North Africa

===Prehistory===
{{Main|Prehistoric North Africa}}
{{See|History of North Africa#Prehistory}}
Due to the [[recent African origin of modern humans]], the history of Prehistoric North Africa is important to the understanding of pre-hominid and early modern human history in Africa.
Some researchers have postulated that North Africa rather than [[East Africa]] served as the exit point for the modern humans who first trekked out of the continent in the [[recent African origin of modern humans|Out of Africa]] migration.<ref>{{Cite journal |doi=10.1126/science.331.6013.20|pmid=21212332|title=Was North Africa the Launch Pad for Modern Human Migrations?|journal=Science|volume=331|issue=6013|pages=20–23|date=7 January 2011|last1=Balter|first1=Michael|bibcode=2011Sci...331...20B}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal | url= | doi=10.1016/j.ajhg.2011.05.002| pmid=21601174| pmc=3113241| title=A Revised Root for the Human y Chromosomal Phylogenetic Tree: The Origin of Patrilineal Diversity in Africa| journal=The American Journal of Human Genetics| volume=88| issue=6| pages=814–818| year=2011| last1=Cruciani| first1=Fulvio| last2=Trombetta| first2=Beniamino| last3=Massaia| first3=Andrea| last4=Destro-Bisol| first4=Giovanni| last5=Sellitto| first5=Daniele| last6=Scozzari| first6=Rosaria}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |doi=10.1073/pnas.0700747104|pmid=17372199|pmc=1828706|title=Earliest evidence of modern human life history in North African early Homo sapiens|journal=Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences|volume=104|issue=15|pages=6128–6133|date=10 April 2007|last1=Hublin|first1=Jean-Jacques|last2=Boutakiout|first2=Mohamed|last3=Eggins|first3=Stephen|last4=Grün|first4=Rainer|last5=Reid|first5=Donald J.|last6=Tafforeau|first6=Paul|last7=Smith|first7=Tanya M.|bibcode=2007PNAS..104.6128S|doi-access=free}}</ref> 

The earliest inhabitants of central North Africa have left behind significant remains: early remnants of hominid occupation in North Africa, for example, were found in Ain el Hanech, near [[Saïda, Algeria|Saïda]] ({{Circa|200,000 BCE}}); in fact, more recent investigations have found signs of [[Oldowan]] technology there, and indicate a date of up to 1.8 million BCE.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.gi.ulpgc.es/tarha/Ain_Hanech.pdf|title=Sahnouni 1998|website=Gi.ulpc.es|access-date=10 August 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130510140017/http://www.gi.ulpgc.es/tarha/Ain_Hanech.pdf|archive-date=10 May 2013}}</ref>

Recent finds in Jebel Irhoud in Morocco have been found to contain some of the oldest ''Homo sapiens'' remains; This suggests that, rather than arising only in [[East Africa]] around 200,000 years ago, early ''Homo sapiens'' may already have been present across the length of Africa 100,000 years earlier. According to study author Jean-Jacques Hublin, "The idea is that early ''Homo sapiens'' dispersed around the continent and elements of human modernity appeared in different places, and so different parts of Africa contributed to the emergence of what we call modern humans today."<ref name=Guardian>{{cite news|agency=Associated Press|title=Eritrea's human rights record comes under fire at United Nations|url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/oct/25/eritrea-human-rights-united-nations|access-date=30 October 2013|newspaper=The Guardian|date=25 October 2013}}</ref> Early humans may have comprised a large, interbreeding population dispersed across Africa whose spread was facilitated by a wetter climate that created a "green Sahara", around 330,000 to 300,000 years ago. The rise of modern humans may thus have taken place on a continental scale rather than being confined to a particular corner of Africa.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.356.6342.993|title=World's oldest ''Homo sapiens'' fossils found in Morocco|last=Gibbons|first=Ann|work=[[Science (magazine)|Science]]|date=7 June 2017|doi=10.1126/science.356.6342.993 |access-date=8 June 2017}}</ref> 
In September 2019, scientists reported the computerized determination, based on 260 [[CT scan]]s, of a virtual [[Human skull|skull shape]] of the last common human ancestor to [[modern human]]s/''H. sapiens'', representative of the earliest modern humans, and suggested that modern humans arose between 260,000 and 350,000 years ago through a merging of populations in [[East Africa|East]] and [[Southern Africa]].<ref name="NYT-20190910">{{cite news |last=Zimmer |first=Carl |author-link=Carl Zimmer |title=Scientists Find the Skull of Humanity's Ancestor — on a Computer – By comparing fossils and CT scans, researchers say they have reconstructed the skull of the last common forebear of modern humans. |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/10/science/human-ancestor-skull-computer.html |date=10 September 2019 |work=[[The New York Times]] |access-date=10 September 2019 }}</ref><ref name="NAT-20190910">{{cite journal |last1=Mounier |first1=Aurélien |last2=Lahr |first2=Marta |title=Deciphering African late middle Pleistocene hominin diversity and the origin of our species |journal=[[Nature Communications]] |year=2019 |volume=10 |issue=1 |page=3406 |doi=10.1038/s41467-019-11213-w |pmid=31506422 |pmc=6736881 |bibcode=2019NatCo..10.3406M }}</ref>
 
The cave paintings found at Tassili n'Ajjer, north of Tamanrasset, Algeria, and at other locations depict vibrant and vivid scenes of everyday life in central North Africa during the Neolithic Subpluvial period (about 8000 to 4000 BCE). Some parts of North Africa began to participate in the Neolithic revolution in the 6th millennium BCE, just before the rapid desertification of the Sahara around 3500 B.C. largely due to a tilt in the Earth's orbit.<ref name="sciencedaily.com">{{cite web|url=https://www.nature.com/scitable/knowledge/library/green-sahara-african-humid-periods-paced-by-82884405/|title=Green Sahara: African humid periods paced by Earth's orbital changes|date=12 July 1999|website=Science Daily|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131029191042/https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/1999/07/990712080500.htm|archive-date=29 October 2013}}</ref> It was during this period that domesticated plants and animals were introduced in the region, spreading from the north and east to the southwest.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Kuper|first=Rudolf|title=Climate-Controlled Holocene Occupation in the Sahara: Motor of Africa's Evolution|journal=Science|year=2006|volume=313|issue=5788|pages=803–708|doi=10.1126/science.1130989|pmid=16857900|bibcode=2006Sci...313..803K|s2cid=20003260|doi-access=free}}</ref> There has been an inferred connection between areas of rapid drying and the introduction of livestock in which the natural (orbital) aridification was amplified by the spread of shrubs and open land due to grazing.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Wright|first=David|title=Humans as Agents in the Termination of the African Humid Period|journal=Frontiers in Earth Science|year=2017|volume=5|pages=https://doi.org/10.3389/feart.2017.00004|doi=10.3389/feart.2017.00004|bibcode=2017FrEaS...5....4W|doi-access=free}}</ref> Nevertheless, changes in northern Africa's ecology after 3500 BCE provided the backdrop for the formation of dynastic civilizations and the construction of monumental architecture such as the [[Giza pyramid complex|Pyramids of Giza]].<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Gatto|first=Maria|title=Holocene supra-regional environmental changes as trigger for major socio-cultural processes in northeastern Africa and the Sahara|journal=African Archaeological Review|year=2015|volume=32|issue=2|pages=301–333|doi=10.1007/s10437-015-9191-x|s2cid=126834892}}</ref>

Archaeological evidence has attested that population settlements occurred in Nubia as early as the Late [[Pleistocene]] era and from the 5th millennium BC onwards, whereas there is "no or scanty evidence" of human presence in the Egyptian Nile Valley during these periods, which may be due to problems in site preservation.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Gatto |first1=Maria C. |title=The Nubian Pastoral Culture as Link between Egypt and Africa: A View from the Archaeological Record |url=https://www.academia.edu/545582}}</ref>Several scholars have argued that the African origins of the Egyptian civilisation derived from pastoral communities which emerged in both the Egyptian and Sudanese regions of the Nile Valley in the fifth millennium BCE.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Wengrow |first1=David |last2=Dee |first2=Michael |last3=Foster |first3=Sarah |last4=Stevenson |first4=Alice |last5=Ramsey |first5=Christopher Bronk |title=Cultural convergence in the Neolithic of the Nile Valley: a prehistoric perspective on Egypt's place in Africa |journal=Antiquity |date=March 2014 |volume=88 |issue=339 |pages=95–111 |doi=10.1017/S0003598X00050249 |s2cid=49229774 |language=en |issn=0003-598X|doi-access=free }}</ref><ref name="academia.edu">{{cite journal |last1=Smith |first1=Stuart Tyson |title=Gift of the Nile? Climate Change, the Origins of Egyptian Civilization and Its Interactions within Northeast Africa |journal=Across the Mediterranean – Along the Nile: Studies in Egyptology, Nubiology and Late Antiquity Dedicated to László Török. Budapest |date=1 January 2018 |pages=325–345 |url=https://www.academia.edu/43275151}}</ref>

When Egypt entered the Bronze Age,<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://www.oxfordhandbooks.com/view/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199935413.001.0001/oxfordhb-9780199935413-e-35|title=Egypt and the Mediterranean in the Bronze Age: The Archaeological Evidence|last=Bader|first=Bettina|year=2015|doi=10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199935413.013.35|isbn=978-0-19-993541-3}}</ref> the Maghreb remained focused on small-scale subsistence in small, highly mobile groups.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Barker|first=Graema|title=Agriculture, Pastoralism, and Mediterranean Landscapes in Prehistory|journal=The Archaeology of Mediterranean Prehistory|year=2005|pages=46–76|doi=10.1002/9780470773536.ch3|isbn=978-0-470-77353-6}}</ref> Some [[Phoenicia]]n and [[Greek colonies]] were established along the Mediterranean coast during the 7th century BCE.