![]() ![]() Both black and red specularite were used for curative purposes. Red specularite was used in funerary rites. ![]() Cosmetics made from black specularite were valued because of their unique quality of enhancing beauty. Black specularite, a highly valued glittering hematite, was used in the manufacturing of cosmetics and other facial creams. Archaeologists also found mines exploited for their black and red specularite. Exploration of open-pit mines and underground adits revealed extremely ancient mining tools and some charcoal that, when dated, established that Africans in southern Africa had mastered the complicated process of separating iron from iron ore already during the Middle Stone Age, long before anybody in the rest of the world had. Since 1967 archaeologists have claimed that the Bomvu Ridge in the northwestern part of Swaziland is the site of the oldest iron mine in the world, confirming the belief that the knowledge of iron had its origin in this part of the world long before its use was discovered in the Middle East during the Neolithic period. ![]() It is the home of the Swazi, a group-oriented, Bantu-speaking people of Nguni descent who settled in the region of what is today Maputo in Mozambique around 1600. The Kingdom of Swaziland, surrounded by South Africa and Mozambique, is a country of rolling grassy hills and pine forests covering mountains reaching up to 4,500 feet above sea level.
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