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How did the Iron Age (also called New Age) start? The Iron Age is so named after the materials used at the time to make tools and weapons. It developed at different times in different parts of the world. It is the youngest of the pre-historic periods. The Rise of Iron: At end of Bronze era- a crisis in Mediterranean area (thought to be a shortage of Bronze due to shortage of Tin)- led to experimentation with iron. Unlike the bronze, which melts below 1200 °C – about the temperature achieved in simple melting furnaces; people could not melt the iron in prehistoric times. The melting point of iron is 1536 °C. When iron is extracted from rock- you get pig iron- which is too soft for weapons & tools. The iron becomes harder when it is hammered with a hammer:

Through a chemical process – killing – the iron hardness can be further increased. This occurs when the iron is kept glowing at a temperature level between 800-1200 ° C. Then the iron absorbs carbon from the glowing charcoal and becomes steel, which by hammering becomes more than twice as hard as the cold-hammer bronze.

Who were the Pioneers in steel making: 1. In today’s Turkey, the Hittites were the first to master iron working- they made the

strongest weapons of that time (between 1600 and 1180 BC)- BUT they kept it a secret from rest of world for hundreds of years. Because they lived in Anatolia (today’s Turkey) and the northern part of Mesopotamia (today’s Syria) also- evidence of iron works were found in Mesopotamia also.

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The Hittites had excellent metalworking skills – made tools and weapons from iron around 1400 BC- and were good in warfare.

Hattusa Gateway

Hattusa was the capital of the Hitties and they were known for large stonebuildings and statues, as well as metal art work. They also made pottery items like rhytons, a type of drinking vessel.

Stone carvings in rocky hills Hittite clay rhyton in the shape

of a gazelle

2. In East Africa people produced steel as early as 500 BC. (discussed later in African Iron Age Kingdoms)

3. In Europe, this development happened only in the 1700s AD. Technology in Africa was therefore long advanced before the arrival of Europeans to African continent.

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2. Kingdom of Kush:

The kingdom was established in 785BC In 727 BC the Kush Kingdom took control of the Egyptian kingdom. They ruled Egypt till the Assyrians arrived. The kingdom stood as a regional power in Africa for over a thousand years. This Nubian Empire reached its peak in the 2nd millennium BC. The name Nubia meant Gold The area of the kingdom spread out from the Nile river into what is now known as Sudan. The Capital was Meroe.

Religion The Kushites worshipped the Egyptian gods. They mummified their dead and built pyramids. They believed in the afterlife. The area was covered by more than 200 pyramids.

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Economy The Kush kingdom was rich in gold and iron. Gold helped the kingdom become rich. Iron was used to make strong tools and weapons. They traded with Egypt as well as being military rivals. Agriculture They planted: wheat, barley, cotton

Nubian Art

Culture 1. The king and the ruling class where the most important social class. 2. Priests made the laws and communicated with the gods. 3. Next were the artisans and scribes. Artisans worked the gold and iron. These 2

metals where very important to the economy 4. Farmers were respected because they provided food for the kingdom. 5. The lowest of the social classes where servants, slaves and labourers.

Battle The soldiers used bow and arrows. They were excellent archers. The Kandakes (Candaces) of Meroe were the queens of the Kingdom of Kush who ruled from the city of Meroe from 284 BC - 314 AD - several whom ruled independently.

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Metal art work in form of bull

Famous people of Kush:

1. King Piye (who became a Pharoah): Ruling period: 744-714 BC Died: 714 BC He invaded Egypt from the South and established the 23rd dynasty. They prayed to the Egyptian god Amon Re; and when a Libyan chief threatened the god’s homeland in Upper Egypt- King Piye defeated the Libyan armies all the way to Memphis (capital of Egypt). He then moved up to the Nile Delta, where more rulers surrendered. Pharoah Piye ruled Egypt from his homeland Nubia (in North Sudan) and died there. His tomb showed that his 4 favorite horses were buried with him (the first pharaoh in 500 years, to receive this honor).

King Piye of Kush

2. Queen Amanirenas was a queen of Meroe who was a known woman warrior: She declared herself king (Qore) and queen (Kandake (Candache) of Kush. Born: 60-50 BC Died: 10 BC Ruling period: 40-10 BC

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Egyptian Jewelry of Queen Amanirenas

Woman queen-warriors were not uncommon in the Kush Kingdom.

When fighting the Romans, they described her a masculine type of woman, blind in one eye. During the 3rd century BC- she was involved in a 5-year war with Romans (who had taken control of Egypt). She captured many Roman forts in Sudan- the Romans brutally fought back- but the one-eyed warrior fought with her soldiers to defeat them. It is said that she had war elephants and pet lions in the war, who were fed the Roman captives. The Romans did not try to invade Kush again.

Modern Nubian dancers

3. The Land of Punt

Few African civilizations are as mysterious as Punt. Location: Probably coastal region of modern Djibouti or Somalia, - location is not yet confirmed- but most believe it existed somewhere on the Red Sea coast of East Africa. Maps of Somalia shows Puntland as one of their political states, on the Horn of Africa.

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Historical accounts of the kingdom date to around 2500 B.C., when it appears in Egyptian records as a “Land of the Gods” rich in blackwood, ebony, gold, myrrh and exotic animals such as apes and leopards. They were trading partners of Egypt. The Egyptians are known to have sent huge caravans and flotillas on trade missions to Punt—most notably during the 15th century B.C. reign of Queen Hatshepsut (the pharaoh of that time) —yet they never identified where it was located.

Queen Hatshepsut Trade with Egypt

A drawing on walls of Queen Hatshepsut’s showed a royal expedition to Punt

The above drawing shows Punt houses (on stilts), two fruiting date palms, three myrrh trees, a bird, a cow, an unidentified fish and a turtle, in water which in the original was green - to show that it was saltwater. This means that Punt was probably next to a sea.

4. The Kingdom of Aksum During the same period that the Roman Empire rose and fell, the influential Kingdom of Aksum flourished in the areas that are now Eritrea and northern Ethiopia. Surprisingly little is known about Aksum’s origins, but by the 2nd and 3rd centuries AD it was a trading force whose gold and ivory made it a vital link between ancient Europe and the Far East . The Script of Ge’ez: The kingdom had a written script known as Ge’ez—one of the first to emerge in Africa. The Anharas, as well as some of other populations in major cities, in Ethiopia speak Amharic (one of the Ethiopian Simitic languages). Aksum developed a distinctive architectural style that involved the building of massive stone obelisks (known as a stele), some of which stood over 100 feet tall. A stele, or occasionally stela, when derived from Latin, is a stone or wooden slab, generally taller than it

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is wide, erected in the ancient world as a monument. The surface of the stele often has text, ornamentation, or both.

The 24m King Ezana's stele (stela) in Northern Ethiopian Script- the “Ge’ez” Stelae Park, the biggest stele still standing

In the fourth century, Aksum became one of the first empires in the world to adopt Christianity, which led to a political and military alliance with the Byzantines. The empire later went into decline sometime around the 7th or 8th century, but its religious legacy still exists today in the form of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church.

5. The Mali Empire The Mali Empire was founded about 1200 AD, when a ruler named Sundiata Keita—sometimes called the “Lion King”— who overthrew a Sossu king and united his subjects into a new state. The Empire of Mali was in Western Africa. Under Keita and his successors, the empire tightened its grip over a large portion of West Africa and grew rich on trade. It started along the Niger River and eventually spread across 1,200 miles from the city of Gao to the Atlantic Ocean. Its northern border was just south of the Sahara Desert. It covered regions of the modern-day African countries of Mali, Niger, Senegal, Mauritania, Guinea, and Gambia. Its most important cities were Djenné and Timbuktu, both of which were renowned for their elaborate adobe mosques and Islamic schools. The religion of Islam was an important part of the Mali Empire.

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However, even though the kings, or Mansas, had converted to Islam, they did not force their subjects to convert. Many people practiced a version of Islam that combined Islamic beliefs with the local traditions.

Djenne- City built nearly totally of Mud

(Great Mosque of Djenne) One such institution, Timbuktu’s Sankore University, included a library with an estimated 700,000 manuscripts. The Mali Empire eventually disintegrated in the 16th century, but at its peak it was one of the jewels of the African continent and was known the world over for its wealth and luxury. One legendary tale about the kingdom’s riches concerns the ruler Mansa Musa, who made a stopover in Egypt during a 14th century pilgrimage to Mecca. According to contemporary sources, Musa dished out so much gold during the visit that he caused its value to plummet in Egyptian markets for several years. Gold was a major source of Medieval African wealth. Mansa Musa presided over land dotted with major gold mining operations, which produced the purest, most sought-after gold of his day. The gold jewelry (below) was made between the 13th and 15th centuries

Gold Jewelry Sankore University in Timbaktu Interesting Facts about the Empire of Ancient Mali

a) Some historians estimate that Mansa Musa may have been the wealthiest person in history.

b) The great wealth of Mali came from gold and salt mines. c) The capital city of the empire was Niani. Other important cities included Timbuktu,

Gao, Djenne, and Walata. d) The Mali Empire controlled important trade routes across the Sahara Desert to

Europe and the Middle East.

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e) The city of Timbuktu was considered a center of education and learning and included the famous Sankore University.

The Catalan Atlas, published in 1375, depicts the richest man of his day: Mansa Musa, the emperor of 14th-century Mali. A reproduction of the Atlas is on display at the Block Museum of Art at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois. The Atlas is part of an exhibition at the museum called "Caravan of Gold," highlighting the vast wealth concentrated in Africa in the Medieval period. Musa's lands were the richest gold-producing region in the world at the time, according to the Block Museum, and he's shown in the Atlas admiring a gold coin:

6. The Songhai Empire The Songhai Empire was one of the largest in ancient Africa. Where was the Songhai Empire located? The Songhai Empire was in Western Africa south of the Sahara Desert and along the Niger River. At its peak, it stretched well over 1,000 miles from today’s country of Niger to the Atlantic Ocean. The capital city of the Songhai was the city of Gao (in modern-day Mali- on the banks of the Niger River). When did the Songhai Empire rule? The Songhai Empire lasted from 1464 to 1591. Before the 1400s, the Songhai were under the rule of the Mali Empire. How did the Empire first begin? The Songhai Empire first came into power under the leadership of Prince Sunni Ali. He was being held as a political prisoner by the leader of the Mali Empire who ruled over the Songhai. In 1464, Sunni Ali escaped to the city of Gao and took control of the city. From the city of

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Gao, he established the Songhai Empire and began to conquer nearby regions including the important trading cities of Timbuktu and Djenne. Askia Muhammad: In 1493, Askia Muhammad became the Emperor of the Songhai. He brought the Songhai Empire to its height of power and founded the Askia Dynasty. Askia Muhammad was a devout Muslim. Under his rule, Islam became an important part of the empire. He conquered much of the surrounding lands and took control of the gold and salt trade from the Mali Empire. Government The Songhai Empire was divided into five provinces each led by a governor. Under Askia Muhammad, all the governors, judges, and town chiefs were Muslims. The emperor had total power, but he also had ministers who ran different aspects of the empire for him. They also counseled the emperor on important issues. The Songhai Culture The Songhai culture became a blend of traditional West African beliefs and the religion of Islam. Daily life was often ruled by traditions and local customs, but the law of the land was based on Islam.

Songhai Pyramid in Mali Empire of Songhai in West Africa Slaves The slave trade became an important part of the Songhai Empire. Slaves were used to help transport goods across the Sahara Desert to Morocco and the Middle East. Slaves were

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also sold to Europeans to work in Europe and the Americas (mostly sold for guns and liquor). Slaves were usually captives of war captured during raids on nearby regions. Fall of the Songhai Empire In the mid-1500's the Songhai Empire began to weaken due to internal strife and civil war. In 1591, the Moroccan army invaded and captured the cities of Timbuktu and Gao. They made Timbaktu their capital city, instead of Gao. The empire collapsed and was divided up into several separate smaller states. Interesting Facts about the Songhai Empire

a) Sunni Ali became a legendary hero in Songhai folklore. He was often portrayed as having magical powers and was known as Sunni Ali the Great.

b) If a prisoner of war had already converted to Islam before being captured, they could not be sold as a slave.

c) A West African storyteller is called a griot. History was often passed down from generation to generation through the griots.

d) The city of Timbuktu became an important city of trade and education during the Songhai Empire.

7. Ancient Carthage Where was Carthage located? The city of Ancient Carthage was located on the coast of the Mediterranean Sea in what is today the country of Tunisia. At its peak, Carthage ruled a significant portion of the Mediterranean coast including Northern Africa, Southern Spain, and the islands of Sardinia, Corsica, and Sicily. How long did Carthage rule? Carthage was a major power in the Mediterranean from around 650 BC to 146 BC. It was first established in 814 BC by the Phoenician Empire but gained its independence in 650 BC. Carthage grew to become the most powerful city in the Mediterranean. Power and Conflict In 509 BCE, Carthage established a treaty with Rome. Carthage had control of most of the Western Mediterranean, Northern Africa, as well as the islands of Sicily and Sardinia. Carthage was able to keep Rome in check because of its powerful navy. Sicilian Wars Between 480 BCE and 265 BCE Carthage fought several wars over the control of Sicily. These wars are called the Sicilian Wars or the Greek-Punic Wars. Despite all these wars, neither side ever gained full control over the island. Carthage controlled Western Sicily, while the Greeks maintained control of Eastern Sicily.

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Punic Wars As the Roman Republic rose in power, Carthage became increasingly in conflict with Rome. In 264 BC, Carthage fought the First Punic War against Rome. Rome defeated Carthage, taking control of Sicily. The Second Punic War took place between 218 BC and 201 BC. It was during this war that the famous Carthage leader, Hannibal, crossed the Alps to attack Rome in Italy. Although Hannibal won several battles in Italy, Carthage began to weaken as the war waged on. Eventually, the Romans defeated Carthage and gained control of Spain and much of Northern Africa. The Third Punic War and the Fall of Carthage: The Third Punic War occurred between 149 BC and 146 BC. In this war Rome attacked the city of Carthage. Rome conquered the city bringing an end to the Empire of Carthage. The cities who were allies of Carthage, also became part of the Roman Republic. Government Carthage was initially a monarchy ruled by a king. However, the government changed to a republic around the 4th century BC. Like Rome they had a senate made up of 300 wealthy citizens which made the laws. They also had two main leaders that were elected every year. They were called "Suffetes", which means judges. Interesting Facts about Ancient Carthage

a) Carthage was later rebuilt by Julius Caesar of Rome. The city became a major part of the Roman Empire.

b) Muslim forces destroyed the city of Carthage in 698 AD. They built the city of Tunis, which is today the capital of Tunisia, nearby the ruins of Carthage.

c) Hannibal brought elephants with when attacking Italy and crossing the Alps. He started out with 37 elephants, but many of them died before making it into Italy.

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d) The word "Punic", as in Punic Wars, comes from the Latin word "Punicus" which is what the Romans called the people from Carthage.

e) Carthage religion included a variety of gods. The primary gods being Baal-Hamon and his wife, the goddess Tanit.

8. The Kingdom of Benin

Began in the 900 AD when the Edo people settled in the rainforests of West Africa. They began to cut down trees and make clearings in the rainforest. At first, they lived in small family groups, but gradually these groups developed into a kingdom.

The kingdom was called Ogidomigodo. It was ruled by a series of kings, known as Ogisos, which means ‘rulers of the sky’. By the 1400s they had created a wealthy kingdom with a powerful ruler, known as the Oba. The Obas lived in beautiful palaces decorated with shining brass. Gradually, the Obas won more land and built up an empire. They also started trading with merchants from Europe. For 200 years Benin was very successful, but in the 1600s the Obas started to lose control of their people. By the 1800s Benin was no longer strong or united. The kingdom came to a sudden end in 1897, when a British army invaded and made it part of the British Empire. In the 1100 AD there were struggles for power and the Ogisos lost control of their kingdom. The Edo people feared that their country would fall into chaos, so they asked their neighbor, the King of Ife, for help. The king sent his son Prince Oranmiyan to restore peace to the Edo kingdom. Oranmiyan chose his son Eweka to be the first Oba of Benin. Eweka was the first in a long line of Obas, who reached the peak of their power in the 1500s. Edo legend says that no one in Benin had ever seen a horse before Oranmiyan arrived! How did Benin become an empire? Around 1440, Ewuare became the new Oba of Benin. He built up an army and started winning land. He also rebuilt Benin City and the royal palace.

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Oba Ewuare was the first of five great warrior kings. His son Oba Ozolua was believed to have won 200 battles. Oba Ozolua and Esigie both encouraged trade with the Portuguese. They used their wealth from trade to build up a vast army. The fourth warrior king was Oba Orhogbua. During his reign, the empire reached its largest size. It stretched beyond the River Niger in the east and extended west as far as present-day Ghana. Oba Ehengbuda was the last of the warrior kings. But he spent most of his reign stopping rebellions led by local chiefs. After his death in 1601, Benin’s empire gradually shrank in size. How did the kingdom end? By the 1860s Benin was no longer a powerful empire and the Obas struggled to rule their people. Benin was also under threat from Britain. The British wanted to gain control of Benin so they could get rich by selling its palm oil and rubber. The Oba tried to stop all contact with Britain, but the British insisted on their right to trade. In 1897 a group of British officials tried to visit Benin. They were sent away because the Oba was busy with a religious ceremony, but they decided to visit anyway. As they approached the borders of Benin, a group of warriors drove them back and several British men were killed. This attack made the British furious. They sent over a thousand soldiers to invade Benin. Benin City was burnt to the ground and the kingdom of Benin became part of the British

Empire.

References:

1. https://www.ducksters.com/history/africa/

2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/African_empires

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3. https://www.history.com/news/7-influential-african-empires

4. https://www.google.com/search?sxsrf=ALeKk00i7ptr9rVrQY3UXAoSQy2H8NEtIg:158504

8837530&q=ancient+kingdoms+of+africa&tbm=isch&source=univ&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwi

WhKaH_7LoAhUnA2MBHdD3AG0QsAR6BAgHEAE&biw=1366&bih=657

5. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Iron_Age_states

6. https://www.history.com/topics/pre-history/iron-age

7. https://www.sahistory.org.za/article/iron-age-kingdoms-southern-africa

8. https://www.thoughtco.com/african-iron-age-169432