Patterns of Development in Ancient Africa

The market was next week, and the smith needed to make dozens of plows for sale. Wheat farming was spreading
across all the villages along the Nile River, and his iron plows were in demand. The smith watched as drafts of wind
blew through openings in the furnaces, stoking the fire and increasing the heat, as iron ore melted in long clay tubes.
As the iron melted and separated from the ore, he then began to shape it into his farming tool.
This ironsmith was part of the ancient African kingdom of Nubia, along the Lower Nile. Between 600 BCE and 600
CE, Nubia was one of the sub-Saharan African civilizations that exploited trade, irrigated agriculture, and regional
connections to grow from chiefdoms to kingdoms. These civilizations built upon older ones, such as the Bantu, while
in North Africa the city-state of Carthage reigned until the 2nd century BCE. But before them all was Egypt.

Ancient Egypt
Between 5500 and 3500 BCE, Egypt developed an urban kingdom and became a major power in the Mediterranean.
The Nile River made this possible, as predictable floods spread nutrient-rich silt across thousands of acres of
farmland, making possible an agricultural surplus of crops like barley and wheat. With plenty of food, and then some,
towns developed around markets, where farmers exchanged this surplus for outside goods. Some people
accumulated more grain than others, thus creating wealth, and they took control of vast tracts of land beyond their
regular family holdings. Over time, they became priests and other high-ranking officials, and built temples as shrines
and tombs beginning around 3500 BCE.

Floodplain of the Nile River

By the second millennium BCE, these villages and towns became powerful cities. Hierankonpolis was one of the
biggest of these early urban areas. Rulers became kings, and kings became pharaohs who unified all the villages and
towns along the length of the Nile. This is the period that most people are familiar with (King Tut, anyone?). Ancient
Egypt was a powerhouse in the Eastern Mediterranean, and had trade connections with the whole of the Near East.
Egypt was the first major ancient African civilization.

Nubia and Aksum

Between 600 BCE and 600 CE, two more major African civilizations emerged: the Kingdom of Nubia and Aksum in
the Northeastern part of the sub-Saharan region. Due to the relative isolation of sub-Saharan Africa in the ancient
period, most of the region remained a forager society with only small villages. But Nubia and Aksum adopted the
agricultural techniques of the Near East (as did Egypt before them) and became the exceptions when they developed
kingdoms and an urban society.
Nubia was located on the Middle Nile, and at its height between the 6th and 4th centuries BCE had over 20,000
mostly urban inhabitants. Nubian farmers used irrigation techniques adapted from Egyptian and Near East practices
to produce cotton crop, and miners dug for iron ore. With these products, smiths made iron weapons and plows, and
weavers used the cotton for cloth. Hunters from Nubia traveled to the savannas south of the city and brought back
elephant tusks and ostrich feathers. Mule and camel caravans took these in-demand products down the Nile and
traded them for Egyptian olive oil and wine. Boats traded the goods across the Red Sea and brought back
frankincense and myrrh.