Ancient African history

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Ancient history by continent

Ancient history Africa | Asia | Europe | Americas | Australia

Ancient African history is the study of the documented past from the beginning of recorded history until the Early Middle Ages.^[1] The breadth of ancient history includes centuries of human activity on the continent of Africa. The Ancient history of North Africa participates in the sphere of the Ancient Near East, notably with Ancient Egypt, and to a lesser extent with Nubia and Ethiopia (Axumite Kingdom). Phoenician cities such as Carthage participate in the Mediterranean Iron Age and Classical Antiquity. Sub-Saharan Africa in the meantime largely remains in the prehistoric stage until the European exploration of Africa from the 15th century.

Contents 1 North Africa 1.1 Kush 1.2 Ancient Egypt 1.3 Carthage 1.4 Axumite Kingdom 2 East Africa 3 West Africa 4 Central Africa 5 Southern Africa 6 References and notes 6.1 General information 6.2 Citations

[edit] North Africa

Main article: History of North Africa

Neolithic rock engravings, or 'petroglyphs' and the megaliths in the Sahara desert of Libya attest to early hunter-gatherer culture in the dry grasslands of North Africa during the glacial age. The region of the present Sahara was an early site for the practice of agriculture (in the second stage of the culture characterized by the so-called "wavy-line ceramics" ca. 4000 BCE.). However, after the desertification of the Sahara, settlement in North Africa became concentrated in the valley of the Nile, where the pre-literate Nomes of Egypt laid a base for the culture of ancient Egypt. Archeological findings show that primitive tribes lived along the Nile long before the dynastic history of the pharaohs began. By 6000 B.C., organized agriculture had appeared.

Just prior to Saharan desertification, the communities that developed south of Egypt, in what is now modern day Sudan, were full participants in the Neolithic revolution and lived a settled to semi-nomadic lifestyle with domesticated plants and animals.^[2] Megaliths found at Nabta Playa are examples of probably the world's first known archaeoastronomy devices, out dating Stonehenge by some 1000 years.[1] This complexity, as observed at Nabta Playa, and expressed by different levels of authority within the society there, likely formed the basis for the structure of both the Neolithic society at Nabta and the Old Kingdom of Egypt.^[3] The early A-group peoples, whom inhabited today's northern Sudan and were contemporary with pre-dynastic Naquadan Upper Egypt, were responsible for what may have been one of the oldest known kingdoms in the Nile valley, which the Egyptians called "Ta-seti" (Land of the Bow). Their demise with the onset of Dynastic Egypt, later gave rise to such Kingdoms as Kush, Kerma and Meroe whom collectively comprised what is sometimes referred to as Nubia. The last of the kingdoms would see their final devastating blow by a leader of a rising Kingdom in Ethiopia, Ezana of Axum, effectively bringing to an end the classical Nubian civilizations.

Separated by the 'sea of sand', the Sahara, North Africa and Sub-Saharan Africa have been linked by fluctuating trans-Saharan trade routes. Phoenician, Greek and Roman history of North Africa can be followed in entries for the Roman Empire and for its individual provinces in the Maghreb, such as Mauretania, Africa, Tripolitania, Cyrenaica, Aegyptus etc.

Countries bordering the Mediterranean were colonised and settled by the Phoenicians before 1000 BC. Carthage, founded about 814 BC, speedily grew into a city without rival in the Mediterranean. The Phoenicians subdued the Berber tribes who, then as now, formed the bulk of the population, and became masters of all the habitable region of North Africa west of the Great Syrtis, and found in commerce a source of immense prosperity.

By the 1st millennium BC, iron working had been introduced in Northern Africa and quickly began spreading across the Sahara into the northern parts of sub-Saharan Africa^[4] and by 500 BC, metalworking began to become commonplace in West Africa, possibly after being introduced by the Carthaginians. Iron working was fully established by roughly 500 BC in areas of East and West Africa, though other regions didn't begin iron working until the early centuries AD. Some copper objects from Egypt, North Africa, Nubia and Ethiopia have been excavated in West Africa dating from around 500 BC time period, suggesting that trade networks had been established by this time.^[5]

Greeks founded the city of Cyrene in Ancient Libya around 631 BC. Cyrenaica became a flourishing colony, though being hemmed in on all sides by absolute desert it had little or no influence on inner Africa. The Greeks, however, exerted a powerful influence in Egypt. To Alexander the Great the city of Alexandria owes its foundation (332 BC), and under the Hellenistic dynasty of the Ptolemies attempts were made to penetrate southward, and in this way was obtained some knowledge of Ethiopia.

From around 500 B.C. to around 500 A.D., the civilization of the Garamantes (probably the ancestors of the Tuareg) existed in what is now the Libyan desert.

The three powers of Cyrenaica, Egypt and Carthage were eventually supplanted by the Romans. After centuries of rivalry with Rome, Carthage finally fell in 146 BC. Within little more than a century Egypt and Cyrene had become incorporated in the Roman empire. Under Rome the settled portions of the country were very prosperous, and a Latin strain was introduced into the land. Though Fezzan was occupied by them, the Romans elsewhere found the Sahara an impassable barrier. Nubia and Ethiopia were reached, but an expedition sent by the emperor Nero to discover the source of the Nile ended in failure. The utmost extent of Mediterranean geographical knowledge of the continent is shown in the writings of Ptolemy (2nd century), who knew of or guessed the existence of the great lake reservoirs of the Nile, of trading posts along the shores of the Indian Ocean as far south as Rhapta in modern Tanzania, and had heard of the river Niger.

Interaction between Asia, Europe and North Africa during this period was significant, major effects include the spread of classical culture around the shores of the Mediterranean; the continual struggle between Rome and the Berber tribes; the introduction of Christianity throughout the region, and the cultural effects of the churches in Tunisia, Egypt and Ethiopia. The classical era drew to a close with the invasion and conquest of Rome's African provinces by the Vandals in the 5th century. Power passed back in the following century to the Byzantine Empire.

Further information: Nome (Egypt), Kerma, MeroeNubia, Ancient Libya, Alexandria

[edit] Kush

Main article: Kush

Kush civilization centered in the region of Nubia, located in what is today northern Sudan. One of the earliest civilizations to develop in the Nile River Valley, Kushite states rose to power before a period of Egyptian incursion into the area.

The first cultures arose in Nubia before the time of the time of a unified Egypt. Around 2500 BC, Egyptians began moving south, and it is through them that most of our knowledge of Kush (Cush) comes. But this expansion was halted by the fall of the Middle Kingdom of Egypt, at which time an independent kingdom developed. About 1500 BC Egyptian expansion resumed, but this time encountered organized resistance. Historians are not sure whether this resistance came from multiple city states or a single unified empire, and debate whether the notion of statehood was indigenous or borrowed from the Egyptians. The Egyptians prevailed, and the region became a colony of Egypt under the control of Thutmose I, whose army ruled from a number of sturdy fortresses. The region supplied Egypt with resources.

In the eleventh century BC internal disputes in Egypt caused colonial rule to collapse and an independent kingdom arose based at Napata in Nubia. This kingdom was ruled by locals who overthrew the colonial regime. Kush was a good example of cultural diffusion with Egypt. There were many of the same beliefs and gods.

[edit] Ancient Egypt

Main article: Ancient Egypt

In about 3100 B.C. Egypt was united under the first known Narmer, who inaugurated the first of the 30 dynasties into which Egypt's ancient history is divided: the Old, Middle Kingdoms and the New Kingdom. The pyramids at Giza (near Cairo), which were built in the Fourth dynasty, testify to the power of the pharaonic religion and state. The Great Pyramid, the tomb of Pharaoh Khufu (also known as Cheops), is the only surviving monument of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. Ancient Egypt reached the peak of its power, wealth, and territorial extent in the period called the New Empire (1567–1085 B.C.).

The importance of Ancient Egypt to the development of the rest of Africa has been debated. The earlier generation of Western academia generally saw Egypt as a Mediterranean civilization with little impact on the rest of Africa. Recent scholarship however, has began to discredit this notion. Some have argued that various early Egyptians like the Badarians probably migrated northward from Nubia, while others see a wide-ranging movement of peoples across the breadth of the Sahara before the onset of desiccation. Whatever may be the origins of any particular people or civilization, however, it seems reasonably certain that the Predynastic communities of the Nile valley were essentially indigenous in culture, drawing little inspiration from sources outside the continent during the several centuries directly preceding the onset of historical times... (Robert July, Pre-Colonial Africa, 1975, p. 60-61)^[6]

Further information: Egyptians

[edit] Carthage

Main article: Carthage

Carthage was founded by Phoenician settlers from the city of Tyre, bringing with them the city-god Melqart. Philistos of Syracuse dates the founding of Carthage around 1215 BC, while Appian dates the founding 50 years prior to the Trojan War, but it is most likely that the city was founded sometime between 846 and 813 BC.^[7]

[edit] Axumite Kingdom

Main article: Axumite Kingdom

The Aksumite Empire was an important trading nation in northeastern Africa, growing from the proto-Aksumite period ca. 4th century BC to achieve prominence by the 1st century AD. It is also the alleged resting place of the Ark of the Covenant and the home of the Queen of Sheba.

[edit] East Africa

Main article: History of East Africa

By 3000 BC agriculture arose independently in Ethiopia, where coffee, teff, finger millet, sorghum, barley, and enset. Donkeys were also independently domesticated somewhere in the region of Ethiopia and Somalia, but most domesticated animals spread there from the Sahel and Nile regions.^[8] Agricultural crops were also adopted from other regions around this time as pearl millet, cowpea, groundnut, cotton, watermelon and bottle gourds began to be grown agriculturally in both West Africa and the Sahel Region while finger millet, peas, lentil and flax took hold in Ethiopia.^[9]

[edit] West Africa

Main article: History of West Africa

By 3000 BC agriculture arose independently in both the tropical portions of West Africa, where African yams and oil palms were domesticated. No animals were independently domesticated in these regions, although domestication did spread there from the Sahel and Nile regions.^[10] Agricultural crops were also adopted from other regions around this time as pearl millet, cowpea, groundnut, cotton, watermelon and bottle gourds began to be grown agriculturally in both West Africa and the Sahel Region while finger millet, peas, lentil and flax took hold in Ethiopia.^[11]

[edit] Central Africa

Main article: History of Central Africa

Around 1000 BC, Bantu migrants had reached the Great Lakes of East Africa. Halfway through that millennium, the Bantu had also settled as far south as the countries of what are now Angola and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. One of the major events that occurred in Central Africa during this period was the establishment of the Kanem Empire in what is now Chad. The Kanem Empire would flourish in the coming centuries setting the stage for future great states in the Sahel region of Africa.

[edit] Southern Africa

Main article: History of Southern Africa

The history of Southern Africa is still much of a mystery, due to its isolation from other cultures on the continent. In 500 BC that isolation ended with the settling of Bantu migrants in modern Zambia. To the southeast, Khoisan "Bushmen" adopted cattle domestication and moved from the hunter-gatherer lifestyle that had dominated life in the region since the beginning of time. By 300 AD, the Bantu had reached modern South Africa laying the foundations for centralized states.

[edit] References and notes

[edit] General information

• Carr, E. H. (Edward Hallett). What is History?.  Thorndike 1923, Becker 1931, MacMullen 1966, MacMullen 1990, Thomas & Wick 1993, Loftus 1996.
• Collingwood, R. G. (1946). The Idea of History. Oxford: Clarendon Press. 
• Diamond, Jared (1999). Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies. Norton. 
• Dodds, E. R. (1964). The Greeks and the Irrational. Berkeley, Calif.: University of California Press. 
• Kinzl, Konrad H. (1998). Directory of Ancient Historians in the USA, 2nd ed.. Claremont, Calif.: Regina Books. ISBN 0941690873.  Web edition is constantly updated.
• Kristiansen, Kristian & Larsson, Thomas B. (2005), The Rise of Bronze Age Society, Cambridge University Press 
• Libourel, Jan (1973). "A Battle of Uncertain Outcome in the Second Samnite War". American Journal of Philogy 94 (1): 71. 
• Livius. Articles on Ancient History.
• Lobell, Jarrett (July/August 2002). "Etruscan Pompeii". Archaeological Institute of America 55 (4). 
• Loftus, Elizbeth (1996). Eyewitness Testimony. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press. ISBN 0674287770. 
• MacMullen, Ramsay (1966). Enemies of the Roman Order: Treason, Unrest and Alienation in the Empire. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press. 
• MacMullen, Ramsay (1993). Changes in the Roman Empire: Essays in the Ordinary. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press. ISBN 0691036012. 
• Thomas, Carol G.; D.P. Wick (1994). Decoding Ancient History: A Toolkit for the Historian as Detective. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice Hall. ISBN 0132002051. 
• Thorndike, Lynn (1923–58). History of Magic and Experimental Science. New York: Macmillan.  Eight volumes.

[edit] Citations