Iron Age_History Notes Form One

Iron Age_History Notes Form One

Iron Age

The Iron Age was a period when human beings used iron in making tools and weapons. Iron technology developed in Africa, south of the Sahara, between 500BCE and 600CE. Iron tools enabled humans to master the environment more efficiently than stone tools.

Therefore, iron production was an important technological innovation Iron production in Africa, particularly south of the Sahara, started in the basins of Rivers Niger and Congo from the first millennium BCE. 

From there, the culture was spread to other parts of the continent by the Bantu-speaking people.

The main centres of ancient ironworks in Africa include Nsukka and Taruga in Nigeria, Meroe in Sudan, Axum in Ethiopia, Tunis in Tunisia, Cairo in Egypt and Buganda in the interlacustrine region.

The Figure below shows important Iron Age sites in Pre-colonial Africa.

Discovery of iron

It is believed that iron was discovered when human beings were using fire to burn bushes. The fire melted iron ore that was on the surface of the earth.

Later on, they discovered that iron ore could be smelted to get pure iron, which could be forged to make iron tools.

In addition iron smelting involved changing iron ore into pure iron through heating. 

Iron forging, meant processing and shaping smelted iron into usable objects such as hoes, axes, knives, machetes, and others as indicated in the following figure.

Iron smelting and forging

The smelting of iron began with the collection of iron ore and charcoal. It also involved constructing furnaces and blowpipes (tuyere) and making bellows.

Iron smelting furnaces in African societies were of two basic types:

• The first type was a bowl-like furnace dug below the ground.
• The second type was a constructed ground furnace approximately a meter or two meters high.

Iron ore and charcoal were put in the furnace. Then the furnace was lit while air was pumped using the bellows. Air from the bellows entered the furnace through the tuyere.

Plenty of remains show that iron smelting and forging were widespread all across Africa. Such remains include furnaces, tuyere, bellows, blooms, slags, anvils, and iron objects.

Advantages of producing and using iron tools

The use of iron tools had various advantages. The following are some of them:

i. Expansion of agriculture

Agriculture expanded because people started to use better iron tools such as machetes, axes, and hoes for production. These tools enabled human beings to cultivate larger pieces of land than before.

ii. Settled life

Expansion of agricultural activities due to the use of iron tools led to the increase of food production. This encouraged the formation of large communities, which produced surplus food. In this regard, these developments called for a sedentary life.

iii. Population increase

Surplus food production due to the use of iron tools led population increase. This increase also resulted from immigration of people from different regions to the iron producing areas.

iv. Emergence of chiefdoms and kingdoms

The use of iron weapons encouraged not only increase in population but also wars among different groups. These situations needed permanent and centralised political organisations in the form of states to resolve problems and conflicts. 

The need for a centralised political organisation led to the rise of chiefdoms and kingdoms. Examples of these are Buganda and Karagwe.

v. Increased efficiency in hunting

The use of iron weapons such as arrows and spears improved hunting and made the process more efficient. This is because iron tools were more effective than stone tools in hunting.

vi. Improvement of self-defence

The use of iron weapons such as anows and spears helped people to defend themselves against wild animals than during the time they were using stone tools.

vii. Emergence of specialisations

Since communities could produce sufficient and surplus food, not everybody had to engage in agriculture. Therefore, other people started specialising in other activities such as basketry, pottery, pastoralism, and fishing.

viii. Growth of commodity exchange (trade)

Iron-producing communities exchanged iron tools with other items produced by non-iron producers. In this way, the exchange of commodities increased between communities.

Activity

Read various reliable online and library sources to identify the relevance of the Iron Age to modem African societies.