Vᵉ siècle av. J.-C. – XVᵉ siècle
East Africa
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The Early Iron Age in East Africa comprised interconnected pottery, iron-working, farming, and pastoral communities extending from the Congo forest margins through the interlacustrine region, Kenya, Tanzania, and the East African coast. The passage emphasizes regional variation, early iron production, settlement near forests, rivers, lakes, and mountain foothills, and later transitions associated with rouletted pottery and pastoral or mixed-farming populations.
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Le récit
Early Iron Age communities appeared across a broad belt of eastern and central Africa. Evidence came from Rwanda, Burundi, Kivu, Uganda, western Kenya, northeastern Tanzania, the Kenyan coast, and sites farther west near the Congo forest. Pottery traditions varied regionally, but many shared bevelled rims and links with dimple-based wares associated with Urewe.
Several sites provide evidence for iron production during the early centuries of the first millennium AD. Ndora and Cyamakusa in Rwanda yielded radiocarbon dates in the third and fourth centuries AD from levels associated with iron-smelting furnaces. Katuruka and other sites in northwestern Tanzania, as well as Rutare in northeastern Rwanda, were interpreted as evidence for an earlier emergence, possibly in the first millennium BC.
Settlement patterns often followed favorable ecological zones. Ugandan sites clustered around the Victoria lakeshore and the valleys of the Nile and Kagera, while Kwale-related sites followed forest margins and foothills in coastal Kenya and northeastern Tanzania. These locations offered moist soils, water, fishing opportunities, and woodland edges suitable for cultivation.
Later Iron Age assemblages differed from the earlier traditions. Rouletted or cord-impressed pottery occurred in both moist and dry environments, including the Bigo-ware sites of western Uganda, which are interpreted as specialized pastoral settlements. The passage cautiously associates these later communities with populations arriving from the north and maintaining close relations with Bantu cultivators.
The regional sequence remains incomplete. In Kenya and Tanzania, the passage states that it was not yet possible to reconstruct the development from earlier to later Iron Age stages. Engaruka in northern Tanzania offers an exceptional later complex of terraces, stone circles, cairns, field systems, and stock enclosures, with radiocarbon dates extending from approximately the fourth to the fifteenth century AD.
Vᵉ siècle av. J.-C. – XVᵉ siècle
East Africa
Traduction non disponible · Original (anglais) · français indisponible
The Early Iron Age in East Africa comprised interconnected pottery, iron-working, farming, and pastoral communities extending from the Congo forest margins through the interlacustrine region, Kenya, Tanzania, and the East African coast. The passage emphasizes regional variation, early iron production, settlement near forests, rivers, lakes, and mountain foothills, and later transitions associated with rouletted pottery and pastoral or mixed-farming populations.
Poursuivre l’exploration
Le récit
Early Iron Age communities appeared across a broad belt of eastern and central Africa. Evidence came from Rwanda, Burundi, Kivu, Uganda, western Kenya, northeastern Tanzania, the Kenyan coast, and sites farther west near the Congo forest. Pottery traditions varied regionally, but many shared bevelled rims and links with dimple-based wares associated with Urewe.
Several sites provide evidence for iron production during the early centuries of the first millennium AD. Ndora and Cyamakusa in Rwanda yielded radiocarbon dates in the third and fourth centuries AD from levels associated with iron-smelting furnaces. Katuruka and other sites in northwestern Tanzania, as well as Rutare in northeastern Rwanda, were interpreted as evidence for an earlier emergence, possibly in the first millennium BC.
Settlement patterns often followed favorable ecological zones. Ugandan sites clustered around the Victoria lakeshore and the valleys of the Nile and Kagera, while Kwale-related sites followed forest margins and foothills in coastal Kenya and northeastern Tanzania. These locations offered moist soils, water, fishing opportunities, and woodland edges suitable for cultivation.
Later Iron Age assemblages differed from the earlier traditions. Rouletted or cord-impressed pottery occurred in both moist and dry environments, including the Bigo-ware sites of western Uganda, which are interpreted as specialized pastoral settlements. The passage cautiously associates these later communities with populations arriving from the north and maintaining close relations with Bantu cultivators.
The regional sequence remains incomplete. In Kenya and Tanzania, the passage states that it was not yet possible to reconstruct the development from earlier to later Iron Age stages. Engaruka in northern Tanzania offers an exceptional later complex of terraces, stone circles, cairns, field systems, and stock enclosures, with radiocarbon dates extending from approximately the fourth to the fifteenth century AD.
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