Forging Fire: The Metallurgical Arts of Africa

While it has been advanced by many European and European-descent scholars that the iron age began in Eurasia circa. 1000 BCE, recent archaeological discoveries in Nigeria suggests that iron smelting and blacksmith work was performed at a much earlier time -- as early as 2000-2500 BCE -- at high-levels of production and involving wide trade distribution among the ancient Igboland peoples in West Africa. 

A row of 10 Igbo iron-smelting pyramids at Nsude, Enugu State of Nigeria, Africa. 
Carbon dating information has been unattainable to date. 

Prior to this, the earliest known African advances in metal works were found among the Nok, who appear to have been the cultural ancestors of the Yoruba who developed the Ife sculptures centuries later. According to Roger Atwood, writing for Archaeology magazine, "Carbon dating of charcoal inside the [Nok] furnaces revealed dates as far back as 280 B.C., giving Nok the earliest dates for iron smelting in sub-Saharan Africa up to that time." A collection of Nok terracotta heads and figures were found among tin mines and many of these works are housed at a museum at Jos in central Nigeria. Other carbon dating established that items were deposited in the region from 500 BCE to 200 by the Nok. By the 13th century, we see the Ife cultural arts develop into a sophisticated court art that represented specific figure heads such as kings. 

Also around 500 BCE, Nubia was in her Meroitic phase and was producing and trading iron. By 270 CE, at current day Ethiopia, coins in gold, silver and bronze were produced by the Aksumites under King Endubis.  

Egyptians artisans smelted copper and gold for artistic, architectural, and even military purposes.

At one point in Western scientific literature, it was thought that sub-Saharan Africans did not invent iron independently. This notion was abandoned more than a century ago. German scholar, Ludwig Beck, who published a five-volume history of iron between 1884 and 1903, wrote in his first volume: ". . . [w]e see everywhere an original art of producing iron among the numerous native tribes of Africa, which is in its entire essence not imported but original and . . . must be very old."  The American linguist Christopher Ehret asserts the following:

Africa south of the Sahara, it now seems, was home to a separate and independent invention of iron metallurgy . . . To sum up the available evidence, iron technology across much of sub-Saharan Africa has an African origin dating to before 1000 BCE.

"More and more numerous datings are pushing back the beginning of iron production in Africa to at least the middle of the second millennium BC, which would make it one of the world's oldest metallurgies," states Hamady Bocoum, Senegalese archeologist. Gaston Maspéro, a French Egyptologist, concluded that ancient Egypt learned iron works from Africans to the south. This sentiment was corroborated by the German Felix von Luschan, who also thought sub-Saharan Africans originated iron technology, as did the British metallurgist William Gowland.

The more recent scholarship of Dr. Pamela Eze-Uzomaka, Nigerian scholar, states that the study of the prehistoric iron smelting site at Lejja, Nigeria has found the existence of a thriving iron smelting community with hundreds of furnaces, tuyeres and slags visible from the surface at the main village square. Interrupted by modern history, this iron smelting Lejja site has been reported by Dr. Eze-Uzomaka as extinct, no active iron smiths in the community. The debris from the iron smelting site has, however, been radiocarbon dated to approximately 2000 BC. 

As early as precolonial times, iron work in ancient Igboland was highly ritualized. Supernatural forces were solicited by the smiths and smelters to participate in and supervise the production process for metals. This is described by Onwuka N. Joku as the "magico-religious context of iron production" that releases the powers of iron. Joku writes:

Traditional iron working involved considerable technical and artistic skill as well as brawn. However, to the Igbo, a lot more was required, namely, the possession of esoteric powers. Such esoteric powers were deemed inevitable as iron was believed to possess inherent mystical qualities. Iron was 'charged' and consequently dangerous to all persons except those who had the uncommon gift of knowing how to handle it. The core of this knowledge was 'acquired by blood'; that is, it was inherited by birth.

The apprenticeship training was long and rigorous throughout Igboland. The iron smithing guilds held varying strickness in allowing entrants from non-smithing lineages. An aspiring apprentice from a non-smithing family could be required to undergo a number of associated practices and rituals before attempting to practice smithing. Without the mystical powers obtained from the iron deity through blood lines, the mysterious act of turning earth into iron and iron into tools, ornaments and other items was generally thought to be next to impossible, within the guilds. Again, entry into a guild without being in the family line was possible among some guilds, with additional rituals and tests for the aspirant.

Dr. Eze-Uzomaka's research also links prehistoric Igbo iron smith and smelting directly to ancient Nile Valley civilizations. She asserts that many of the same deities were being employed on the West and East coasts of Africa in prehistoric times. She states that the ancient Lost City of Heliopolis, referenced by the ancient Egyptians, was located in Igboland where iron work was produced directly for distribution to locations as far as the Nile Valley region of Africa. The Igbo-Kmt connection existed at Lejja, states Eze-Uzomaka. This ancient Igboland was the Lost City of Heliopolis, the Ancient Egyptian Duat, Temple of the Sun.

The record provides evidence that the ancient Africans enjoyed a sophisticated understanding and relationship to natural metals. These metals were employed in their arts, coins, tools and weapons. Metallurgical guilds arose to develop and protect the knowledge attained among the people of different regions. The existence of highly sophisticated inter-Africa trade in metals is probably the most exciting aspect of the current scholarship. If West Africans were supplying iron as far as the Nile Valley regions, the relationships among African peoples on the continent is surely in its infancy stages of discovery.

References: 

• Scenes from Papyrus Book of Coming Forth by Day of Hunefer, cir. 1300 B.C. Dover Edition: 1967, pp. 283, 289, 368 (reference to retrieving Amen-Ra's iron from a double bight, two bodies of water. See West Africa's river bights of Biafra (nka Bonny) and Benin; see also, double feather plums of Osiris representing two river bights). 
• Eze-Uzomaka, Pamela. Iron and its influence on the prehistoric site of Lejja (whitepaper available as free download, last visited 10/13/14).
• Joku, Onwuka N, Magic, Religion and Iron Technology in Precolonial North-western Igboland, Journal of Religion in Africa XX, 3 (1991) (Jstor access required, last visited 10/13/14).

Further reading: 

• Acholonu, Catherine Obianuju, Eden in Sumer on the Niger (Kindle Edition).
• Alpern, Stanley B., Did They or Didn't They Invent It? Iron in Sub-Saharan Africa? History in Africa, Volume 32 (2005) 

Queen Hatshepsut of Egypt: The Queen that Would Become a Pharaoh




Ancient Egyptian statue (painted limestone) remain showing bust of Queen Hatshepsut that was originally attached to a larger stone work representing the queen as the god Osiris.

"I have restored that which was in ruins. I have raised up that which was destroyed." 

- Queen Hatshepsut

There was a woman who ruled over Egypt from 1479 to 1458 B.C. -- the 18th dynasty, the New Kingdom. During that time the word "Egypt" did not exist. The best English translation of the name the Nile Valley natives called themselves in ancient Egypt is Kemet. For 21 years, as queen regent to her young stepson Thutmose III and surrounded by the great kingdoms of Nubia, Kush, and Punt, Queen Hatshepsut (meaning "foremost of noble ladies") ruled this valley. 



Photo: Valley of the Kings, royal cemetery at Luxor that embraces Hatshepsut's mortuary temple.

It was not until 2007 that Hatshepsut's lost mummy was not discovered. In 1903, archaeologist Howard Carter found a sarcophagus that belonged to Hatshepsut in KV20 Valley of the Kings. The sarcophagus, a cubicle funeral receptacle for a corpse, was empty. Zahi Hawass, head of the Egyptian Mummy Project and secretary general of the Supreme Council of Antiquities honed in on mummy KV60a, discovered more than a century earlier and then deemed a minor tomb. It had no gold or other jewels but was tested and determined to be the late queen regent.

This was a far cry from the treasures found in the tomb of pharaoh Tutankhamun. There was no gold or other jewels adorning Hatshepsut's mummy, only the remains of the ancient Egyptian royal family. It was soon discovered that there was a concerted effort to eradicate the historical record of her reign. Thumose III, her co-regent and successor, systemically removed evidence of her rule during the time he was too young to rule. Temples, obelisks and monuments underwent a systematic chisel job.

Born in the 15th century BC, Hatshepsut was the daughter of Thutmose I and Aahmes, both of royal lineage. She would marry Thutmose II, the son of her father by another. The marriage of Hatshepsut as wife-sister to Thutmose II was part of the traditions used to fortify royal lineages. Thutmose II fathered one child, Isis, not with Hatshepsut -- to whom he never bore children.  Isis bore the male child Thutmose III. After Thutmose II's death in 1479 BC, Thutmose III was too young to assume control as the male royal. Hatshepsut was allowed to rule as the young pharaoh's queen regent.



Queen Hatshepsut effectively ruled the Egyptian kingdom for about 21 years. In public, she portrayed herself as a man, the traditional gender of a pharaoh. She wore male clothing and a pharaonic beard. Suggestions of her femininity are portrayed, however, in the surviving sculptures that depict her with feminine breasts. Hatshepsut's dynastic rule was a clear break from the traditional role of the queen regent, such as seen in other Nile Valley royal dynasties like that of Nigiste Negaste (Empress Regent) Zewditu Menelik of Ethiopia.

Photo: only remaining obelisk of Karnak, erected by Pharaoh Hatshepsut

Queen Hatshepsut was a grand renovator of shrines and temples, from Nubia to Sinai. Four great granite obelisks were erected at Karnak, at the temple of the great god Amun. During her reign hundreds of monumental public works were commissioned, including focused public efforts on Thebes, her capital, which is known today as Luxor and Karnak.

One of the Karnak obelisks commissioned by Hatshepsut read: "Now my heart turns this way and that, as I think what the people will say. Those who see my monuments in years to come, and who shall speak of what I have done."  One of the four great obelisks erected by Pharaoh Hatshepsut still stands.

Queen Hatshepsut established international trading partners with kingdoms as close as Nubia and Punt, as well as those across the great seas. Her rule was a time of economic growth for her people.

Today, the tomb of Hatshepsut is said to be in one of the two of the Egyptian Museum's Royal Mummy Rooms. If visiting, however, check to determine status because the location and public presentment of certain antiquities change and are limited during social and political upheaval in a region.

Above video: on-site lecture at Temple of Queen Hatshepsut

A Brief Timeline of the Ancient History of Africa to the "Scramble for Africa"

Map of Africa, c. 1812.

	A BRIEF TIMELINE OF THE ANCIENT HISTORY OF AFRICA TO THE “SCRAMBLE FOR AFRICA”
c. 3150 B.C.	Ancient tradition states that the first pharaoh (king) of Kemet (kmt, translation: “black land”, nka Ancient Egypt) was Pharaoh Menes, honored with having unified Upper and Lower Kemet into a single kingdom. The pharaoh of Dynasty I would begin a series of dynasties that ruled Kemet for the next three millennium. In Pliny's account, Menes was credited with being the inventor of writing in Kemet. The New Kingdom of Kemet (c. 1550-1070 B.C.) began with the Eighteenth Dynasty, marking the rise of Egypt as an international power that expanded during its greatest extension to an empire into the southern, northern and western regions of continental Africa and as far east as the region now called India. Notable Pharaohs of this era include Hatshepsut, Thutmose III, Akhenaten and his wife Nefertiti, Tutankhamun and Ramesses II. The last native ruled dynasty is said to have been the Thirtieth Dynasty, after which the kingdom fell into the hands of Persian rulers c. 343 B.C., defeating Pharaoh Nectanebo II. Later the Ottomans, of Arab descent, came to rule this part of the Nile Valley.
c. 1200 B.C.	Kingdom of Kush was an ancient African dynasty situated on the confluences of the Blue Nile, White Nile and River Atbara in what is now the Republic of Sudan. Established after the Bronze Age collapse (c. 1206 to 1150), it was centered at Napata in its early phase. After king Kashta ("the Kushite") invaded Egypt in the 8th century BC, the Kushite kings ruled as Pharaohs of the Twenty-fifth dynasty of Egypt for a century, until they were expelled by Psamtik I in 656 BC. In early Greek geography, the Meroitic kingdom, with its imperial capital at Meroe, was known as Ethiopia. The Kushite kingdom with its capital at Meroe persisted until the 4th century C.E., when it weakened and disintegrated due to internal rebellion. The Kushite capital was eventually captured and destroyed by the kingdom of Axum.
c. 100 C.E.	Kingdom of Aksum (aka as the Axum, Aksumite Kingdom, Abyssinia and Ethiopia), encompassed the national regions now known as Ethiopia and Eritrea. Its dominion included rule over the declining Kingdom of Kush and over the Kingdom of Himyarite in the region now known as Yemen, which then included Saba (Sheba) from c. 25 B.C., Qataban from c. 200 C.E., and Hadramaut from c. 300 C.E. The kingdom existed from approximately 100 C.E. to 940 C.E. Great traders, the Aksumites minted their own currency and was named by Mani (216–276 C.E.) as one of the four great powers of his time along with Persia, Rome, and China. Aksum became the first major empire to convert to Christianity.
c. 400 C.E.	The name Nubia is derived from the Noba people, nomads who settled in the Nile valley region in the 4th century, after the collapse of the Kingdom of Kush. In the ancient commentary, however, Nubia, Kush and Ethiopia (Greek: Aithiopia) are frequently used to describe the same people. For example, while Kemet conquered Nubian lands during various times in history, the Nubians are also noted as having conquered Kemet under its 25th Dynasty. The ancient Nubian language in written form uses a modified Coptic script that was mostly used in religious texts dating from the 8th and 15th centuries C.E.. It is now preserved in at least a hundred pages of ancient documents, including the famous The Martyrdom of Saint Menas. There were a number of small Nubian kingdoms throughout the Middle Ages, the last of which collapsed in 1504, when Nubia became divided between The Arab Republic of Egypt and the Sennar sultanate resulting in the Arabization of much of the Nubian population. Nubia was again brought under Ottoman Egypt in the 19th century, and within Anglo-Egyptian Sudan from 1899 to 1956.
c. 400 C.E.	Kingdom of Ghana, also called the Wagadou, founded in western region of Africa. The wealth of the kingdom includes commentaries of domesticated animals adorned with gold collars and included the domestication of camels before the Arabs.  The old kingdom is not located in the same region as the current Ghana nation. It included the western region of the current nation of Mali and the southeastern section of the current nation of Mauritania and emcompassed Mande-speaking people. Gold, ivory, and salt were traded to Europe and the Middle East. Abū ʿAbdallāh Muḥammad ibn Mūsā al-Khwārizmī (Arabic: عَبْدَالله مُحَمَّد بِن مُوسَى اَلْخْوَارِزْمِي‎), the Persian mathematician, astronomer and geographer writing from Baghdad c. 800 C.E. documented the legend of the Ghana dynasties.
c. 600 C.E.	The Great Zimbabwe complex was built in stone in the Kingdom of Zimbabwe, marking the rise of the Shona (Translation: dzimba dza mabwe or "great stone houses") civilization and evidencing the great Bantu expansion. The archaeological ruins known as "Great Zimbabwe" have been radiocarbon dated to approximately 600 C.E. The Kingdom of Zimbabwe controlled the ivory and gold trade from the interior to the southeastern coast of Africa. Asian and Arabic goods could be found in abundance in the kingdom.
c. 1230 C.E.	The Mali Empire (aka Mandingo Empire or Manden Kurufaba) major tribal group was the Mandinka and was founded by Sundiata Keita and gained international fame from its ruler Mansa Musa I. The empire formed on the upper Niger River, and reached the height of power in the 14th century with the center of its scholarship and trade in the ancient cities of Djenné and Timbuktu. The pages above are from Timbuktu Manuscripts written in Sudani script (a Semetic script) from the Mali Empire showing established knowledge of astronomy and mathematics. Today there are close to a million of these manuscripts found in Timbuktu alone.
c. 1402 C.E.	Ethiopian embassy was established in Venice.
c. 1460	The Songhai (aka Songhay) are thought to have settled at Gao as early as 800 C.E., but did not establish it as the capital until the 11th century, during the reign of Dia Kossoi. Sulaiman-Mar gained independence and hegemony over Gao c. 1340, and became the forbear of Sunni Ali, the first emperor of Songhai, reigning from c. 1464-1493. Sulaiman-Mar is often credited with wresting power away from the Mali Empire at a time of internal succession disputes. The Songhai Empire would eventually supplanted the Mali Empire. The Songhai Empire would collapse in 1591 in great part due to what is described as the Moroccan invasion.
1497	Vasco da Gama rounds the Cape of Good Hope
1505-1821	The Funj empire in Sudan.
1517	Ottomans take Cairo
1626	First French settle in Senegal and Madagascar
1628-29	War between Mozambique and Portugal, with Mozambique becoming a Portuguese protectorate
1820	Egypt conquers Sudan. British settlers arrive in Cape Colony.
1822	Liberia is established by freed Africans from America.
1824-31	First Anglo-Ashanti War.
1830-47	French conquest of Algeria.
1834-35	British defeat the Xhosa.
1849	Livingstone's first journey in Africa
1850-78	Nine Xhosa wars in South Africa.
1868	British annexes Lesotho
1869	Suez Canal opens
1879	Ango-Zulu War
c. 1880	“Scramble for Africa” begins Note: There were many great kingdoms and empires that rose on the African continent, such as the great civilizations developed by the Moor and the Berber, the Ndongo Kingdom in the central west Africa; the absence on this time-line is a product of the need for brevity only.