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Do not fill this in! ===Early civilizations=== {{Main|Ancient Africa}} {{clear}} [[File:African-civilizations-map-pre-colonial.svg|thumb|left|upright=1.2|Diachronic map showing [[African empires]] spanning roughly 500 BC to 1500 AD]] At about 3300 BC, the historical record opens in Northern Africa with the rise of literacy in the [[Pharaoh|Pharaonic]] civilization of [[ancient Egypt]].<ref>[http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/235724.stm Were Egyptians the first scribes?] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060626190345/http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/235724.stm |date=26 June 2006 }} BBC News (15 December 1998)</ref> One of the world's earliest and longest-lasting civilizations, the Egyptian state continued, with varying levels of influence over other areas, until 343 BC.<ref>Hassan, Fekri A. (2002) ''Droughts, Food and Culture'', Springer. p. 17. {{ISBN|0-306-46755-0}}</ref><ref>McGrail, Sean. (2004) ''Boats of the World'', Oxford University Press. p. 48. {{ISBN|0-19-927186-0}}</ref> Egyptian influence reached deep into modern-day [[Ancient Libya|Libya]] and [[Nubia]], and, according to Martin Bernal, as far north as Crete.<ref>{{cite book|title=History in Black: African-Americans in Search of an Ancient Past|first1=Jacob|last1=Shavit|first2=Yaacov|last2=Shavit|publisher=Taylor & Francis|date=2001|isbn=978-0-7146-8216-7|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VlNkzTO6IecC&pg=PA77|page=77|access-date=30 August 2020|archive-date=5 April 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150405133055/http://books.google.com/books?id=VlNkzTO6IecC&pg=PA77|url-status=live}}</ref> An independent centre of [[civilization]] with trading links to [[Phoenicia]] was established by [[Phoenicia]]ns from [[Tyre, Lebanon|Tyre]] on the north-west African coast at Carthage.<ref>Fage, J.D. (1979), ''The Cambridge History of Africa'', Cambridge University Press. {{ISBN|0-521-21592-7}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |doi=10.1017/CHOL9780521215923.004 |chapter=North Africa in the period of Phoenician and Greek colonization, c.800 to 323 BC |title=The Cambridge History of Africa |year=1979 |last1=Law |first1=R. C. C. |pages=87–147 |isbn=978-1-139-05456-0 }}</ref><ref>Oliver, Roland and Anthony Atmore (1994), ''Africa Since 1800'', Cambridge University Press. {{ISBN|0-521-42970-6}}</ref> [[European exploration of Africa]] began with the [[Ancient Greece|ancient Greeks]] and [[Ancient Rome|Romans]].<ref>{{Cite web|title=The Berlin Conference {{!}} Western Civilization II (HIS 104) – Biel|url=https://courses.lumenlearning.com/suny-fmcc-worldcivilization2-1/chapter/the-berlin-conference/|website=courses.lumenlearning.com|access-date=13 May 2020|archive-date=10 June 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200610192536/https://courses.lumenlearning.com/suny-fmcc-worldcivilization2-1/chapter/the-berlin-conference/|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title=Greeks, Romans and Barbarians|url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/history-of-Europe/Greeks-Romans-and-barbarians|access-date=30 May 2020|archive-date=4 May 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200504023034/https://www.britannica.com/topic/history-of-Europe/Greeks-Romans-and-barbarians|url-status=live}}</ref> In 332 BC, [[Alexander the Great]] was welcomed as a liberator in [[History of Ptolemaic Egypt|Persian-occupied Egypt]]. He founded [[Alexandria]] in Egypt, which would become the prosperous capital of the [[Ptolemaic dynasty]] after his death.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.wsu.edu/~dee/EGYPT/PTOLEMY.HTM |title=Ptolemaic and Roman Egypt: 332 BC – 395 AD |publisher=Wsu.edu |date=6 June 1999 |access-date=18 May 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100528152425/http://www.wsu.edu/~dee/EGYPT/PTOLEMY.HTM |archive-date=28 May 2010 |url-status=dead}}</ref> [[File:20141108- DSC1502 (15893475532).jpg|thumb|[[Africa (Roman province)|Roman]] ruins of [[Timgad]], in modern-day [[Algeria]]]] [[File:Quartier Punique.JPG|thumb|Ruins of the [[Punic]] district of [[Carthage]]]] [[File:NubianMeroePyramids30sep2005(2).jpg|thumb|[[Nubian pyramids]] at [[Meroë]], [[Sudan]]]] Following the conquest of North Africa's Mediterranean [[coastline]] by the [[Roman Empire]], the area was integrated economically and culturally into the Roman system. [[Africa Province|Roman settlement]] occurred in modern Tunisia and elsewhere along the coast. The first [[Roman emperor]] native to North Africa was [[Septimius Severus]], born in [[Leptis Magna]] in present-day Libya{{snd}}his mother was Italian Roman and his father was [[Punics|Punic]].<ref>{{cite news|title=New exhibition about Roman Emperor Septimius Severus at the Yorkshire Museum|url=http://www.yorkpress.co.uk/features/features/8826893.New_exhibition_about_Roman_Emperor_Septimius_Severus_at_the_Yorkshire_Museum/|access-date=15 December 2013|newspaper=The Press|date=2 February 2011|archive-date=15 December 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131215152114/http://www.yorkpress.co.uk/features/features/8826893.New_exhibition_about_Roman_Emperor_Septimius_Severus_at_the_Yorkshire_Museum/|url-status=live}}</ref> Christianity spread across these areas at an early date, from Judaea via Egypt and beyond the borders of the Roman world into Nubia;<ref>{{cite web|title=The Story of Africa – Christianity|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/africa/features/storyofafrica/index_section8.shtml|work=BBC World Service|publisher=BBC|access-date=15 December 2013|archive-date=9 July 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130709142011/http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/africa/features/storyofafrica/index_section8.shtml|url-status=live}}</ref> by 340 AD at the latest, it had become the [[state religion]] of the [[Aksumite Empire]]. [[Frumentius|Syro-Greek missionaries]], who arrived by way of the Red Sea, were responsible for this theological development.<ref>{{cite book|author=Tesfagiorgis, Mussie|title=Eritrea|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=f0R7iHoaykoC&pg=PA153|year=2010|publisher=ABC-CLIO|isbn=978-1-59884-232-6|page=153|access-date=14 October 2015|archive-date=11 June 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200611044525/https://books.google.com/books?id=f0R7iHoaykoC&pg=PA153|url-status=live}}</ref> In the early 7th century, the newly formed Arabian Islamic [[Caliphate]] expanded into Egypt, and then into North Africa. In a short while, the local [[Berbers|Berber]] elite had been integrated into Muslim Arab tribes. When the Umayyad capital Damascus fell in the 8th century, the Islamic centre of the Mediterranean shifted from [[Syria]] to [[Qayrawan]] in North Africa. Islamic North Africa had become diverse, and a hub for mystics, scholars, jurists, and philosophers. During the above-mentioned period, Islam spread to sub-Saharan Africa, mainly through trade routes and migration.<ref name =Ayoub>{{cite book|last=Ayoub|first=Mahmoud M.|author-link=Mahmoud M. Ayoub|title=Islam: Faith and History|publisher=Oneworld|date=2004|location=Oxford|pages=76, 92–93, 96–97}}</ref> In West Africa, [[Dhar Tichitt]] and [[Oualata]] in present-day [[Mauritania]] figure prominently among the early urban centers, dated to 2,000 BC. About 500 stone settlements litter the region in the former savannah of the Sahara. Its inhabitants fished and grew millet. It has been found by Augustin Holl that the [[Soninke people|Soninke]] of the [[Mandé peoples]] were likely responsible for constructing such settlements. Around 300 BCE, the region became more desiccated and the settlements began to decline, most likely relocating to [[Koumbi Saleh]].<ref name="HollA1985">{{cite journal |last1=Holl |first1=Augustin |title=Background to the Ghana empire: Archaeological investigations on the transition to statehood in the Dhar Tichitt region (mauritania) |journal=Journal of Anthropological Archaeology |date=June 1985 |volume=4 |issue=2 |pages=73–115 |doi=10.1016/0278-4165(85)90005-4 }}</ref> Architectural evidence and the comparison of pottery styles suggest that Dhar Tichitt was related to the subsequent [[Ghana Empire]]. [[Djenné-Djenno]] (in present-day [[Mali]]) was settled around 300 BC, and the town grew to house a sizable [[Iron Age]] population, as evidenced by crowded cemeteries. Living structures were made of sun-dried mud. By 250 BCE, [[Djenné-Djenno]] had become a large, thriving market town.<ref>Iliffe, John (2007). pp. 49–50{{Incomplete short citation|date=October 2021}}</ref><ref>Collins and Burns (2007), p. 78.{{Incomplete short citation|date=October 2021}}</ref> Further south, in central [[Nigeria]], around 1,500 BC, the [[Nok culture]] developed on the [[Jos Plateau]]. It was a highly centralized community. The Nok people produced lifelike representations in [[terracotta]], including human heads and human figures, elephants, and other animals. By 500 BC, and possibly earlier, they were smelting iron. By 200 AD, the Nok culture had vanished.<ref name="PB 2014"/> and vanished under unknown circumstances around 500 AD, having lasted approximately 2,000 years. Based on stylistic similarities with the [[Nok terracotta figures|Nok terracottas]], the bronze figurines of the [[Yoruba people|Yoruba]] kingdom of [[Ife]] and those of the [[Bini people|Bini]] kingdom of [[Benin]] are suggested to be continuations of the traditions of the earlier Nok culture.{{sfn|Shillington|2005|p=39}}<ref name="FB 1969"/> Summary: Please note that all contributions to Christianpedia may be edited, altered, or removed by other contributors. If you do not want your writing to be edited mercilessly, then do not submit it here. You are also promising us that you wrote this yourself, or copied it from a public domain or similar free resource (see Christianpedia:Copyrights for details). Do not submit copyrighted work without permission! Cancel Editing help (opens in new window) Discuss this page