Early Agricultural Society Africa

Climatic Change and the Development of Agriculture in Africa

- extensive transition zone of savanna and grassland that stretches across the African
continent
- Grasses/cattle ourish
- 9000BCE eastern Sudan people domesticate cattle/collect wild grains
- 7500BCE establish permanent settlements/cultivate sorghum/grain (NOT rice)
- 7000BCE sheep/goats arrive from Southwest Asia
- 6500BCE cultivate gourds, water melons, cotton
- 5000BCE formed small monarchies ruled by kings viewed as divine
northern half of Africa got much hotter/drier than before
as a result, people moved to Nile river or Lake Chad (Uganda)

Egypt and Nubia: Gifts of the Nile
- Nubia, middle stretches of Nile valley between the rivers rst/sixth cataracts
- took advantage of oods by Egyptians better than Nubians
- 10,000BCE migrants from Red Sea hills in Ethiopia introduced to Egypt/Nubia the
practice of collecting wild grains/Coptic, language of ancient Egypt
- 5000BCE Sudanic cultivators/herders introduced Egypt/Nubia to gourds/watermelons,
cattle/donkeys (wheat/barley from Mesopotamia also reached Egypt)
- Egyptians went to oodplains in the late summer, after recession of the Niles annual
ood, sowed their seeds without extensive preparation of the soil, allowed their crops to
mature during the cool months of the year, and harvested them during the winter and
early spring
- Nubians relied more on prepared elds/irrigation by waters diverted from the Nile.
- 4000BCE agricultural villages dotted the Niles shores/traded regularly

The Unication of Egypt
- 3500BCE political/economic competition = war between Nile kingdoms
- Ta-Seti, a strong Nubian realm that ourished about 3400 to 3200 BCE and took
territory of southern Egypt
- 3100BCE Egyptian rulers took territory between the Nile delta and the rivers rst
cataract
- Menes unied Egypt
- Horus, the sky god
- Amon, the sun god
- Power greatest during Archaic Period (3100-2660 BCE), Old Kingdom (2660-2160
BCE) - the common perception of Egypt that people have (pyramids, deities...)
takes place in Old Kingdom - Kufu
- Egyptians had strong interests in Nubia for political/commercial reasons
- Nubian kingdoms were threatening
- they desired gold, ivory, ebony, precious stones
- Nubians also had interest in Egypt
- protect their independence
- sought to control trade down the Nile
- Skirmishes between Egypt/Nubia
- Egyptian rule over Lower Nubia (3000-2400 BCE) ! lead the Nubian leaders
to go south and form Kush

Turmoil and Empire
- toward the end of the Old Kingdom, high agricultural productivity made regions of
Egypt ignore the pharaohs and pursue local interests.
- Social unrest/political upheaval (2160-2040 BCE) ! Middle Kingdom (2040-1640
BCE)
- Egypt came under the pressure of Hyksos foreign rulers, a Semitic people
- Hyksos had bronze weapons vs Egyptians had wooden weapons
- 1674BCE Hyksos captured Memphis
- Egyptian leaders gradually pushed Hyksos and formed the New Kingdom
(1550-1070 BCE)
- New Kingdom had numerous temples, palaces, and monumental statues
- Tuthmosis III (1479-1425 BCE) most vigorous of the New Kingdom Pharaohs
- seventeen campaigns personally lead to Palestine/Syria
- attacked Nubia
- 1100BCE Egyptian forces fully retreated from Nubia
- 760BCE King Kashta conquered Thebes/formed Kushite Dynasty
- Later the Assyrians (military feat - iron, standardization/organization of the army)
invaded Egypt

The Formation of Complex Societies and Sophisticated Cultural Tradition
The Emergence of Cities and Stratied Societies
- Cities mostly clustered near rivers and not as common as Mesopotamia
- Heliopolis (City of Sun), became city of capital, important in New Kingdom
- Tania, a port and Egypts gateway to Mediterranean
- Nubian cities: Kerma, Napata, Mero
- Kerma, third biggest capital, dominated overland routes/river
- Napata, political center, less vulnerable than Kerma
- Mero, last capital, Nile trade networks
- Egyptians could attain high positions in society through government service

Social Classes in Early Egyptian Society
(patriarchy, slave society, leading intellectuals of the society)
*no such thing as matriarchy
*matrilineal society exists (property/wealth passes down from mothers to daughters) =>
the Pacic Island Societies, Scandinavian countries, some African kingdoms

- Nubian cities had social/economical distinctions
- Women of upper elite classes were household servants
- Elite men were scribes, governments ofcials
- Lower class men were agricultural laborers, potters, carpenters, craftsmen, etc
- Men/women could have property, slaves, pass wealth to children

- Queen Hatesphesut (1473-1458 BCE) ruled as (regent) co-ruler with her stepson

Economic Specialization and Trade
- Specialized labor/invention of better transportation ! development of trade networks
- Nile societies received bronze much later than Mesopotamian
- Bronze was less common in Nubia
- Nile (1. characteristics of the Nile - benign, navigable, predictable ! ideal for farming;
2. how the Nile impacted early societies)
societies however produced a lot of iron later
- Hittites had developed techniques for forging iron (1300 BCE)
- 3000BCE Egyptians sailed beyond the Nile in to the Mediterranean
- 2000BCE they had explored theaters of Red Sea, the Gulf of Aden, Arabian Sea
- Egyptians also used donkeys for transportation
- Aswan/Elephantine: Aswan = trade, Elephantine = elephant ivory (trading exports)
- Egypt got trees abroad and gave gold, silver, linen textiles, leather goods, and dried
food

Early Writing in the Nile Valley
- 3200BCE writing appeared in Egypt
- pictographs ! hieroglyphs holy inscriptions
- hieroglyphs disappeared after adopting Greek demotic
- Nubian peoples spoke their own languages, but heavily inuenced by Egyptians and
used hieroglyphs
- Nubia borrowed Egyptian hieroglyphs and made Meroitic language and used them to
represent sounds rather than ideas (no one has ever deciphered it)

The Development of Organized Religious Traditions
- Amon/Re = principal gods
- For, a brief period the cult of Amon-Re faced a challenge from the god Aten, another
deity associated with the sun. (monotheism)
- Pharaoh Amenhotep IV (1353-1335 BCE) Akhenatan (Egyptian equivalent of Kim
Jong Il) built Akhetaten, capital city.

polytheism (misleading in this context) - multiple gods (single, omnipotent, omniscient,
omnipresent God = the Creator)
polydaemonism - multiple deities (any inanimate object that is personied/worshipped)

- broad streets, courtyards, and open temples allowed unobscured vision and constant
veneration of the sun.
- Osiriss evil brother Seth murdered him and scatter his dismembered parts throughout
the land, but the victims loyal wife, Isis, retrieved his parts and gave him proper burial.
Impressed by her devotion, the gods restored Osiris to life as god of the underworld
- popular and thought to be associated with immortality
- Apedemak, Nubian lion-god, war god for Kush
- Sebiumeker, a creator god/divine guardian
Bantu Migrations and Early Agricultural Societies of Sub-Saharan Africa
- Egyptian, Nubian societies developed in interaction/exchange
- Mesopotamian societies developed under strong inuence of trade, diffusions of
technological innovations, the spread of cultural traditions, and far-ung migrations of
Semitic and Indo-European people.

They Dynamics of Bantu Expansion
- Bantu persons or people, most inuential peoples of sub-Saharan Africa
- related to Niger Congo family of languages (Mande, Kru, Wolof, Yoruba, Igbo,
and other peoples)
- settled along rivers/open areas in the forests
- inhabited easter part of Nigeria/southern part os Cameroon
- cultivated yams and oil palms, later millet, sorghum, goats, guinea fowl
- lived in clan-based villages with chiefs who conducted religious rituals/
represented community
- traded with pygmies, forest people
- gave pottery/stone axes for meat, honey, etc.
- Bantu Migrations
- 3000BCE they were slowly spreading south into the west African forest
- 2000BCE expanded rapidly to the south toward the Congo River basin, east
toward the Great Lakes
- were not mass movements of peoples, instead were incremental processes that
resulted in the gradual spread of Bantu languages, and ethnic communities
-1.made effective use of canoes in traveling the networks of Niger,Congo,etc.
-2.agricultural surpluses enabled to increase population more rapidly
- Iron and Migration
- 1000BCE, Bantu began to produce iron tools and weapons
- allowed feasibly cultivation ! population growth

Early Agricultural Societies of Sub-Saharan Africa
- Between 3500BCE and 1000BCE, southern Kushite herders pushed into parts of east
Africa
- people speaking Niger-Congo languages spread the cultivation of okra
Spread of Agriculture
- Between 1000 and 500 BCE cultivators extended the cultivation of yams/grains
deep into east and south Africa
- herders introduced sheep/cattle
- Bantu/Niger-Congo people spread yams, oil palms, millet, sorghum sheep, pigs,
and cattle to west and central Africa
Agricultural people built societies and cultural traditions
- Most Bantu/others lived in communities of a few hundred individuals led by
chiefs
- members of each age assumed responsibility for tasks appropriate to their
levels of strength, energy, maturity, and experience
- Older men ! cultivated elds/military service
- women ! domestic chores and sometimes traded at markets
Religious Beliefs
- 5000BCE Sudanic peoples recognized a single divine force that they regarded
as the source of both good and evil
- Niger-Congo people believed the single god was originally called Nyamba who
created the world and established the principles that would govern its development
and allowed the world to proceed on its own.
- proper attention to these spirits would ensure good fortune
- associated with god of goodness by most Bantu people


Additional Materials:
1) Notes from Crashcourse (John Green)

2) Prepare Essay Questions related to early agricultural/societal development
Africa and Egypt (Google AP WH Africa Essay or AP WH Egypt Essay) - Refer
to Collegeboard - 2-3 CCOT/CC/DBQ essays covering early agricultural/societal
development Africa and Egypt


*Do this if you are super bored... 3) AP => (even more detailed) SAT Barrons