Ancient African Societies Connection to the Global WOrld

Philosopher said (africans and indigenous people) aren’t civilized…this was the justification for slavery and conquering other people

  • No official language

  • No sedentary agriculture

  • No global trading

  • No religion

  • Africans were so isolated…they were shocked by how different they looked

  • No architectural structures

  • Metallurgy

*there were several places in Africa that didn’t fit this myth

Early Civilization

  • Africa has been in the global world since city-sates

  • The oldest state (Mesopotamia…not an African Civilization) began in 4500 BCE along Tigris and Euphrates River (now Iraq and Syria)

  • African Civilizations began to develop along the Nile River near Sudan around 5,000 BCE.

    • This area helped to emerge Egypt as the second cradle of civilization in 3100 BCE

Africa & Neolithic Revolution

  • Marked transition from hunter/gatherer tp agriculture and settlement around 9000 BCE

  • Developed advanced agricultural practices

  • Domestication of plants (growing in your own home) and animals (mating)

    • Led to tie of modern civilization (industrialization, economic growth)

  • Emergence of centralized administrations, political structures, and division of labor

    • Instead of chiefs…you have on large government under one ruler and sub rulers…was considered to be civilized

  • Developed writing, non-portable art, architecture, and property ownership

  • Beginning of the Bronze Age 

Nile Valley/Egypt

  • Early cultures began in the Nile Valley (circa 5500 BC)

  • Badarian Culture

  • Flourished between 4400 and 4000 BCE

  • Largest early culture in Upper Egypt/south, deep into Egypt/Africa, closer to the Sudan

  • Known for high quality ceramics and stone tools

  • Used copper (metallurgy is a marker of advanced society)

  • Modern Egyptologists say that the Badarians wrestle a “mix of North Africans and Sub-Saharan Africans” 

Naqada Culture c. 400-3000 BCE

  • Successive periods of Naqada culture 

Nawada I (about 3900-3650 BC)

  • Black topped and painted pottery

  • Trade with Nubia, Wester Desert oases, and Easter Mediterranean 

  • Obsidian from Ethiopia

Naqada II (about 3650-3300 BC)

  • Represented throughout Egypt

  • First marl pottery and metalworking

  • Early writing in the form of Pictograms

Naqada III (about 3300-2900 BC)

  • More elaborate grave goods (weapons, pottery, necklaces, where they would store organs from a dead body…anything you bury with a person), first Pharohs

  • Cylindrical jars

  • Writing

  • Transformed from small forming communities to a powerful civilization

Ethnicity of Early Egyptian Societies

  • Closest parallels to longtime populations in surrounding areas of northeastern African, like Nubia and norther Horn of Africa 

Christopher Eheret:

“Members of this population did not migrate from somewhere else but were descendants of long-term inhabitants of these portions of Africa going back many millennia:

Egypt: Early Dynastic Period (c. 3150-2686 BC)

  • Menes unified Upper and lower Egypt

  • Establishment of Memphis as capital

  • Control over lower Egypt

  • Management of labor, agriculture, and trade routes

  • Development of kingship as institution

  • Legitimization of state control

  • Importance for land, labor, and resource management 

Old Kingdom (2686-2181 BC)

  • Notable constructions 

  • Giza Pyramids

  • Great Sphinx

  • Improved agricultural productivity

  • Supervision of large construction projects

  • Emergence of the educated class

  • Scribes and officials

  • Mortuary cults and temples 

  • Worship after death

Decline of Old Kingdom

  • Erosion of economic vitality over five centuries 

  • Diminishing power of kings

  • Rise of regional governors (nomarchs)

  • Severe droughts (2200 - 2150 BC)

  • 140 yyear period of famine and strife 

  • Civil wars

Middle Kingdom (2134-1690 BC)

  • Period of restored stability & cultural resurgence 

  • Mentuhotep II and Eleventh Dynasty successors 

  • Increase in agricultural output

  • Military campaigns

  • Reconquest of Nubian territories

  • Acquisition of resources (quarries and gold mines)

  • Construction of the “Walls of the Ruler”

  • Purpose: defense against foreign attacks

  • Advances in writing

  • Detail in their artwork

Middle Kingdom Decline

Arrival and settlement of Hyksos in Egypt

  • Treatment of the native kings as vassals

  • Integration of Egyptian elements into Hyksos culture

  • Pressure from Hyksos allies to the south

  • Military campaigns to eradicate the Hyksos

  • Ahmose I

  • Permanent removal of the Hyksos fro mEgypt

  • Establishment of the Eighteenth Dynasty

  • Focus on Military

  • Expansion of Egypt’s borders and influence in the Near East

New Kingdom (1549-1069 BC)

  • Re-establishment of prosperity

  • Secured borders and diplomatic ties

  • Neighboring empires: Mitanni, Assyria, Canaan

  • Expansion of Egypt’s influence and territorial reach

  • Building projects and restoration of temples

  • Trading expeditions to Punt and the Sinai

  • Worship of one god/ Aten as the supreme deity

  • Military campaigns

  • Battle of Kadesh and the first recorded peace treaty 

New Kingdom Decline

  • Invasions from Libyan Berbers and Sea Peoples

  • Corruption, tomb robbery, civil unrest

  • Rise of high priests of Amun and their influence 

  • Rise of the Libyan Dynasty

  • Emergence of Libyan princes under Shoshenq I (945 BC)

  • Establishment of Libyan or Bubastite dynasty

  • Control of southern Egypt through priestly appointments 

  • Erosion of Libyan control from rival dynasties or foreign treaties 

Nubian Dynasty/ 25th Dynasty

  • 25th Dynasty and Kushiro Invasion

  • Piye’s invasion around 727 BC and the establishment of the 25th Dynasty

  • Expansion of the empire under Pharaoh Taharqa

  • Instruction and restoration of temples and monuments 

  • Notable architectural achievements, including pyramids in modern Sudan

Late Period (653-332 BC)

  • From Assyrian Control to Alexander the Great

  • Saite Dynasty and Greek Influence

  • Rise of Psamtik I (653 BC)

  • Ousting of the Assyrians 

  • Persian Conquest

  • Conquest by Cambyses II (525 BC)

Ptolemaic Period (332-30 BC)

  • Conquest of Egypt by Alexander the Great in 332 BC

  • Formation of the Macedonian Ptolemaic Kingdom

  • Capital City: Alexandria

    • Alexandria as a center of learning and culture 

    • Library of Alexandria

  • Roman Period (30 BC - AD 642

  • Egypt’s transition into a Roman province

  • Defeat of Mark Anthony and Cleopatra 

  • Egypt was a highly civilized society and hub for the classical world

  • The empire extended into Nubia near Sudan

  • Greeks, Romans, Persians, and other civilizations interacted with the Egyptians and Nubians

• • They were described to have black with wooly hair