Chapter 3 Section 3

Early Civilizations of Africa

Tracking the Evidence• Record on Stone

o Some records of early people have survived especially pictures on stone.

o Rock Art

The Linton Panel

The Linton Panel• This rock painting was extricated from a shelter in

the Drakensberg Mountains and currently resides in the South African Museum, Cape Town. Its images of antelopes and humans have been interpreted as evocations of Khoisan trance experiences. Beautifully rendered in subtle tones of red and white, this is among the most famous South African rock paintings. Although its date of execution is not known, it is estimated to have been painted sometime during the eighteenth or nineteenth centuries A.D.

Nile Valley Civilization

• Thousands of years ago the climate of the Sahara was changing.

• Less rainfall• Lakes and rivers dried up• Animals migrated to other parts to look for food• The people who hunted those animals moved too• The earliest civilization in Africa developed in the

Nile Valley of Egypt about 7000 years ago.• Powerful leaders had emerged and united the

villages along the Nileo Pharaohs- rulers of ancient times

Religion and Government

• Egyptians were polytheistic• Different Gods controlled the forces of nature• Chief god was Amon-Re (Ah muhn ray) sun god• Other important gods and goddesses• Osiris god of underworld and of the Nile and his wife Isis.• Life after death was a central belief• Preparation for the afterworld (huge tombs, pyramids and

filled them with food clothing jewels etc.• To the Egyptian the pharaoh was a god descended from

Amon Re. • Priests and nobles helped the pharaoh run the

government

Achievements of Egyptian Civilization

• Egyptians developed hieroglyphics, writing using pictures and symbols.

• Egyptian priests used the knowledge of the stars and planets to produce a calendar with a 365 day year.

• Egyptian doctors studied human body and began to treat spinal injuries fractured bones and surgery

Kingdom of Kush• was an ancient African kingdom situated on the

confluences of the Blue Nile, White Nile and River Atbara in what is now the Republic of Sudan.

Kingdom of Axum• Aksum (also spelled Axum) is the name of a

powerful, urban Iron Age Kingdom in Ethiopia• The modern city of Aksum is located in the

northeastern portion of what is now Ethiopia, on the horn of Africa.

• An early text shows that trade on the Red Sea coast was active as early as 1st century BC. During the first century AD, Aksum began a rapid rise to prominence, trading its agricultural resources and its gold and ivory through the port of Adulis into the Red Sea trade network and thence to the Roman Empire.