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3,000 Years Ago in West Africa

The Tassilli rock paintings, found in the mountains of southern Algeria, change radically. Pastoral and hunting scenes done in a realistic manner give way to more stylized representations of chariot riders and warriors. This new style probably represents the invasion of the southern Sahara by a new chariot riding people, probably the earliest ancestors of the Berbers. The Berbers belong to the Hamitic language group, related to but distinct from the Semitic speakers, such as the Israelites and Assyrians.

There was relatively little manufacture of bronze in Africa south of the Sahara, and so little experience in working metals. In most other places around the world, the ability to manufacture iron was based on skills gained by working with bronze. For this reason, it is thought iron working techniques spread from Meroe in East Africa to the south and west. In any case, by at least 350 BC, the Nok culture was not only using iron implements, but was manufacturing iron (the culture is named after the village of Nok in northern Nigeria, where evidence of this ancient culture was first discovered in the 1920s).

The Nok people were also sophisticated artists, producing complex clay portrait sculptures. Some of these are up to 1.25 metres in size. So far only heads have been found, but it is thought these may have been part of works showing the full human figure. The figures are made from fired clay, that is clay baked in hot ovens or kilns (perhaps, the knowledge needed to build the kilns was used to make iron smelting ovens). Animal figures were also produced and these are more realistic than the human figures which are more stylized (this may have to do with religious beliefs against making realistic images of living people). However, hair styles shown on the sculptures are still seen in the region to this day. Nok sculpture lasted for more than 1500 years. It is believed that the later Yoruba kingdom of Ife developed out of the Nok culture.

Phonecian merchants visited West Africa, and permanent trading settlements may have been established, but evidence of this is not conclusive.

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