Ancient Africa

February 20, 2023
UCLA historian Ehret (The Civilizations of Africa) delivers a comprehensive and stimulating look at the major transitions in African history and their significance for the global development of early civilizations. Drawing from archaeology, linguistics, and anthropology, Ehret argues that major transformations in the history of civilization developed independently in Africa, often preceding similar developments in the Near East, Middle East, Mediterranean, and Asia. He recognizes five historical periods between 68,000 BCE and 300 CE, each with distinctive technological, dietary, and commercial developments. Major innovations between and during these periods include the development of ceramics in present-day Mali, in which women played a significant role; the smelting of metals from ores at various locales across the African savannas in the eighth and ninth centuries BCE; mechanical weaving and textiles; the shift from foraging subsistence to early agriculture, including plant and animal domestication; the establishment of towns and long-distance trade; the growth of specialized craft production and trading centers such as the Tichit region in today’s Mauritania; and the rise of early cities, states, and nations. Throughout, Ehret notes the influence of climatic change on these transformations and makes a persuasive case that “African history offers strong counterweights to... presumptions about male and female roles in history.” Exhaustive and carefully documented, this is a vital reconsideration of world history. Illus.

May 1, 2023

Writing a book on the history of an entire continent requires a certain deftness in providing a holistic view of vastly different cultures and how those societies interacted with one another over time. Historian Ehret (UCLA; The Civilizations of Africa) does an admirable job of addressing African history from the close of the last Ice Age to the rise of kingdoms and empires in the first centuries of the common era. His book combines recent archaeological and linguistic research to show how pottery and ironworking were taught across the continent before the earliest evidence of similar technology elsewhere in the world. The author also identifies Africa's influence on other parts of the world through agricultural exchange. VERDICT Ehret provides a vital new perspective on Africa's significant role in the ancient world. This is an essential book on early African history that uses several types of evidence to demonstrate how different groups in Africa impacted each other and eventually the world.--John Rodzvilla

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