When was the Iron Age in West Africa?

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. 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 …

When did iron Works begin in Africa?

How did iron help the early West Africans?

Iron played a central role in many societies of early Africa. It held both spiritual and material power. Physically, Africans used iron to create tools for agriculture, utensils for everyday life, and weapons for protection and conquest (Shillington, 2012, p. 45).

Did Sub-Saharan Africa have an Iron Age?

The African Iron Age is traditionally marked as between about 200 BCE–1000 CE. African communities may or may not have independently invented a process to work iron, but they were enormously innovative in their techniques. The earliest smelting in sub-Saharan Africa dates to the 8th century BCE in Ethiopia.

What is Iron Age history?

The Iron Age was a period in human history that started between 1200 B.C. and 600 B.C., depending on the region, and followed the Stone Age and Bronze Age. During the Iron Age, people across much of Europe, Asia and parts of Africa began making tools and weapons from iron and steel.

How did the Iron Age start?

The “Iron Age” begins locally when the production of iron or steel has advanced to the point where iron tools and weapons replace their bronze equivalents in common use. In the Ancient Near East, this transition took place in the wake of the so-called Bronze Age collapse, in the 12th century BC.

How was iron discovered in Africa?

Africa is rather large, and the smelting of iron took place there for at least 2500 years. The technology, if it wasn’t invented independently, could easily have reached Northern Africa via the Phoenicians and the Meroitic regions (now Sudan) down the Nile from the Hitittes when they had invaded Egypt.

What was happening in Africa during the Iron Age?

The use of iron ushered in an Iron Age in Africa, with the expansion of agriculture, industry, trade, and political power. In some African cultures, smelters and ironworkers are of low status because of the manual labor inherent in their work. In others, they are of high status because of the value of their wares.

What was iron used for in the Iron Age?

Iron was a good material to make tools, implements and utensils because it could be hammered into shape and didn’t need to be carved. Hammering the iron was known as ‘smithing’. The Iron Age helped many countries to become more technologically advanced.

What was made during Iron Age?

steel
During the Iron Age, the best tools and weapons were made from steel, particularly carbon alloys. Steel weapons and tools were nearly the same weight as those of bronze, but much stronger. Before the Industrial Revolution, which would take place centuries later, the majority of people lived an agrarian lifestyle.