History of Iron Smelting Technology in Sub-Saharan Africa

History of Iron Smelting Technology in Sub-Saharan Africa Introduction: The arrival of iron smelting technology in sub-Saharan Africa played a significant role in shaping the historical record of the area by bringing profound changes to the lives and societies of its inhabitants (Haaland Shinnie 7). In the parts of Africa south of the Sahara and south of the Ethiopian highlands, there has been no archaeological evidence supporting a Bronze Age (Van Der Merwe 463; Alpern ; Holl 6) and the evidence archaeologists do have point to iron being the first metal used to replace stone tools (Fagan 1). One area of intense debate regarding the African Iron Age is the process in which the technology of iron smelting arrived in sub-Saharan Africa. Over the past half-century, the interpretations and reconstructions of the origins of iron smelting in sub-Saharan Africa have changed considerably. The initial theory was based on an unquestioned belief of the superiority of Ancient Egypt over sub-Saharan Africa (Kense 12). Based on this framework, the site of Meroe was pr oposed by Arkell as an important link and the general belief was that the collapse of the Kingdom of Kush precipitated the spread of technology and Meroitic culture into the southwest (Kense 13). However excavations conducted in the 1960s determined that the iron smelting furnaces found at Meroe mostly dated to the first few centuries B.C.E (Shinnie 30) and its pivotal role in the spread of iron smelting technology was shown to be increasingly hard to defend (Kense 13). Three theories regarding the origins of iron smelting in sub-Saharan Africa have emerged and are currently disputed amongst scholars (Holl 7). Two of the theories are diffusionist meaning these theories claim the technology originated elsewhere and was transported into the region. These theories are based on the premise that iron smelting originated somewhere in Anatolia and from there the technology was adopted by other populations and spread throughout the Mediterranean and into Africa. The main diffusionist theory was first proposed by Raymond Muany in 1952. He argues that since the Phoenicians had iron by about 1100 B.C. and that they started colonizing Northern Africa at around the same time; it was possible that the knowledge of iron smelting was transmitted into sub-Saharan Africa with the Berber tribes living in the Saharan Desert as a medium (Alpern 46). The other diffusionist hypothesis arose as a counter to early iron smelting furnaces found west of Lake Victoria in Tanzania. This hypothesis proposes that the technology came from Arabia via the Horn of Africa (Alpern 80). The theory that has gained the most acceptance recently is the one arguing for the independent invention of iron smelting in sub-Saharan Africa (Alpern 41). A slew of archaeological discoveries in the past twenty years have strengthened the case for independent invention. Some people have even gone as far as arguing that, based on controversial discoveries made in 2008, inhabitants of sub-Saharan Africa were the first to smelt iron, preceding Anatolia by about 700 years (Pringle ). The strongest case against independent invention is the complexity of iron smelting. Iron requires specialized knowledge in order to transform iron ore into usable iron (Kense 19) and it has long been held that people without prior knowledge of smelting techniques would not be able to smelt iron successfully (Sassoon 5). Two areas of sub-Saharan Africa have emerged as candidates for areas where iron smelting could have developed, the Western Africa region around the Niger-Nigeria border or north-western Ta nzania. This essay will argue for the independent discovery of iron smelting technology in sub-Saharan Africa based on discoveries made in Western Africa. Background: To understand why there has been such a strong opposition to the idea of sub-Saharan Africa independently inventing iron smelting technology, it is necessary to consider the difficulty and skill required to smelt iron. It is hypothesized that iron was first used as a flux, a substance that is smelted together with the desired ore in order to make the slag, or waste rock, more liquid, in the smelting of copper (Wheeler Madden 114). The iron mixed with slag would have been spongy at the temperatures inside a copper smelting furnace. It could only then be shaped into something usable through repeated hammering and heating (Wheeler Madden 114). The difficulty in creating iron objects is testament in the value iron objects had during the early and mid Bronze Age. In Egypt, for example, Tutankhamen was wrapped in with a golden dagger and a matching iron dagger with a gold hilt (van der Merwe 466). So although ancient smiths, masters of smelting bronze and copper, knew about iron, the diffi culties in smelting the metal took a long time to overcome. The smelting of iron occurs when iron ore is heated together with a charcoal fuel. This causes the iron in the ore to fuse chemically with the carbon from the charcoal. The more carbon dissolved in the iron, the lower its melting point. The amount of ore to fuel, and the supply of combustion air determine whether cast iron, steel, wrought iron, or a useless lump of metal will form (Alpern 82). Copper on the other hand melts readily at 1084ÂÂ °, temperatures that can be reached in a charcoal fire or during ceramic firing (Holl 6). In sum, the reduction of iron ore requires much more sophisticated expertise than does the smelting of other metal ores. Without pre-existing furnace technology, the likelihood of stumbling upon the process required is slim (Sassoon 5). Due to these foundations and a lack of archaeological evidence supporting very early iron smelting in sub-Saharan Africa at the time, Mauny proposed the most plausible scenario for the diffusion of iron metallurgy (Alpern 45). He speculated that when the Phoenicians settled in North Africa, the Berbers living in the region, being from a nomadic warrior culture, would have been keen to acquire improved weapons made from iron metal. These Berbers living near the coast would then pass on this technology to their fellow Berbers living in the Sahara (Kense 24). He then suggested that the technology could have been taken south into the sub-Saharan savannah by fleeing slaves, or deliberately transmitted to the lands of black farmers where both iron ore and the wood to fuel smelting furnaces were relatively abundant. The farmers would in turn supply the Berbers with raw metal for ironworking in exchange (Alpern 46). Mauny offered some linguistic evidence for his model. Derivatives of the Phoenician word for iron, barzel, are found in Berber vocabularies throughout the Sahara and also in the Teda (Tubu) language of Tibesti and the Fezzan.20 Mauny also saw affiliations with the terms for iron among several savanna-dwelling black peoples, including the Bariba, Jukun, and Kanuri.21 He might have added that Carthaginian influence on the Berbers may be attested to this day by the Tifinagh alphabet of the Tuareg, which is thought by some scholars to derive ultimately from a Punic script. There is a strong case that Africa independently invented ceramics, however there does seem to be evidence for Berber transfer of metallurgy across the Sahara, but it comes not from Niger but from Mauritania in the far west. Ancient copper artifacts began to be noticed in that region in the early twentieth century. By 1951 enough had been found for Mauny to wonder, in print, whether Mauritania had experienced a Copper Age.70 An answer came in 1968, when French archeologist Nicole Lambert began excavating what was known as the Grotte aux Chauves-souris (Bat Cave) on a hill called the Guelb Moghrein near Akjoujt in western Mauritania. It was not a cave at all, but an ancient mining gallery dug by humans following a rich vein of malachite ore. The ore was not only extracted, but locally smelted, as furnace remains and slag attest. Four other ancient exploitation sites were found later on the Guelb Moghrein. Ra-diocarbon datings, eventually calibrated, are nearly all in the range 800 to 200 cal BCE. Subsequently at least three other metallurgical centers from the same period were discovered in the Akjoujt region. The number of ancient copper objects found in the western Sahara and attributed to the Akjoujt industry exceeded 160 at last count. The great majority are weapons: arrowheads, lance points, and daggers. Tools include hatchets, pins, awls, burins, and hooks. There are the inevitable personal ornaments-rings, earrings, pendants-and some ingots. All the items are very small and very light; when the number reached about 140, the total weight barely topped two kilograms. They were produced in a Neolithic context in which stone tools vastly outnumbered the metal ones, so one can hardly speak of a Copper Age on the basis of present evidence. How did copper mining and working get started at Akjoujt? It is possible the industry was indigenous, but no one yet seems to have made a real case for that. Lambert saw a resemblance between the Akjoujt products and those of the El Argar culture in southeastern Spain, where copper was being manufactured by at least 1700 BCE and bronze some 200 years later. She thought the few ancient brass and bronze artifacts also found in Mauritania might have been imported from the western Maghreb. She noted that chariot engravings had been found on rocks in three places near Akjoujt and thought they might be road signs indicating an early traffic between Morocco and Mauritania.71 Mauny discerned Phoenician or Carthaginian initiatives behind the Akjoujt industry, with Berbers actually importing the technology, but Lamberts idea of an Iberian connection might have some merit.72 In the late 1960s and early 1970s, British archeologist Colin Renfrew, in a sweeping challenge to the then-reigning diffusionist orthodoxy, suggested that copper metallurgy was independently invented on the Iberian Peninsula long before Phoenicians or Greeks reached the western Mediterranean. 73 Since then much evidence has accumulated that he was right, and that Iberian copper metallurgy dates back at least to 3000 BCE.74 It also seems that the technology crossed from Spain to Morocco before the Phoenicians set foot on the Moroccan coast. Until the mid-twentieth century, it was thought the western Maghreb had not experienced a Copper or Bronze Age. Finds of metal objects, ancient mines, and, especially, rock engravings have undercut that notion: copper in Morocco may date all the way back to the third millennium BCE, according to some leading researchers.75 Rock art in the High Atlas shows weapons typical of the El Argar culture, especially daggers, halberds, and axes.76 Conceivably, cuprous objects reached Morocco in exchange for two North African products, ivory and ostrich eggshells, that have been found in third- and second- millennium-BCE graves in southeast Spain.77 But no certain proof of early copper smelting has yet turned up in the Maghreb. Did the Akjoujt copper industry, whatever its origins, lead to an independent invention of iron metallurgy? The malachite of Bat Cave occurred in a matrix of hematite and magnetite that was discarded in the smelting process. There is no evidence that the coppersmiths ever produced iron, although the raw material was at hand. However, proof of ironworking from the same period has recently been found some 250 miles south of Akjoujt in the middle Senegal river valley. At a site called Walalde, iron artifacts dating to somewhere between 800 and 550 cal BCE have been found, and in a second phase of occupation, from ca. 550 to 200 cal BCE, clear evidence of iron smelting has been excavated. The latter phase also yielded three copper artifacts with a telltale chemical signature of the Akjoujt ores-more than 1% of arsenic and a smaller amount of nickel. Further excavation and study are required to evaluate the find, but it is clearly an important contribution to the history of metallurgy in sub-Saharan Africa.

Local and National Provision for Netball Essay

Introduction The aim of this essay is to find out what provisions there are for netball in my local and the national areas, and whether or not there are any funding and coaching schemes for any level of netball from grassroots to elite level. Grassroots level Netball is available for all children to play at primary school level through to GCSE, girls and boys included. There are two main small-sided games aimed primarily at 7-11 year olds, for use in schools, clubs and holiday play schemes to provide fun, fitness and challenge for players of all abilities. First step Netball has been designed mainly for children aged 7-9 year olds (Years 3 & 4). It is a version of 4-a-side netball that was launched in 1993, it has been adapted to suit the younger player giving them more freedom on the court and more time (5 seconds) to make a decision before throwing the ball but in a third of the court. A size 4 netball is used and an 8ft post. High five netball is the next stage for children aged 9-11 (years 5 & 6). This is a modified game that provides the best foundation for young people to develop the physical, social and tactical skills; it also develops the knowledge and understanding of the game. There are 5 players on a full sized netball court, the others team members that are not on the court take up roles of timekeeper, score, umpire, and centre pass marker. A size 4 netball is used and they have 4 seconds to pass the ball and a 9ft netball post is used. This is the only game where England Netball provides resources and support for boys and girls playing in primary schools. A High fives Netball tournament will feature in this year’s Partnership Youth Games for boys and girls in school years 5&6. Provision for elite performers For talented players there is a pathway to play for the national team but it takes a long time to get there. There are county squads from U14’s to the open selection. A player is only fully recognised when they are selected to represent the County at under 16 levels. There are talent camps for athletes who show potential but these are normally for athletes under the age of 16, to become a talent camp athlete, you need are nominated by your County coaches. Athletes who successfully demonstrate all of the basic physical, technical, tactical and mental skills required for peak performance, and who can apply these in a competitive situation, are considered candidates to progress into the national talent squads, they tend to stay here for 2-4 years and only 50% of those move to the development squad. After spending another 2-4 years in the development squad and only some of the athletes demonstrating a very high degree of personal responsibility for individual and team results manage to make it into the national squad where they can spend up to 10 years depending on their quality of play. Figure 1 (below) shows that rather than an age related development framework, the All England Netball Association operates a national squad structure, which you work up depending on the quality of your play. There are a large number of leagues to play in around the country; for those who don’t make County teams there are the Millennium youth games. This is part of Sport England’s initiative to promote active sport. Regional tournaments are held every year. In Stafford there are two netball leagues: the Friday night league and the Stafford and district YLC netball league that takes part on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. The Friday night league is a casual league where you register your team and then play, you don’t wear uniforms and anybody can play including lads so long as the other team is ok with lads, also the umpires don’t have to have any qualifications to umpire. However, the YLC netball league is official with only qualified umpires and uniforms must be worn, only those registered as team players can compete. Provision for male competitors The England netball and IFNA have stated that only single sex competitions are permitted, however England Netball stated that any netball activities up to GCSE level (aged 16) must allow girls and boys to participate together. It is unacceptable to exclude either boys or girls under12 from any competitive or non-competitive netball activity. There are now some netball leagues that are either specifically for men or those which are for mixed teams. It is known that men’s netball teams play regularly in the West Indies, Canada, New Zealand, England and Australia. Flava is committed to the development of men’s netball and encourages boys to play netball as well as being represented in mixed netball competitions. Integral is another club that aims to provide an opportunity for men to play netball either as part of a mixed team or a men’s team, the club took part in several mixed tournaments in the summer of 2002 with some success. They are based in Macclesfield in the North West of England but players come from all over the UK to be part of the club. It was decided, by the Council, that a Men’s World Netball Championship should be held under the direction of IFNA, within the next five years at a time and place to be decided by Members Council. Provision for disabled competitors England Netball is committed to providing and promoting equal opportunities in Netball and its first fully co-ordinated National Disability Development Plan was launched in 1996. The plan now looks at the issues of accessibility for disabled people, to the Netball court, and also opportunities and courses for coaches, umpires, other officials and administrators. It focuses on awareness training for coaches, umpires and volunteers, to ensure that people with disabilities may enjoy the highest quality experiences through the game of Netball. A version of 7-a-side netball has been formed for those in wheelchairs (but with adaptations to 4 and 5-a-side), although obviously the rules have been modified covering travelling and playing the ball. This summer the National Netball Championships for People with Learning disabilities are holding a tournament run by England netball and the English Sports Association. There will be two age categories for those U17 and those over, the aim of this event is to encourage more people to play who struggle from disabilities. Unfortunately there doesn’t seem to be any local provisions for disabled netball they all seem to be on a national scheme. Conclusion I think that on a national level there are provisions being made for everyone to participate in netball, however, there is till not that much for the males or disabled participants. In the more local area there are leagues for females but this is still leaving out the disabled and the male netball players. The way that netball is at the moment means that the way to the top is only for talented female teenagers who can progress through the county level to talent squads and up to the top. Bibliography www.netball.org www.england-netball.co.uk www.isport.com.au www.flavanetball.co.uk www.sasactivesports.co.uk www.bwsf.org.uk

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The Role of Women in the Iliad Essay examples - 1593 Words

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