iron technology in africa

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Discuss the contributions of iron technology to the process of state formation in Bantu Africa. Those that controlled the trade profited from the innovation and this may have resulted in social stratification. A timetable was demanded by the United States to hand over self-rule to all the major colonies of Europe on earth, documented in the Atlantic Charter. The stereotype is that in the past Africa offered the world slaves – through the Atlantic slave trade – while today it offers the world child labour, horrifying news headline, fraudulent emails, and raw material exports. • Iron Age: was the time in history when humans discovered iron and learned how to make and use iron tools. The arrival of iron smelting technology in sub-Saharan Africa played a significant role in shaping the historical record of the area by bringing profound changes to the lives and societies of its inhabitants (Haaland Shinnie 7). “The Origins of African Metallurgies”. Ethiopia 2. Source: www.edunetconnect.com. The Phoenicians brought iron technology to Carthage around ca. While pottery was associated with women, the advancements in ironworking are credited to men in African cultures. It held both spiritual and material power. Choose and write on one question from below. Explain impact of iron technology on the people of Africa i) The discovery of iron technology led to the manufacture of better and efficient tools for farming.For example, iron hoes and panga ii) The use of iron tools enabled people to clear natural vegetation and … Conclusion B. Copy link. Central Nigeria . The Bantu took with them raffia seeds, to enable them to grow the plants needed for raffia cloth making. The conventional story was that, outside Africa, Anatolia developed the ironworking around 1,800 BCE among elites rather than commoners. Physically, Africans used iron to create tools for agriculture, utensils for everyday life, and weapons for protection and conquest (Shillington, 2012, p. 45). Because of … King João I, Manikongo of the Kingdom of Kongo. The link was not copied. Iron Technology in East Africa: Symbolism, Science and Archaeology | Schmidt, Peter R. | ISBN: 9780852557440 | Kostenloser Versand für alle Bücher mit Versand und Verkauf duch Amazon. Africa the birth place of Iron • Africa was one of the first places on earth where iron and the use of iron was first discovered. Then by 1,000 BC the Arabs introduced iron technology to the Ethiopians, then by 400 BC to Meroe. Transformationsin Africa: Essays on Africa’s later Past. Tags . We can distinguish between the Nilo-Saharan pottery of the Eastern Sahara and the Niger-Congo pottery of Mali by the decorative motifs both cultures used. These academies started to participate and show up at conferences about African History instead of Europeans. Schnelle Lieferung, auch auf Rechnung - lehmanns.de By interpreting the results of these analyses in conjunction with ethnographic, historical, and experimental data, it is possible to reconstruct the techniques and ingredients that past smelters and smiths employed in their crafts, and address important questions concerning the organization of production, the acquisition of raw materials, innovations and changes in technological approach, and the environmental and social changes that accompanied these technologies. The African Iron Age, also known as the Early Iron Age Industrial Complex, is traditionally considered that period in Africa between the second century CE up to about 1000 CE when iron smelting was practiced. Facebook Twitter Reddit StumbleUpon LinkedIn. Skipping straight to iron is important because iron made farming easier and iron provided a competitive advantage against bronze in armed conflicts. The barbarity of the 20th century’s world wars was evidence Europe wasn’t being a civilising influence. 1500’s. Trashy gewgaws would not do. Iron in Africa: metal from nowhere. How did Iron impact West Africa? A variety of analytical approaches are commonly used by archaeometallurgists to learn more about past iron technologies, particularly those methods that explore the chemistry and mineralogy of archaeological samples. . Tap to unmute. This video by Christopher D. Roy depicts the ancient iron smelting technology of African community. Shopping. Buy Iron Technology in East Africa: Symbolism, Science, and Archaeology by Schmidt, Peter R. online on Amazon.ae at best prices. Ceramics were used to store food for longer changing population growth in areas where the technology was used, spurring urbanisation and improving food nutrition. Holl, Augustin F. C. June 2020. In popular culture there is a common perception that Africa has always been on the periphery of world advancements, that Africa did not contribute anything. Smelting Iron in Africa (A DEMONSTRATION) Watch later. As an example, ceramics are used for tiles to protect space shuttles on re-entry, but only ceramics can withstand the high temperatures of shuttle re-entry into the earth’s atmosphere. There were earlier less efficient steel production processes which emerged in Europe in the 17th century AD. Technology constructs society in the same way that society formulates technology. Learn how your comment data is processed. From our first genetic ancestors who started using sticks and stones to get things done to today's tweens who are using digital technology to slowly take over the world, human populations have always been defined by their tools. The West African coast was a burgeoning marketplace to which goods from all points of the compass were rushed: Indian cottons, Brazilian tobacco, brassware from Aachen, New England rum, glass from Venice and Bohemia, and much else besides. Iron technology started in Africa. The origin of the Bantu or Niger Congo is identified with the Nok site in north central Nigeria where iron working and terra cotta working had taken place as early as 500 B.C. Early evidence for iron technology in Sub-Saharan Africa can be found at sites such as KM2 and KM3 in northwest Tanzania. It was no longer tenable to former 13 colonies (the United States) for Britain claim that it was wrong for Germany to invade and rule Western and Eastern Europe, but right for Europe rule many nations against their will in the West Indies, Africa, and various parts of Asia. You could not be signed in, please check and try again. This had consequences for the academic world because once Europe stopped regulating and suppressing educational advancement in the colonies, the number of African academics started to increase from 1945 onwards sponsored by African leaders seeking to advance the prosperity of the continent. 1998. Info. The Chinese did not develop steel until 1100 AD. London: Leicester University Press. When the Portuguese met the king of the Kongo, the Kongo kingdom had a trade in raffia cloth. By the 1960s, the investments in the 1940s and 1950s started to pay off. The future cultural patterns of Africa south of the Sahara exclusive of the Sudanic belt were determined by iron-age technology. Around 3500 years ago, certain populations around the Mediterranean began systematically smelting iron, leading to a millennia-long period of human history k… Iron Age technology was transmitted across Africa by Bantu-speaking people who migrated to the south from North and Central Africa. The local production of iron was an important technology in eastern Africa up until the earlier twentieth century, when the use and reuse of imported iron overtook vernacular smelting industries and cemented their decline. The evidence of ironworking in Africa found by archaeologists suggests the diffusion of Anatolian iron working into Sub-Sahara Africa arrives too late. Share. Uncategorized. In the colonies, natives who got involved in protests were being regularly imprisoned or murdered by colonial authorities to suppress democracy: “taxation with representation”. Share this. As human beings, we like our tools. Product details. Discussion essay should be … From 1,300 BCE to 1,100 BCE knowledge of their iron technology spread to the Levant, then to India and Europe. Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and improve your knowledge base. • 500 B.C. Iron Age finds in East and Southern Africa, corresponding to the early 1st millennium Bantu expansion . This spread west between 7,000 and 6,000 BCE. 900 to 800 BCE. . Iron Technology in East Africa von Peter R. Schmidt (ISBN 978-0-253-21109-5) bestellen. Iron smelting and forging technologies may have existed in West Africa among the Nok culture of Nigeria as early as the sixth century B.C. Copper was important because it has a lower melting temperature than iron of 1,085°C and because it is malleable. The highest quality raffia cloths were prestige goods, controlled by elite. Before the Discovery of Iron C. Iron Brings Revolutionary Changes -More efficient farming developed due to iron tools such as axes and hoes -Larger meat supply was produced due to iron Unlike the rest of the world, Africa started with ceramic technology and used their experience of material science at high temperatures to skip straight from making potteries to making iron products without first going through a copper age. Instead, the cotton species used by India arrived in East Africa by the Indian Ocean trade network. Ancient Africa African People Were Making carbon steel 2,000 Years ago. Ethnographic and technological observations of iron smelting among the Raya people of NW Tanzania during 1976 and 1979 have contributed important new evidence for a technologically advanced culture in East-Central Africa. Europeans didn’t develop the technology for single step production of steel until the 19th century. dence, iron technology across much of sub-Saharan Africa has an African origin dating to before 1000 BCE.6 The eminent British historian Roland Oliver thinks that the discovery of iron smelting “could have occurred many times over” in the world and that African ironworking probably originated in … You do not currently have access to this article, Access to the full content requires a subscription, Copy this link, or click below to email it to a friend. A few archaeologists who built their careers teaching the old conventional story of iron technology and publishing books about the history of ironworking still spill their coffee thinking about that. Why are ceramics important? " . Prior to this, the --Geoarchaeology "Peter Schmidt has written an important synthesis of two decades' work on the iron technology of the Haya people of Tanzania." So, the materials used to create those tools are a useful way to categorize societies over time. Website re-designed with by Nishtha, How human trafficking affects Africa today, Haya people on the Tanzanian side of Lake Victoria developed steel, “Iron and its influence on the prehistoric site of Lejja”, Temple of Sais: African medical school 3000 - 525 BCE, 10 African nations involved in the slave trade, Beachy Head Lady: Facial reconstruction of 3rd Century African Briton, The Nri Kingdom (900AD - Present): Rule by theocracy, 10 Non-African Nations involved in the slave trade, Huysecom E., Ozainne S., Raeli F., Ballouche A., Rasse M., Stokes S. 2004. In the period from 1400 to 1600, iron technology appears to have been one of a series of fundamental social assets that facilitated the growth of significant centralized kingdoms in the western Sudan and along the Guinea coast of West Africa. 3,000km away the third earliest development of ceramic technology in world happened in the Eastern Sahara 8,500 to 8,000 BCE, among the Nilo-Saharan language family. The spreading of the Bantu all across the sub-Saharan Africa was a major contributor to the advent of a mixture of crops, not to mention the innovation of iron made equipment. Metallurgy applied fire and heat to metal ores to separate out matter and create metal products by combining the refined metals with other alloys. Image: Some Iron Age tools found in southern Africa. one of the best books yet written on preindustrial African ironworking." Woodhouse, J. Although some do still cling to the old model of diffusion, the question now really involves where iron technology emerged south of the Sahara and when, because there are a number of sites from Lake Chad to Lake Tanganyika with similar antiquity. Your current browser may not support copying via this button. Men later took over the professional making of pottery. Spiritually, Africans considered iron potent. Copper and copper alloys, on the other hand, were often made by reducing ore into molten metal and pouring it into molds, or by hammer forging solid copper. Traders from Europe and the Americas knew that African consumers were discerning; only articles that matched Afric… In G Connah (ed). Iron-bearing ores are much more abundant in the earth’s crust than those of copper, and in Africa, iron was recovered from these ores using the bloomery process, until the importation of European iron in the later second millennium eventually undermined local production. Use the question that you are attempting as the title of your essay. Where the Bantu took cotton and adapted raffia weaving techniques for weaving cotton. Ounjougou (Mali): A history of Holocene settlement at the southern edge of the Sahara. So, when the Bantu migration began, the Bantu took raffia weaving to the Congo in Central Africa, Southern Africa and to the Western side of the Great Lakes in East Africa. Believed to be about 600 B.C. Antiquity 78, n° 301, 579-593. Independence and a looser neocolonial system of domination became inevitable. casts has a monopoly on iron making and working. Cotton weaving did not spread from Sudan to East Africa. This Iron Technology in East Africa: Symbolism, Science and Archaeology usually are reliable for you who want to be considered a successful person, why. Leave a Comment / Historic Accomplishments, History, Learn, Science / By Editorial Team. Although smelting was most intensively focused in regions where all the necessary components of a smelt were plentiful—iron ore, ceramic, fuel, and water—frequent occurrences of small-scale, local iron production mean that iron slag and associated remains are common finds on archaeological sites across Africa. For contrast, the earliest pottery in the Near East is only dated to 1,000 years after Mali in 8,000 BCE and in Egypt, Africa the earliest evidence of pottery found Abydos dates to 5,500 BCE. The archaeological remains found on iron production and iron-working sites can provide detailed information about the past processes that were undertaken at these sites, as well as the people involved with the technologies both as practitioners and consumers. After world war 2, Europe and America did some soul searching and realised that Europe’s colonial projects were turning local conflicts in Europe (mainly between France, Britain and Germany) into world wars by compelling colonies to side with their colonial masters in armed conflicts. Iron technology first appears in the African continent in the 1st millennium BCE, and the term Iron Age is generally used, certainly south of the Sahara, to describe iron-using communities in Africa until the modern historical era. People independently invented loom weaving of textile production in 4 parts of the world. A. —Geoarchaeology"Peter Schmidt has written an important synthesis of two decades' work on the iron technology of the Haya people of Tanzania." The arrival of iron smelting technology in sub-Saharan Africa has brought profound changes to the societies and lives of its inhabitants. According to Peter Schmidt, Sub-Sahara Africa Haya people on the Tanzanian side of Lake Victoria developed steel around 2,400 years ago. Debunked chronology of the spread of iron technology into Africa. Iron played a central role in many societies of early Africa. © 2020, Think Africa. In popular culture there is a common perception that Africa has always been on the periphery of world advancements, that Africa did not contribute anything. Tag: Impacts of iron technology in Africa. In West Africa, as in other parts of the Atlantic world, the eighteenth century was an age of exuberant consumerism. Nubia was one of the relatively few places in Africa to have a sustained Bronze Age along with Egypt and much of the rest of North Africa. Iron production was a particularly important precolonial African technology, with iron becoming a central component of socioeconomic life in many societies across the continent. —African Studies Review" . 4 If you search for a world timeline of pottery development or world timeline of ironworking, Africa’s timeline is still largely missing from online sources. A generation of academics started to emerge that did not grow up assuming Africa did nothing integral to world history. The conventional story was that, around the world, people developed copper smelting first, then began to use iron. You even get those stereotypes from educated people who with a bit for lazy research could become more enlightened. essential reading for … The spindle whorls used for textile weaving were ceramic, developed in the Khartoum Neolithic culture of Sudan, building on ceramics materials developed by Africa between 9,500 and 8,000 BC. They are also used in mobile phones, tablets, desktops and laptops. RESEARCH: STONEWALL RIOTS July 31, 2020 . Mafa iron-smelting technology in North Cameroon N. David and colleagues succeeded in convincing an elderly Mafa "iron master" to re-enact a traditional smelt in 1986. West Africans in Southern Nigeria and Southern Cameroon developed textile looming technology for raffia cloth, around 3,000 BCE. Africans developed pottery centuries before this technology started to spread to Europe. With sufficient research, it was discovered that Africa was the second continent in the world to develop ceramic technology, but the first continent to develop iron technology, steel and cotton weaving. Some preindustrial societies made cast iron, a molten form of iron, but there is little evidence for this technology in Africa. IRON TECHNOLOGY IN BANTU AFRICA. First earliest development of Ceramic technology happened around 18,000 BCE to 15,000 BCE in Asia. It doesn’t help that many people in Africa live in poverty. The conventional assumption was that North Africa then introduced iron to Sub-Sahara Africa. Published by Best Custom Writings on July 31, 2020. They also brought iron smelting technology and … . Tanzania 4. Iron production was a particularly important precolonial African technology, with iron becoming a central component of socioeconomic life in many societies across the continent. Peter R. Schmidt is Associate Professor of Anthropology at the University of Florida, editor of The Culture and Technology of African Iron Production, and co-editor (with Roderick J. McIntosh) of Plundering Africa's Past. Ceramics were made from using high temperatures to change the chemical properties of materials. This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. –widespread use of iron: places 1. Because these ceramics were a transformative technology, they began to be traded over long distances. Around 16,000 BCE pottery vessels were made in Japan while in Russia around the Amur River pottery production begun around 14,000 BCE. In the period from 1400 to 1600, iron technology appears to have been one of a series of fundamental social assets that facilitated the growth of significant centralized kingdoms in the western Sudan and along the Guinea coast of West Africa. In Africa, unlike Europe and Asia, the Iron Age is not prefaced by a Bronze or Copper Age, but rather all the metals were brought together. Africa followed when the second earliest development of ceramic technology in world happened in Mali, West Africa around 9,500 BCE.[1]. Fast and free shipping free returns cash on … one of the best books yet written on preindustrial African ironworking." Great Lakes region 3. Racist ideas about the past began to be challenged. . Posted on Dec 22, 2018 Dec 22, 2018 by James Gathitu 0 comments on “African People Were Making carbon steel 2,000 Years ago” Continue reading "African People Were Making carbon steel 2,000 Years ago" Create a website or blog at WordPress.com. When iron technology first appeared on the continent of Africa, it became an integral aspect of daily life in ancient African societies, from the way they fought their wars to the way they grew their agriculture. Categories . In contrary to the Western misconceptions about African… It therefore has led to the discovery that Africa developed iron technology independently in Sub-Sahara Africa earlier than 1,800 BCE and also that the ancestors of Africans at Oboui in Central African Republic were the first in the world to develop ironworking. The Mafas (formerly called Matakam) reside in Cameroon and one of their (unclean!) Oxford Research Encyclopedia of African History, Department of Archaeology, The University of Sheffield, Early States and State Formation in Africa, Historical Preservation and Cultural Heritage, A Brief Introduction to the Role of Iron in Africa, Experimental Archaeology and Ethnoarchaeology, Understanding African Iron Technologies: Final Thoughts, https://doi.org/10.1093/acrefore/9780190277734.013.212. Under the terms of the licence agreement, an individual user may print out a single article for personal use (for details see Privacy Policy and Legal Notice). Their language and culture mixed with those of the groups they met, which is why many African people are Bantu-speaking. Smelting Iron in Africa (A DEMONSTRATION) - YouTube. Today, misinformation still leaves on due to persistent ignorance and poor standards of intellectual scholarship. Printed from Oxford Research Encyclopedias, African History. In each area, people domesticated their own variety of cotton: Of all those inventions, Sudan in Africa were the first to domesticate g. arboretum around the 6th millennium BC, 1,000 years before India, and 2,000 years before Peru. All Rights Reserved. The Nok Use Iron Technology after 500 B.C. Women were the inventors of ceramics. Home; IRON TECHNOLOGY IN BANTU AFRICA; CONFUCIANISM AND DAOISM July 31, 2020.