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Video Histories
Ancient Africa (Kingdom of Kush and Early African Cultures)
Made In History | Feb 25, 2022
Ancient Africa discusses the Ancient cultures of Africa, focusing on Nubia, and the kingdoms from Kerma, and Kush, from Napata and Meroe. It also discusses the West African urban centers of Dhar Tichitt and Oualata, or Walata, and the Nok Culture. The Bantu Migration, which changed the demographics of Africa forever, is overviewed at the end.
The Kingdom of Kush (/kʊʃ, kʌʃ/; Egyptian: 𓎡𓄿𓈙𓈉 kꜣš, Assyrian: Rassam cylinder Ku-u-si.jpg Ku-u-si, in LXX Ancient Greek: Κυς and Κυσι; Coptic: ⲉϭⲱϣ; Hebrew: כּוּשׁ) was an ancient kingdom in Nubia, centered along the Nile Valley in what is now northern Sudan and southern Egypt.
The region of Nubia was an early cradle of civilization, producing several complex societies that engaged in trade and industry. The city-state of Kerma emerged as the dominant political force between 2450 and 1450 BC, controlling the Nile Valley between the first and fourth cataracts, an area as large as Egypt. The Egyptians were the first to identify Kerma as “Kush" and over the next several centuries the two civilizations engaged in intermittent warfare, trade, and cultural exchange.
Much of Nubia came under Egyptian rule during the New Kingdom period (1550–1070 BC). Following Egypt's disintegration amid the Late Bronze Age collapse, the Kushites reestablished a kingdom in Napata (now modern Karima, Sudan). Though Kush had developed many cultural affinities with Egypt, such as the veneration of Amun, and the royal families of both kingdoms often intermarried, Kushite culture was distinct; Egyptian art distinguished the people of Kush by their dress, appearance, and even method of transportation.
King Kashta ("the Kushite") peacefully became King of Upper Egypt, while his daughter, Amenirdis, was appointed as Divine Adoratrice of Amun in Thebes.[9] Piye invaded Lower Egypt in the eighth century BC, establishing the Kushite-ruled Twenty-fifth Dynasty. Piye's daughter, Shepenupet II, was also appointed Divine Adoratrice of Amun. The monarchs of Kush ruled Egypt for over a century until the Assyrian conquest, finally being expelled by the Egyptian Psamtik I in the mid-seventh century BC. Following the severing of ties with Egypt, the Kushite imperial capital was located at Meroë, during which time it was known by the Greeks as Aethiopia.
The city of Meroë was captured and destroyed by the Kingdom of Aksum, marking the end of the kingdom and its dissolution into the three polities of Nobatia, Makuria and Alodia, very shortly after this event, the kingdom of Alodia would regain much of the southern territory of the former Meroitic empire coming close to the city of Aksum itself, including ruling parts of Eritrea.
Long overshadowed by its more prominent Egyptian neighbor, archaeological discoveries since the late 20th century have revealed Kush to be an advanced civilization in its own right. The Kushites had their own unique language and script; maintained a complex economy based on trade and industry; mastered archery; and developed a complex, urban society with uniquely high levels of female participation.
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0:00 Intro
0:20 Nubia
1:36 Kerma (Nubia)
3:39 Napata (Nubia)
7:42 Meroe (Nubia)
9:01 West African Cultures
11:03 Bantu Migration
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What are the 5 ancient African kingdoms?
- Kingdom of Punt (2400–1069 BCE)
- Kingdom of Dʿmt (c. 980–400 BCE)
- Aksumite Empire (50–937 CE)
- Swahili Coast (50 CE–)
- Barbara/Barbaroi city states (1000 BCE – 5th century CE)
- Macrobian Kingdom (1000 BCE – 500 BCE)
Recent African Empires
Wikipedia - History of North Africa
Wikipedia - Pre-Colonial Africa
Wikipedia - African Empires
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ANCIENT CIVILIZATIONS OF AFRICA
Britannica - https://www.britannica.com/event/Stone-Age/Africa
Paleolithic
The Paleolithic of Africa is characterized by a variety of stone-tool assemblages, some of which represent purely local developments while others are practically identical with materials from corresponding horizons in Europe. Geological investigations of the Late Cenozoic deposits of this continent indicate that, as the result of fluctuations in rainfall, the Pleistocene Epoch throughout most of Africa can be subdivided on the basis of a succession of pluvial and interpluvial stages. The pluvials, known as Kageran, Kamasian, Kanjeran, and Gamblian, are believed to represent the tropical and subtropical equivalents of the four major glacial stages of the Northern Hemisphere. The archaeological succession is well established in certain areas, although not in the continent as a whole.
North Africa
In this area, pebble tools have been reported from one site in Algeria in direct association with a Lower Pleistocene (Villafranchian) mammalian assemblage. Throughout Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco, and the Sahara region, Lower Paleolithic hand axes of both Abbevillian and Acheulean type, together with flake tools, have been found in great numbers. The geological evidence shows that the Sahara region was far less arid during Pleistocene times than it is at present. The Middle Paleolithic of both Levalloisian and Mousterian facies is very widespread in North Africa, and it apparently persisted as late as the second maximum of the Würm glaciation in terms of the European sequence. A specialized Middle Paleolithic development, known as the Aterian, occurred there; it is characterized by tanged points made on flakes and flake blades. This was succeeded by two distinctive blade-tool complexes—the Capsian and Oranian—which are more or less contemporary. Their main development took place during the time span of the European Mesolithic. The Capsian sites are all inland, whereas the Oranian has a coastal distribution. Both are microlithic tool complexes that persisted after the introduction of Neolithic traits into the area.
Egypt
The Pleistocene terrace gravels of the Nile Valley in Egypt have produced a wealth of Paleolithic materials. The 30-metre (98-foot) terrace contains typical Abbevillian and early Acheulean hand axes, including a special form with a triangular section known as the Chalossian type. These are associated with early flake implements. In the 15-metre (49-foot) terrace, developed Acheulean has been recorded, while the nine-metre (29.5-foot) terrace yields large flakes and cores of Levalloisian type. In the low terrace, which occurs at a height of three metres (10 feet) above river level, developed Levalloisian (originally called Mousterian) has been reported. Overlying the low terrace, a local development known as the Sebilian is found. It contains very highly evolved flake implements of Levallois type and, in its later phases, a definite microlithic industry. Of approximately the same age as the Sebilian are several Epi-Levalloisian sites in the Lower Nile drainage, including the Fayyūm Depression and the al-Khārijah (Kharga) Oasis. In the latter area, where the specialized Levalloisian development is called the Khargan, an Egyptian version of the Aterian has been discovered.
East Africa
In Kenya, the oldest known tools—consisting of early hammers, anvils, and cutting tools—date to the Middle Pliocene Epoch and predate the emergence of the oldest confirmed specimens of Homo by almost one million years. The tools were discovered in a dry riverbed near Kenya’s Lake Turkana.
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| See a researcher making an Oldowan flint flake from obsidian through a technique known as knapping. | See all videos for this article |
Also in Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda, types of pebble tools, roughly chipped to an edge on one side only, occur in deposits of Lower Pleistocene age. This development, known as the Kafuan, apparently evolved into an industry characterized by implements made on pebbles chipped to an edge on both sides, called the Oldowan. Overlying the latter are beds containing true Lower Paleolithic hand axes of Abbevillian and Acheulean type, together with flake tools. Associated with the Middle and Late Acheulean are cleavers made on flakes, as well as evidence of the use of the prepared striking-platform–tortoise-core (Levallois) technique in the production of flakes. In the next-younger horizon, two distinct toolmaking traditions are found: the Kenya Stillbay, a Levalloisian derivative characterized by small- to medium-sized, bifacially flaked points or minute hand axes; and the Kenya Fauresmith, basically of Acheulean inspiration and very similar to the true Fauresmith of Southern Africa. Carefully shaped round stone balls, believed to have been used as bola weights in hunting, constitute part of the Fauresmith assemblage. In the post-Gamblian dry phase, microlithic tools appear for the first time in an assemblage known as the Magosian. This was followed by the introduction into the area of a true blade technique, called the Kenya Capsian, together with the art of pottery making. More or less contemporary with the localities where the earliest pottery is found in East Africa, a series of sites has been discovered yielding typical microlithic assemblages and referable to the Kenya Wilton, also found in South Africa, Zimbabwe, and Zambia.
Southern Africa
The sequence in Southern Africa is well established on the basis of the terrace stratigraphy of the Vaal Valley. Just as in North and East Africa, the succession begins in the basal Pleistocene with the occurrence of pebble tools of Kafuan type. These develop into what is called the pre-Stellenbosch, which is found in the oldest gravels of the Vaal and which includes artifacts made on pebbles that recall both the Kafuan and the Oldowan. The true Stellenbosch complex occurs in the next-younger series of deposits; it is simply a Southern African version of the Abbevillian and Acheulean of other parts of Africa and Europe. Typical are hand axes, cleavers, flakes struck from Victoria West cores, and (in its later phases) various sorts of flakes produced by the prepared striking-platform–tortoise-core technique. The Stellenbosch was followed by the Fauresmith, which is characterized by evolved hand axes and Levallois-type flakes. The Stellenbosch and Fauresmith together constitute what is called the South African Older Stone Age, a period roughly corresponding to the Lower and Middle Paleolithic stages of Europe. On the other hand, the South African Middle Stone Age belongs to the later part of the Upper Pleistocene. It is characterized by a series of more or less contemporary flake-tool assemblages, each of which displays local features. These are known as Mossel Bay, Pietersburg, Howieson’s Poort, Bambata Cave, Stillbay, etc.; Stillbay, which occurs in Kenya and Uganda, is the only one of these found outside Southern Africa. The characteristic tools are made on flakes produced by a developed Levalloisian technique, including slender unifacial and bifacial lances or spear points for stabbing or throwing. In the final stages of the Middle Stone Age, known as the South African Magosian, microlithic elements appear, just as in the case of East Africa. The Later Stone Age cultures of this region—the Smithfield and the Wilton—developed during post-Pleistocene times. These are closely related and, in their later stages, reveal varying degrees of influence as the result of contact with the culture introduced by the Bantu-speaking peoples. Both were extant at the time the first Europeans arrived in Southern Africa, and there is little doubt that the Wilton, which is a typical microlithic assemblage, is to be associated with the modern San (Bushman). There are many paintings in the rock shelters and engravings on stones in the open-air sites of Southern Africa, the oldest of which belong to the Later Stone Age. The naturalistic style of art revealed at these sites persisted until well into historic times.
Central Africa
The Lower Paleolithic sequence of Central, or Equatorial, Africa is essentially a repetition of what has already been outlined for East and Southern Africa. At the beginning of Middle Stone Age times, however, a special development took place known as the Sangoan (formerly Tumbian). This is characterized by picks and adzes made on bifacially flaked cores, the tranchet type of ax, hand axes of developed Acheulean form, massive side scrapers, and many elongated, bifacially flaked points that probably served as lances or spearheads. The Sangoan seems to represent a response to the environmental conditions of this tropical rain-forest region. Its main development took place during Upper Pleistocene times, but it persisted after the introduction of Neolithic traits into the area.Hallam L. Movius
Mesolithic–Neolithic
The Paleolithic was everywhere followed by the Mesolithic, a period when humans continued to use stone tools, mostly microlithic, and, while still in the hunting-and-gathering stage, depended less for their food supply on large mammals than on fish and mollusks. In Africa the evidence for the Mesolithic is still scanty. In the Lower Nile Valley, sites have been examined only at Ḥulwān (Helwan) and Kawm Umbū (Kom Ombo). At the latitude of Khartoum, for a considerable distance to each side of the Nile, have been found sites of a Mesolithic culture in which large, well-fired, unburnished pots decorated with designs impressed with a fish spine to make them resemble baskets were made and barbed bone harpoons were used for fishing. Arrows were mostly armed with stone lunates, and in general the microlithic industry shows relations with the Capsian (of northwestern Africa) and the Wilton (of east central Africa). The fauna indicates a climate much wetter than the present. The upper Kenya Capsian, with traces of similar pottery found at Gamble’s Cave, probably represents the Mesolithic of Kenya. Its pottery also copies basketwork. And while it is impossible to say where pottery was invented, the discovery of a prepottery Neolithic in Asia, with the existence of modern mud-lined baskets among the Nilotes, the accidental burning of which could have led to the invention of pottery, suggests that pottery was possibly an African discovery.
The Neolithic inventions that led to the rise of humans above the conditions of the Old Stone Age were made gradually in different places and probably over a long period. Some, such as the domestication of animals, took place more than once. In a famine, a wild animal will sell itself into slavery to humans for the food that will preserve its life. Thus, cattle and goats, while certainly domesticated in Asia, may have been independently domesticated in Africa, too. African jackals may have provided one breed of domestic dog, while the donkey and the cat are African. The polishing of stone implements was probably a by-product of the grinding of red ochre, in wide demand for its magic properties since the Paleolithic and extensively used in Africa in the Mesolithic and later. One result of the grinding of ochre was to polish the grindstone, and another, when the upper grindstone was used at an angle, was to develop a sharp edge that, produced accidentally, may have led to the idea of grinding the cutting edge of celts or other tools. Repeated pecking of the flat surfaces of the grindstones that became too smooth to grind ochre efficiently led to perforation of the stone and thus to the development of the disk macehead of the Nile Valley. Archaeology must establish where and when celts were first ground; but the partly polished celts of the Fayum and Khartoum are probably the earliest forms of that tool known. The cultivation of wheat, barley, and flax probably were Asiatic developments that first entered Africa through the Nile Delta. The cultivation of one form of wheat may have originated in Ethiopia, however.
In Egypt, civilization first reached its full development c. 3000 BCE, but though it passed through Copper and Bronze ages and introduced copper tools to the Sudan, there is no evidence of either of these ages in the rest of Africa, where a transition from the Stone Age, generally still Mesolithic in type, directly to the Iron Age took place gradually during the last two millennia and in a few places did not take place until the middle of the 20th century. In some localities, an intermediate state, when Neolithic forms were used, occurred (e.g., Democratic Republic of the Congo and Ghana), but elsewhere (e.g., Kenya) polished-stone celts, or axes, seem so rare that they may have been comparatively late imports from the north.
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7 Influential African Empires
by Evan Andrews
updated: Aug 22, 2018; Original: Jan 11, 2017
1. The Kingdom of Kush
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| Meroë is an ancient city on the east bank of the Nile app. 200 km north-east of Khartoum, Sudan. (Credit: Yannick Tylle/Getty Images) |
Though often overshadowed by its Egyptian neighbors to the north, the Kingdom of Kush stood as a regional power in Africa for over a thousand years. This ancient Nubian empire reached its peak in the second millennium B.C., when it ruled over a vast swath of territory along the Nile River in what is now Sudan. Almost all that is known about Kush comes from Egyptian sources, which indicate that it was an economic center that operated a lucrative market in ivory, incense, iron and especially gold. The kingdom was both a trading partner and a military rival of Egypt—it even ruled Egypt as the 25th Dynasty—and it adopted many of its neighbor’s customs. The Kushites worshipped some of the Egyptian gods, mummified their dead and built their own types of pyramids. The area surrounding the ancient Kushite capital of Meroe is now home to the ruins of over 200 pyramids—more than in all of Egypt.
2. The Land of Punt
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| Papyrus showing preparations for an Egyptian journey to Punt. (Credit: De Agostini Picture Library/Getty Images) |
Few African civilizations are as mysterious as Punt. 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 ebony, gold, myrrh and exotic animals such as apes and leopards. 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—yet they never identified where it was located. The site of the fabled kingdom is now a hotly debated topic among scholars. The Arabian Peninsula and the Levant have both been proposed as potential candidates, but most believe it existed somewhere on the Red Sea coast of East Africa. In 2010, a team of researchers tried to zero in on Punt by analyzing a mummified baboon that its rulers once gifted to the Egyptian pharaohs. While their results showed that the remains most closely matched animals found in modern day Ethiopia and Eritrea, the precise location of the Land of Punt has still yet to be confirmed.
3. Carthage
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| Tunisia, Carthage. (Credit: DEA PICTURE LIBRARY/Getty Images) |
Best known as ancient Rome’s rival in the Punic Wars, Carthage was a North African commercial hub that flourished for over 500 years. The city-state began its life in the 8th or 9th century B.C. as a Phoenician settlement in what is now Tunisia, but it later grew into a sprawling seafaring empire that dominated trade in textiles, gold, silver and copper. At its peak, its capital city boasted nearly half a million inhabitants and included a protected harbor outfitted with docking bays for 220 ships. Carthage’s influence eventually extended from North Africa to Spain and parts of the Mediterranean, but its thirst for expansion led to increased friction with the burgeoning Roman Republic. Beginning in 264 B.C., the ancient superpowers clashed in the three bloody Punic Wars, the last of which ended in 146 B.C. with the near-total destruction of Carthage. Today, almost all that remains of the once-mighty empire is a series of ruins in the city of Tunis.
4. The Kingdom of Aksum
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| Coins from Aksum. (Credit: http://cgb.fr /) |
During the same period that the Roman Empire rose and fell, the influential Kingdom of Aksum held sway over parts of what are now Eritrea and northern Ethiopia. Surprisingly little is known about Aksum’s origins, but by the 2nd and 3rd centuries A.D. it was a trading juggernaut whose gold and ivory made it a vital link between ancient Europe and the Far East. The kingdom had a written script known as Ge’ez—one of the first to emerge in Africa—and it developed a distinctive architectural style that involved the building of massive stone obelisks, some of which stood over 100 feet tall. 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
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| Depiction of Mansa Musa. (Credit: Abraham Cresques/WikiCommons) |
The founding of the Mali Empire dates to the 1200s, when a ruler named Sundiata Keita—sometimes called the “Lion King”—led a revolt against a Sosso king and united his subjects into a new state. Under Keita and his successors, the empire tightened its grip over a large portion of West Africa and grew rich on trade. Its most important cities were Djenné and Timbuktu, both of which were renowned for their elaborate adobe mosques and Islamic schools. 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.
6. The Songhai Empire
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| Tomb of Askia, emperor of the Songhai Empire at Gao, Mali, West Africa. (Credit: Luis Dafos) |
For sheer size, few states in African history can compare to the Songhai Empire. Formed in the 15th century from some of the former regions of the Mali Empire, this West African kingdom was larger than Western Europe and comprised parts of a dozen modern day nations. The empire enjoyed a period of prosperity thanks to vigorous trade policies and a sophisticated bureaucratic system that separated its vast holdings into different provinces, each ruled by its own governor. It reached its zenith in the early 16th century under the rule of the devout King Muhammad I Askia, who conquered new lands, forged an alliance with Egypt’s Muslim Caliph and established hundreds of Islamic schools in Timbuktu. While the Songhai Empire was once among the most powerful states in the world, it later crumbled in the late 1500s after a period of civil war and internal strife left it open to an invasion by the Sultan of Morocco.
7. The Great Zimbabwe
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| The great enclosure courtyard, Great Zimbabwe. (Credit: Bill Raften/Getty Images) |
One of the most impressive monuments in sub-Saharan Africa is the Great Zimbabwe, an imposing collection of stacked boulders, stone towers and defensive walls assembled from cut granite blocks. The rock citadel has long been the subject of myths and legends—it was once thought to be the residence of the Biblical Queen of Sheba—but historians now know it as the capital city of an indigenous empire that thrived in the region between the 13th and 15th centuries. This kingdom ruled over a large chunk of modern day Botswana, Zimbabwe and Mozambique. It was particularly rich in cattle and precious metals, and stood astride a trade route that connected the region’s gold fields with ports on the Indian Ocean coast. Though little is known about its history, the remains of artifacts such as Chinese pottery, Arabian glass and European textiles indicate that it was once a well-connected mercantile center. The fortress city at the Great Zimbabwe was mysteriously abandoned sometime in the 15th century after the kingdom went into decline, but in its heyday it was home to an estimated 20,000 people.
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