Kabwe

City in central Zambia, 136 km/84 mi north of Lusaka; population (1998) 210,400. It is the capital of Central Province and there is clear evidence that the area has been inhabited since the period known in Africa as the Middle Stone Age. It is a copper- and cadmium-mining centre; lead and zinc were also mined until June 1994. It is also a major railway centre.

In the former zinc and lead mine, the partial skeleton of an early human type, called Rhodesian man, was found here in 1921. Archaeologists believed it to be at least as old as Neanderthal man in Europe. As well as the skeleton, large quantities of fossil bones and tools and weapons of the types known as Khoikhoi and San have been found here.