Kaya Airport, serving the town * Kaya Department, a department or commune of Sanmatenga Province in centr ...

, contains three direct-induction furnaces built in the shape of truncated cones. Based on oral traditions, these furnaces may have been built between the 15th and 18th centuries, still being used during Burkina Faso's colonial period, although more archeological research is needed to precisely date the furnaces. The Yamané and Kindibo sites also contain multiple large furnaces built in a similar manner. These furnaces have been dated to the 13-14th and 10-11th centuries, respectively. The smaller, surrounding furnaces are much newer, being built after the 15th century. The Békuy site is unusual for its large amount of accumulated slag, which forms mounds near the furnace ruins that reach up to 11 meters high. The furnaces at this site are older (500-400 BC) and are partially underground, requiring the use of a bellows. The oldest furnaces within this site are found at the

site, with the metalworks there dated to the 8th century BC. This site contains the oldest known record of iron metallurgy in Burkina Faso. With the invasion and colonization of Burkina Faso in the 1890s by the French, and the subsequent formation of the Upper Volta colony, the use of these ancient furnaces waned. Jean-Baptiste Kiéthéga (2009), . However, iron is still extracted and worked in the region.

References

{{reflist World Heritage Sites in Burkina Faso Archaeological sites in Burkina Faso Archaeology of Western Africa