How does a stone age culture have iron spear heads?

Question

As a teenager I lived in Rhodesia, Southern Africa for a short time. The native culture was pretty primitive, mud huts and wearing skins. Looked more like a stone age culture to me. My cousin lived in Northern Rhodesia and then came to live with us in England when I was a child. Her father gave us some genuine spears he brought back from there. They had iron tips on them. But, how could a stone age culture make Iron spearheads?

Answer 1

Trade and migration is far more extenisve in history than people think.  There have been ancient artifiacts from the Middle East over 2000 years old found in Zimbabwe.  Even the ancient Chinese reached southern Africa, leaving such things as canon behind them.

There is even solid evidence of an early more advanced civilisation living in South Africa which disappeared.   It is a mistake to assume that civilisations always progress, quite often they do the opposite.

Answer 2

The key phrase in your question would be "LOOKED like a stone age culture TO ME."

The fact is that they are not a stone age culture, because the stone age is long gone. I'm serious. They are a culture that exists in the present, and they have adapted a particular way of life that works for them. Not only is trade and cultural exchange possible and highly likely, your question doesn't lead me to believe that you actually know a ton about the transition from stone tools to metal tools. It's pretty likely these people had been introduced to metal and all sorts of other modern inventions some time ago. Perhaps mud huts and animals skins work well for them, and they decided that iron tips did, to.

There's also the possibility that the tips your friend's father brought back weren't actually authentic. That happens all the time as well. But I won't immediately second guess him.

EDIT: Oh, I see. So the ancient temples are more sophisticated than any culture known to have existed there. What a mystery. They couldn't possibly be evidence themselves that a culture capable of building big temples did indeed exist there. They must have dropped out of the sky. Or maybe invaders from the far north built them, perhaps. Similarly, the iron points are a mystery because these people are too primitive to use iron. These iron points simply could not be evidence that these people do indeed know how to use iron, or trade for it, or at the very least know what it's good for. Total mystery. Got it.

Answer 3

There are no "Stone Age" cultures in Rhodesia or South Africa unless you are talking about the "Bushmen" or San people?

As for the local Ndebele and Shona people wearing leather skins well NO FIBER PLANTS available for developing weaving? The ancestors of the Bantu migrated  from subsaharan areas where cotton plants hadnt been introduced before they migrated! Hence the wearing of furs and cattle hide.

However you must have lived in Southern Africa back in the 20 or 30s in a very remote area since  most Africans traded for cotton and wool as soon as they were available  and while weaving still isnt a common craft even in cooler highland areas where long haired goats or sheep are kept knitting is quite popular!

As for Iron working, you can just look up iron working in Africa on your own!

Answer 4

Perhaps the iron tips came from the Iron Age

Answer 5

Primitive people have long been known to process iron found in meteorites. In fact King Tut was buried with an iron dagger made from a meteorite. Likely the first iron objects came from this source.

Just because a group is considered primitive doesn't mean they can't obtain metal and shape it. Based on your report it appears  the spears are less then a century old. The most probable explanation for the spears is:

1. They were obtained through trade from another tribe.

2. Iron stock was obtained and the spears were made by heating and shaping the iron.

3. Meteorite iron was used.

Iron working in Africa and the Middle East were known by 1200 BCE so there's a long history in the region. Further any tribe that had contact with Europeans or more advanced tribes would have know about iron and would have had knowldege of how to work it.

Answer 6

I'm not clear on what you are basing your classification of the culture as "stone age," nor am I clear what culture you are referring to.  It is not even clear what dates the "native culture" you are referring to existed in.  Based on your information, they could merely be a modern, but isolated, and thereby "primitive" culture.  In which case, I would suggest that they have easy access to iron.  

In any event, far more information is needed to provide a proper answer for your question.  

Prehistory has several classifications.  Based on the technology of the time, cultures will be classified as "stone," "iron," "bronze," etc.  Who has classified the culture to which you refer?  Based on what criteria?  How old are the spearheads?  What else do you know about the culture (ie interaction with other cultures)?

Other respondents have mentioned trade as providing them with access.  One of the interests that Native Americans had in trading with Europeans was access to technology the Native cultures had not yet developed, thus thrusting them into a new technological category.  Therefore, it is very plausible that even a "stone age" culture could gain access to iron spearheads.