UNESCO Ancient Civilizations of Africa (Editor G. Mokhtar)

The Sahara
in classical antiquity
declined first with hellenistic, then with Roman Egypt, trade being
increasingly diverted to the Mediterranean coast. 36
It is probably in the eastern Sahara, too, that we should seek the link
which brought iron into the black world, in so far as this did not occur
independently. The problem of the transition from the stone age to the
metal age in the Saharan and Niger regions, which undoubtedly occurred
in the period under consideration, is of immense importance. Here again,
geographical uniformity is lacking. In the same region - such as, for
instance, Mauretania - evidence is found of the simultaneous existence,
in the last centuries preceding our era, of stone and metal implements.
Stone implements have been found at Zemeilet Barka, Hassi Bernous
and Wadi Zegag (carbon 14 dating of accessory materials and of copper
working in the Akjujit area). 37 The latter may have been influenced by
the industry of Sous (south Morocco) which might have existed earlier;
but it is not impossible that the incidence of metal working, at least
as regards gold and copper, may have been a local phenomenon.
The question of the iron industry, which requires the use of higher
temperatures and more complex techniques, is different. It will be
remembered that iron metallurgy took several centuries to spread from
the Caucasus as far as Western Europe. Thus the problem of how iron
metallurgy made its appearance in the black world is extremely controversial,
some maintaining that it was a specifically African invention, others
that it was brought there by foreign intervention. The upholders of the
second theory are themselves divided into two camps: some assume a
Mediterranean influence, across the central Sahara; whilst others trace
the origin of this technique to the land of Kush and assume that it followed
the natural route linking the Niger to the Nile Valley via Kordofan and
Darfur. Be this as it may, carbon 14 datings indicate that iron metallurgy
existed in the area of Chad and northern Nigeria in the second and first
century before our era. The possibility of its having evolved locally is not to
be rejected out of hand; but if such was not the case, it was probably transmitted
by the Meroitic civilization, 38 so that the central Saharan routes were
not involved.
Study of the means of transport can also help us better to locate the
Saharan routes and check certain hypotheses. We know that the great
desert was conquered by the horse before it was conquered by the camel.
Here as in other places the 'caballine' period had as its first consequence
the use of wheeled vehicles. We do not know when wagons and chariots
disappeared, but according to Herodotus, the Garamantes were still using
them. Archaeology confirms his testimony. The most diversified drawings
36. Unesco, 1963-7; G. Camps, 1978.
37. N. Lambert, 1970, pp. 43-62; G. Camps, 1974a, pp. 322-3 and 343.
38. General survey with bibliography in R. Mauny, pp. 66-76; cf. J. Leclant, 1956b,
pp. 83-91; B. Davidson, 1959, pp. 62-7; P. Huard, pp. 377~4°4; R- Cornevin, pp. 453-4.
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