Prehistoric West Africa
Prehistory of the West African subregion of the African continent / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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The prehistory of West Africa spans from the earliest human presence in the region until the emergence of the Iron Age in West Africa. West African populations were considerably mobile and interacted with one another throughout the population history of West Africa.[2] Acheulean tool-using archaic humans may have dwelled throughout West Africa since at least between 780,000 BP and 126,000 BP (Middle Pleistocene).[3] During the Pleistocene, Middle Stone Age peoples (e.g., Iwo Eleru people,[4] possibly Aterians), who dwelled throughout West Africa between MIS 4 (71,000 BP) and MIS 2 (29,000 BP, Last Glacial Maximum),[5] were gradually replaced by incoming Late Stone Age peoples, who migrated into West Africa[6] as an increase in humid conditions resulted in the subsequent expansion of the West African forest.[7] West African hunter-gatherers occupied western Central Africa (e.g., Shum Laka) earlier than 32,000 BP,[4] dwelled throughout coastal West Africa by 12,000 BP,[8] and migrated northward between 12,000 BP and 8000 BP as far as Mali, Burkina Faso,[8] and Mauritania.[9]
During the Holocene, Niger-Congo speakers independently created pottery in Ounjougou, Mali[10][11][12] – the earliest pottery in Africa[13] – by at least 9400 BCE,[10] and along with their pottery,[13] as well as wielding independently invented bows and arrows,[14][15] migrated into the Central Sahara,[13] which became their primary region of residence by 10,000 BP.[14] The emergence and expansion of ceramics in the Sahara may be linked with the origin of Round Head and Kel Essuf rock art, which occupy rockshelters in the same regions (e.g., Djado, Acacus, Tadrart).[16] Hunters in the Central Sahara farmed, stored, and cooked undomesticated central Saharan flora,[17] underwent domestication of antelope,[18] and domesticated and shepherded Barbary sheep.[17] After the Kel Essuf Period and Round Head Period of the Central Sahara, the Pastoral Period followed.[19] Some of the hunter-gatherers who created the Round Head rock art may have adopted pastoral culture, and others may have not.[20] As a result of increasing aridification of the Green Sahara, Central Saharan hunter-gatherers and cattle herders may have used seasonal waterways as the migratory route taken to the Niger River and Chad Basin of West Africa.[21] In 2000 BCE, "Thiaroye Woman",[22] also known as the "Venus of Thiaroye,"[22][23] may have been the earliest statuette created in Sub-Saharan West Africa; it may have particularly been a fertility statuette, created in the region of Senegambia,[23] and may be associated with the emergence of complexly organized pastoral societies in West Africa between 4000 BCE and 1000 BCE.[24] Though possibly developed as early as 5000 BCE,[25] Nsibidi may have also developed in 2000 BCE,[25][26] as evidenced by depictions of the West African script on Ikom monoliths at Ikom, in Nigeria.[25] Migration of Saharan peoples south of the Sahelian region resulted in seasonal interaction with and gradual absorption of West African hunter-gatherers, who primarily dwelt in the savannas and forests of West Africa.[8] In West Africa, which may have been a major regional cradle in Africa for the domestication of crops and animals,[27][28] Niger-Congo speakers domesticated the helmeted guineafowl[29] between 5500 BP and 1300 BP;[27] domestication of field crops occurred throughout various locations in West Africa, such as yams (Dioscorea praehensilis) in the Niger River basin between eastern Ghana and western Nigeria (northern Benin), rice (oryza glaberrima) in the Inner Niger Delta region of Mali, pearl millet (Cenchrus americanus) in northern Mali and Mauritania, and cowpeas in northern Ghana.[28] After having persisted as late as 1000 BP,[8] or some period of time after 1500 CE,[30] remaining West African hunter-gatherers, many of whom dwelt in the forest-savanna region, were ultimately acculturated and admixed into the larger groups of West African agriculturalists, akin to the migratory Bantu-speaking agriculturalists and their encounters with Central African hunter-gatherers.[8] Iron metallurgy may have been developed independently in West Africa [31][32] sometime between around 3,000-1,000 BC, with archaeological sites containing iron smelting furnaces found at sites at Lejja, Nigeria (Eze-Uzomaka 2009),[32][33] Opi (Holl 2009),[32][34] the Nok culture,[35] Oboui, and others.[36]