Scale, scoop, boxes, and weights for measuring gold
- Object Name
- Scale, scoop, boxes, and weights for measuring gold
- Culture / Site
- Akan, Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire
- Medium
- Copper alloy
- Date
- 18th—late 19th century
- Dimensions
- Smallest 0.6 x 12.1 x 0.2 cm; largest 2.5 x 14.9 x 7.3 cm
- Credit Line
- National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC, gifts of Cynthia E. Gubemick; Mr.and Mrs. Robert Bevill, Mr. and Mrs. Alan Bresler, Mr. and Mrs. Gilbert Shulman, Robert B. Dean, and Benjamin Weiss, 70-20-54, 70-20-81, 75-22-1, 75-22-575, 76-51-7, 80-28-18. Photograph by Franko Khoury, National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution
- Section
- Shifting Away from the Sahara
- Description
As European merchants shifted their attention to Africa’s Atlantic coast in the late 15th century, the direction of the gold trade also shifted. In response, new states arose in Africa’s Akan-speaking regions, and aspects of the Saharan gold trade were transferred to this new market. For instance, the Akan system for weighing gold was based on the mithqal, a unit of weight equal to 4.5 grams (0.16 ounce). The Akan gold economy gave rise to an array of striking new objects for measuring gold: scoops, spoons, boxes, and especially copper-alloy weights in a great variety of forms, some of which also reference the geometric designs of the Muslim Saharan world.