household goods: Africa 539 ern Africa, but these were probably limited to the possession of elite classes While copper was worked locally, there was a special demand among the elite classes of western Africa for imported copper goods of all kinds as well as for imported iron knives Copper bowls and washbasins seem to have been especially sought after Their foreign character was a status symbol Cowrie shells were also traded from the coast and used extensively both as a decorative material on household items and as a form of currency After about 1000 copper working and ironworking became more common throughout the vast region of the African interior, the watershed of the Congo and Zambezi rivers, and the lake regions in the Great Rift Valley, conditioning the introduction of new types of household goods in the Middle Ages The area best studied by archaeologists has been the Upemba depression (modern-day southeastern Republic of the Congo) The common practice of burying people with grave goods—items representative of the kinds of objects they used in life—is helpful in determining the material culture of this region Based on the disparity in grave goods found between individual burials, after the year 1000 society seems to have become stratified The most common buried objects are ceramic pots, and graves that have many more pots also have imported cowrie shells and carved ivory jewelry Water and alcoholic beverages were stored in long-necked flasks or large storage vessels with a capacity of more than gallons Food was cooked in ceramic vessels of various sizes that were shaped either like a cauldron or like a wok as well as others that included lids The so-called yanko was similar to the woklike vessel but with holes for drawing in smoke for curing meat or fish The same types of vessels were used for temporary storage Clay pots were made from coils rather than thrown on the potter’s wheel The mountains in Shaba Province in the modern-day Congo and its vicinity are one of the richest copper-producing areas on earth, and copper was extensively used in this region Small cross-shaped copper ingots are commonly found among grave goods; ingots were sometimes bundled together in bunches of five and probably were used as a form of currency Elite graves contained copper bowls, jewelry, knives, belts, and other paraphernalia that would have been made of clay, iron, or nonmetallic perishable materials (such as plant fibers) in ordinary households Tools used in agriculture and hunting, such as spearheads, knives, arrows, hoes, and axes, were typically made of iron Iron objects such as anvils and bells are extremely rare and seem to have been buried only with the most powerful individuals Other common goods include woven baskets of considerable sophistication The typical medieval household goods of the Bambala people, also from the upper Congo region, have been recon- structed—partly on the basis of archaeology, partly on the basis of the present-day lives of Bambala living in isolated areas and preserving archaic ways of life, and partly on the communal memory of the people as a whole The Bambala, like most Africans, lived by a combination of farming and hunting and so would ordinarily have possessed the tools necessary for both activities, including knives of various sizes, a hatchet, an adze, a hoe, mortars and pestles, grinding stones, needles, a wood chisel, a throwing spear, a bow and arrows (including poisoned arrows), snares, and a mvúndji, a sharp blade used for scraping animals skins but also for use in minor surgical operations such as circumcision Each house would have had many baskets; some were made from woven fibers or bamboo, and others were made from wood Baskets would have included specialized types for storage, for winnowing grain, and as strainers, fishnets, rattraps, and lunch boxes (usually an hourglass shape) Ceramic jugs of various sizes were used for storing, transporting, and drinking water Cookware was also ceramic The size and shape of pot depended more on the age and gender of the person who would have consumed the food prepared in it rather than the type of food cooked Ceramic plates were used only for children Dry gourds were used to collect sap from palm trees and for storing dried food Woven mats covered the earthen floors of dwellings Chairs were often simply sections of logs, while bed frames were made of wood or bamboo Great Zimbabwe was a ceremonial site of the Shona people of southern Africa (in modern-day northeastern Zimbabwe) whose rulers concentrated considerable power in their hands from control of a gold trade with the Muslim cities of the Indian Ocean coast In the late Middle Ages (ca 1450) the population soared to as much as 18,000, and the most elaborate architecture in the interior of Africa was developed, but the site quickly collapsed owing to lack of infrastructure and other factors Because of defects in the excavation of the Great Zimbabwe site, not much can be directly demonstrated about the lives of the ordinary inhabitants who lived in huts outside the massive stone walls, but there is no reason to suppose that their lives and possessions were very different from those of Africans in other areas The life and possessions of the elite class that lived within the stone walls are a different matter The range of ceramics and utensils ordinarily used in preparing food is absent within the Zimbabwe walled enclosures, indicating that those within were served by people living outside On the other hand, fine glassware and ceramics imported from the Arab world and as far away as China have been found along with numerous gold objects within the walls, suggesting a life of luxury of the elite class