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We present luminescence dates which demonstrate a full-blown smelting technology in Northern Ghana, West Africa, during the Early Iron Age. Our chronology is based on thermoluminescence (TL) dating of quartz grains extracted from the walls of three iron smelters located at the Birimi site in the Northern Region of Ghana. Two of the smelters yielded statistically indistinguishable ages of 1080±70 and 1090±60 years, while the third yielded a higher age of 1600±100 years. All are significantly older than the sole direct radiocarbon date of 550–330 calBP (460±90 BP) obtained on a furnace in the Northern Region. The TL ages indicate that iron smelting was well established in the Northern Region before the middle of the first millennium AD, and corroborate the validity of a number of similarly early radiocarbon dates associated with Early Iron Age ceramics but not directly associated with smelting activity, from other sites in northern Ghana.The iron working remains at Birimi are located on a river terrace, only a few tens of meters west of a dense Kintampo occupation. Radiocarbon and TL dates for the Kintampo complex demonstrate that the Iron Age and Kintampo components at Birimi are clearly non-contemporaneous. The occurrence of two distinct layers of goethite within 150 cm of the terrace surface, both of which are clearly exposed in the scarp of the terrace upon which the smelters are situated, indicates that the industrial site was deliberately sited to take advantage of the readily available source material. This premise is confirmed by geochemical analyses of sediment, goethite, and slag from the smelting site. We therefore propose that the frequent proximity of Kintampo and iron production sites is incidental, in the sense that each group exploited different resources offered by a riverbank location. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]