Ironworking | Africa's Great Civilizations

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athompson

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Ironworking | Africa's Great Civilizations


In the lush forests of modern-day Central African Republic, sometime between 1800 and 1500 BC, craftsmen are believed to have discovered iron. New evidence indicates that ironworking began in the heart of Africa. Learn more in Africa’s Great Civilizations with Henry Louis Gates, Jr., premiering at 9/8c February 27 on PBS.

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37 Comments

  1. I hate this "emerged at the same time" conclusions we keep coming to despite know that global trade existed at the time. Part of trade is technological knowledge. One single person on a trade caravan could have passed this knowledge from one place to the other.

  2. Amazing that we are supposed to believe that West Africans went from living most of a million years living a stagnant Middle Stone Age existence, then suddenly advance to the iron age, all by themselves? 11,000 years ago, West Africans only made one hand held stone tool called an Acheulean hand axe. For most of a million years, they couldn't figure out how to fasten it to a handle or wooden shaft. They hunted with sharpened sticks one day, and the next day they figured out how to make iron?
    Everyone seems to assume the ancient West and Central Africans are the same people that live there today. They're not. For evidence of who ancient Middle Stone Age sub-Saharan Africans were, the archaeological and genetic evidence is the key to knowing. First of all, the oldest modern human fossil with Negroid affinity is the 6,400 year old Asselar Man skeleton found in Mali. The oldest human fossil with Negroid affinity is the 11,000 year old Iwo Eleru skull found in Nigeria. However, Iwo Eleru was an archaic hominid similar to Homo erectus. It was not modern human and is likely the source of the archaic Ghost hominid DNA found in modern sub-Saharan Africans.
    The 8,000 year old Shum Laka human fossils found in West Africa aren't the ancestors of modern Bantu speakers. Instead, they're closest related to Pygmies.
    So let's look at the genetic evidence to figure out what happened in sub-Saharan Africa that caused the sudden advancement in technology.
    Gurdasani et al, 2015
    The African Genome Variation Project shapes medical genetics in Africa
    "Specifically, ancient Eurasian admixture was observed in central West African populations (Yoruba; ,7,500–10,500 years ago)"

    Cole et al, 2020
    Ancient Admixture into Africa from the ancestors of non-Africans
    "We find evidence for substantial migration from the ancestors of present-day Eurasians into African groups between 40 and 70 thousand years ago, predating the divergence of Eastern and Western Eurasian lineages. This event accounts for previously unexplained genetic diversity in African populations, and supports the existence of novel population substructure in the Late Middle Paleolithic. Our results indicate that our species’ demographic history around the out-of-Africa event is more complex than previously appreciated."

    Notice that most sub-Saharan Africans have an E or R1b based paternal haplogroup. Both of those macrohaplogroups originated from Eurasians. Also notice that West Africans only became modern humans AFTER mixing with Eurasians. And most importantly, no technological advancements past the Middle Stone Age occurred in sub-Saharan Africa until after Eurasian contact. No Bantu language, pottery, mud brick, iron, copper, bronze, archery or small tool flaking happened until after Eurasian contact.

  3. Such nonsense. Where's the archaeological evidence to back abby of this up. And no stacked stones don't equate to civilisation. We were doing that in Europe 7 thousand years ago

  4. India has been colonized for a far longer then Africa, and there is tons of evidence of civilization. Africa has nothing other then Egypt.. Europe exploited China too but u cannot erase evidence of their civilization . sub sahara Africa has nothing other than ethipoia

  5. You cannot be racist and scientist at once. The way in which we are taught african history in schools shows the prejudices in our world, but these kind of studies prove that truth always comes to light.

  6. Funny, when Stanley and Livingston explored in the late nineteenth century, they hadn't even thought of the wheel. No writing found, no roads, no buildings with a staircase.

  7. If they were making large smelters, there was clearly a complex and large scale organization of labor. If a food surplus brought on by farming, and a complex division of labor system isn't civilization or a culture, IDK what is. I know, it's hard to admit you sabotaged other civilizations to sell their people so you could collect more gold for sky daddy, but that's simply what happened.

  8. Iron-ic! Iron came from outter space deposited in meteorites. Are humans that naive to think Iron ore was inclusive just for their technological gain? If metals were dispersed throughout the universe carried by meteors then somewhere theirs an advanced race of aliens who's knowledge of metallurgy is beyond our own, yet we are having petty arguments about who crafted metals first on this planet.I'll laugh when the day comes when we are invaded by an interstellar race that will wake us up to the fact that humans are not the center of the universe.

  9. Excellent video, this needs to be shown to these self-hating racist culture vulture American Afrocentrics who claim this and that culture around the world to compensate their silly inferior complex. Sub Saharan Africa has many ancient civilizations and achievements. I'm going to add this video to my "Ancient Sub Saharan African" playlist.

  10. Not intending to knock your culture, and any development is great. Hell, I'm proud my ancestors were creating deep slate mines 16,000 years ago. But honestly, the art, is nice, but the Egyptians were creating the same quality of art 5,000 BC, and as far as iron goes, considering you had to dig to find any evidence and didn't have the same quality of application as other cultures. So in short, it's entirely possible they found out about the technique via trade routes. Caucasians had the fertile crescent, Asians had China…sorry you guys didn't have the same fortune. On the bright side, least you're an American now, you're part of a smart, technology producing group. Congrats 🙂

  11. It is good to learn more about African history
    and the great civilizations that emerged there.
    After seeing this info I would be interested to
    discover why these civilizations were so easily conquered?
    Were they passivists like the Amish or were they weakened
    internally by corruption like Rome?
    Why did they not go out and conquer new land and establish
    new colonies like other great powers in the past?

  12. Ethiopia or Africa is the mother of the first civilization with proud histories which lasted 7012 years with it's own letters, numbers and Calander with 13 months sunshine. It had a unique history. And it is continuing. Black people are unique people on planet earth!.