produce a sharp edge. Later ancestral species and modern
humans found ways to work harder stone into tools through
abrasion or fl aking. Drilling and incision allowed a still
greater variety of tools as well as a means of fashioning deco-
rative necklaces, pendants, bracelets, and rings. Stone axes
and spear points were useful for killing game, stone adzes for
hollowing out tree trunks to make canoes, and simple stone
hoes for turning the soil and clearing brush.
Th e control of fi re brought a revolution in useful tech-
nologies, allowing ancient Africans to harden earth for pot-
tery and, later, to fashion metal tools and weapons. Pottery
making developed along with settled agricultural societies,
which needed storage for food, water, and seed. Th e fi rst clay
pots were made from river mud heated in a fi re and decorated
with simple geometric forms. Potters experimented with
diff erent soils, with controlled heating for fi ring and curing
their vessels, and with various paints and dyes. Without un-
derstanding basic chemical principles or the complex eff ects
of heat and light, they found better methods and ingredients
through centuries of trial and error.AGRICULTURE
Ancient Africa grew imported as well as native crops. Ar-
chaeologists believe that wheat and barley arrived in Africa
from the Near East and were fi rst cultivated in the Ethiopian
highlands as well as father north. Th ese crops required in-
tensive labor and close attention to weather, soil, irrigation,
and general growing conditions. Seeking to enhance the soil,
African farmers mixed it with the ashes of trees cleared and
burned to make room for cultivating plants. Th ey turned
the soil with hoes to make it easier for roots and stalks to
penetrate and found that cattle dung improved its fertility.
In hilly regions they terraced land to control drainage and
provide a greater area of cultivation. Th ey rotated crops or
allowed land to lie fallow in order to renew exhausted soil.
All of these innovations came from centuries of observation
and experiment.
In the northern half of Africa native crops such as millet,
sorghum, and yams were cultivated and propagated. Instead
of simply gathering edible plants, African farmers began
working in a systematic manner, controlling the environment
as best they could and reading the sky for signs of coming
weather and for favorable or unfavorable omens. Th ey shared
their knowledge and passed it down to younger generations.
Animal husbandry developed as societies living in the
Sahara region captured and raised wild cattle, a development
that began around the fi ft h millennium b.c.e. Sheep and
goats also fl ourished in what is now the Sahara, at the time
a well-watered region with a moderate climate. Cattle herd-
ing spread southward across the Sahara. Cattle were useful
as beasts of burden, for their meat and milk, for fertilization
of the soil, and as a store of wealth. Herders bred their ani-
mals selectively to increase and improve them. Th ey learned
to avoid environments where disease-carrying insects such as
the tsetse fl y threatened deadly epidemics.METALLURGY
Th e techniques of working and shaping stone were most use-
ful for hunters in perpetual search of game. As land came
under cultivation, African artisans began exploring the more
complex science of metallurgy. Iron production in Africa
dates to at least the second millennium b.c.e. For example, in
what is now Nigeria the Nok civilization began making iron
tools and other objects sometime around 500 b.c.e. Th e new
iron implements allowed people to hunt more eff ectively, cul-
tivate larger areas for crops, protect themselves from animals,
and make war on their neighbors.
Th e craft of metallurgy gave rise to a new class of skilled
artisans. Making and working iron were complex, diffi cult
processes that could be mastered only through years of prac-
tice. Th e fi rst step was to smelt the iron—that is, to separate
the metal from the rocky ore in which it occurs in nature. Th is
was done by heating the ore in a furnace, where the tempera-
ture could be controlled by the introduction of air through
vents. Shaft furnaces were developed, which drew air through
holes in the base. Th ese furnaces were easier to use than bel-
lows furnaces, in which air is blown over the fi re, but they
burned more wood fuel (a demand at fi rst easily met in most
regions of Africa, but one that oft en caused serious problems
as local iron industries expanded). Metalsmiths learned to
separate usable metal from impurities in order to produce a
stronger material. Th e molten iron was consolidated in heavy
crucibles and then poured into molds to cool. Once the iron
solidifi ed, the smith could craft tools and weapons by forging
it—that is, by shaping it with heavy hammers while it was
still hot enough to be relatively soft or aft er reheating it. Th e
secrets of this craft were held closely by the few who could
practice it, and who passed on its mysteries to their heirs and
apprentices.
Metalworking encouraged long-distance trade, as iron
tools and weapons were in high demand throughout the con-
tinent. Th e industry also supported permanent settlement,
as groups with knowledge of the process located themselves
near useful ore deposits. In many places the hunter-gatherer
existence faded into memory, and life became more settled,
with larger communities divided into distinct classes defi ned
by their skills and employment. Th e need to adjust to the en-
vironment led to the development of more sophisticated tools.
Th e iron implements used in the tropical parts of Africa, for
example, tended to be stronger than the ones developed by
people who lived in the desert.
From about 500 b.c.e. iron and copper metallurgy spread
throughout sub-Saharan Africa. Copper deposits were dis-
covered and worked in Mauritania and Niger, in the western
Sahara region, and in central and southern Africa. Ancient
ironworking sites have been found from about 500 b.c.e. in
Nigeria as well as in the eastern Lake District, in what are now
Rwanda and Tanzania, in Doulo (in modern-day Cameroon),
and in the Termit Mountains region of Niger. In African soci-
eties the practice of metallurgy required cooperative eff ort andscience: Africa 9230895-1194_Soc&Culturev4(s-z).i923 923 10/10/07 2:30:27 PM