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1500 BCE
Ghana Empire complex societies had existed in the region since about 1500 BCE
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Period: 1464 BCE to 1591 BCE
Songhai, the last of these three great empires, remained from 1464-1591 CE. It started under the control of the Mali Empire
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Period: 1200 BCE to 1500 BCE
Mali came next and lasted from
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1000 BCE
iron smelting in Nigeria and central Niger. Spreads to rest of West Africa
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1000 BCE
Iron technology spreads to the rest of Africa
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800 BCE
The religion of Islam begins to spread through Africa
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Period: 300 BCE to 1200 BCE
Ghana was the first of the three early African empires,
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19 BCE
19th century Muslim reformers changed the political landscape of large parts of West Africa
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18 BCE
By the 18th century the northern part of West Africa was a patchwork of city states and kingdoms
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14 BCE
Processional cross
Christianity has a long history in Ethiopia, dating from its introduction in Aksum under the reign of King Azana in about A.D. 330. Its spread among the peoples of the highlands, and the arrival of nine monks from Syria -
13 BCE
Archer figure
Since the 1940s, low-fired ceramic figures and fragments such as this have been unearthed at various sites throughout the Inland Niger Delta region, an area that once had highly developed urban centers. These works are among the earliest known surviving art forms in sub-Saharan Africa. The makers were from the various peoples in the region, but it is not known whether they were men or women -
11 BCE
Headrest
In the Bandiagara cliffs, above the villages now occupied by the Dogon people, carved wooden headrests have been found in burial caves. -
11
Ring
Jewelry -
1067
Ghana capital is believed to have been at Koumbi Saleh on the rim of the Sahara desert.
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1148
Coin
Historically, currency came in a variety of forms including bars, anklets, armlets, blades, hoes, crosses, neck rings, manillas, rods, ingots, cloth—as well as coins. Some of these objects traded hands regularly; others were only exchanged at important -
1229
Bottle with four handles
This rare four-handled vase bears the characteristic five-petal rosettes associated with the Rasulid dynasty of Yemen (reigned 1229–1454). Controlling the trade routes to Africa and East Asia