Trace the history of iron technology in Africa and Tanzania at large taking meroe and engaruka as examples
Answers
Explanation:
Iron technology first appeared in Africa in the 1st Millennium BCE and became an important component in Africa's socioeconomic life of the continents pre-colonial history. Archaeological evidence indicates detailed information on iron age societies which transformed economically, socially and politically. The early iron age (c. 800 BCE to 1000 CE) which marked the use of iron and the migration of people across the continent. The iron technology revolutionized the life of Bantu speaking groups through the engagement of new social and physical landscapes. The period of the iron age in Tanzania was however characterised by the use of small and sophisticated iron tools. Early working communities smelted and made small tools probably by the middle of the 1st Millennium. Due to the lack of well-dated and documented evidence on iron technology in Tanzania led to the emergence of two schools of thought. The first school traces the origin of iron technology in Tanzania to external influence from the Eastern Mediterranean in Meroe. While the other beliefs in local intervention arguing that there is no archaeological evidence for external sources.