¹ Quéchon, Gérard, “Les datations de la métallurgie du fer à Termit (Niger): leur fiabilité, leur signification” in Bocoum, Hamady, ed., Aux origines de la métallurgie du fer en Afrique: une ancienneté méconnue (Paris, 2002), 114Google Scholar. The same statement is found in an almost identical chapter with the same title by Quéchon, in Mediterranean Archaeology 14 (2001) (hereafter Meditarch), 253Google Scholar. That issue is titled “The Origins of Iron Metallurgy: Proceedings of the First International Colloquium on the Archaeology of Africa and the Mediterranean Basin Held at the Museum of Natural History in Geneva, 4-7 June, 1999.” UNESCO published an English translation of Bocoum's book in 2004 under the title The Origins of Iron Metallurgy in Africa: New Light on Its Antiquity—West and Central Africa.)

² Huysecom, Eric, “The Beginning of Iron Metallurgy: From Sporadic Inventions to Irreversible Generalizations,” Meditarch, 3Google Scholar.

³ Bocoum, Hamady, “La métallurgie du fer en Afrique: un patrimoine et une ressource au service du développement” in Bocoum, , Origines, 94, 97Google Scholar.

⁴ Schmidt, Peter R., “Cultural Representations of African Iron Production” in Schmidt, , ed., The Culture and Technology of African Iron Production (Gainesville, 1996), 8Google Scholar. See also de Maret, Pierre, “L'Afrique centrale: Le ‘savoir-fer’” in Bocoum, , Origines, 125Google Scholar; Paris, François, Person, Alain, Quéchon, Gérard, and Saliège, Jean-François, “Les débuts de la métallurgie au Niger septentrional: Aïr, Azawagh, Ighazer, Termit,” Journal des Africanistes 72(1992), 58Google Scholar; Schmidt, and Avery, D.H., “More Evidence for an Advanced Prehistoric Iron Technology in Africa,” Journal of Field Archaeology 10(1983), 428, 432–34Google Scholar; Goucher, Candice L., “Iron Is Iron ‘Til It Is Rust: Trade and Ecology in the Decline of West African Iron-Smelting,” JAH 22(1981), 180CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Rustad, John A., “The Emergence of Iron Technology in West Africa, with Special Emphasis on the Nok Culture of Nigeria” in Swartz, B.K. and Dumett, R., eds., West African Culture Dynamics: Archaeological and Historical Perspectives (The Hague, 1980), 237Google Scholar.

⁵ Davidson, Basil, West Africa Before the Colonial Era: A History to 1850 (London, 1998), 8Google Scholar.

⁶ Ehret, Christopher, The Civilizations of Africa: a History to 1800 (Charlottesville, 2002), 161Google Scholar. Curiously, he suggests African iron metallurgy was developed in two places, northern Nigeria/Cameroon and the Great Lakes region, while ignoring Niger, source of the earliest available dates.

⁷ Oliver, Roland, The African Experience (New York, 1991), 65Google Scholar.

⁸ Vansina, Jan, “Historians, Are Archeologists Your Siblings?” HA 22(1995), 395Google Scholar. See also Thornton, John, Africa and Africans in the Making of the Atlantic World, 1400-1800 (2d ed.: Cambridge, 1998), 46CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Craddock, P.T. and Picton, J., “Medieval Copper Alloy Production and West African Bronze Analyses–Part II,” Archaeometry 28(1986), 6CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Austen, Ralph A. and Headrick, Daniel, “The Role of Technology in the African Past,” African Studies Review 26(1983), 165–68CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

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¹⁰ Beck, Ludwig, Die Geschichte des Eisens in technischer und kulturgeschichtlicher Beziehung (5 vols.: Braunschweig, 1884–1903), 1:335Google Scholar. I am grateful to Adam Jones for the quotation.

¹¹ Maspéro, Gaston, “Les forgerons d'Horus, “ Anthropologie 2(1891), 405–07Google Scholar.

¹² von Luschan, Felix, “Eisentechnik in Afrika,” Zeitschrift für Ethnologie 41(1909), 22ff.Google Scholar; Gowland, William, “The Metals in Antiquity,” Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute 42(1912), 285Google Scholar.

¹³ Bocoum, Hamady, “Aux origines de la métallurgie du fer en Afrique de l'Ouest,” Meditarch, 235Google Scholar.

¹⁴ Kense, François J., Traditional African Iron Working (Calgary, 1983), 5Google Scholar. See also Kroeber, A.L., Anthropology: Race. Language, Culture, Psychology, Prehistory (rev. ed.: New York, 1948), 767Google Scholar.

¹⁵ As far back as 1837 British Egyptologist John Gardner Wilkinson suggested that iron, or even steel, was used for stoneworking in early Pharaonic times but that the tools had rusted away. Wilkinson, J.G., Manners and Customs of the Ancient Egyptians (3 vols.: London, 1837), 3:246–47, 249–50Google Scholar.

¹⁶ Diop, Cheikh Anta, “La métallurgie du fer sous l'ancien Empire égyptien,” BIFAN 35B(1973), 532ff.Google Scholar; idem, “L'usage du fer en Afrique,” Notes Africaines no. 152 (October 1976), 93.

¹⁷ See, for example, de Pedrals, Denis-Pierre, Archéologie de l'Afrique noire (Paris, 1950), 22–24, 35–36Google Scholar. G.E. Smith's works were being reprinted as late as 1971.

¹⁸ Petrie, W.M. Flinders, The Arts and Crafts of Ancient Egypt (Edinburgh, 1909), 104–06Google Scholar; Wainwright, G.A., “The Coming of Iron,” Antiquity 10(1936), 23CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Leclant, Jean, “Le fer dans l'Egypte ancienne, le Soudan et l'Afrique,” Annales de l'Est. Actes du colloque international ‘Le fer à trovers les âges: Hommes et techniques’ (Nancy, 3-6 octobre 1955), 83, 86Google Scholar; Lucas, A. and Harris, J.R., Ancient Egyptian Materials and Industries (4th ed.: London, 1962), 235–43Google Scholar; Huard, Paul, “Introduction et diffusion du fer au Tchad,” JAH 7(1966), 388CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Trigger, Bruce G., “The Myth of Meroe and the African Iron Age,” African Historical Studies 2(1969), 34–36CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Tylecote, R.F., A History of Metallurgy (London, 1976), 46Google Scholar; Coghlan, H.H., Notes on Prehistoric and Early Iron in the Old World (2d ed.: Oxford, 1977), 43Google Scholar; van der Merwe, Nikolaas J., “The Advent of Iron in Africa” in Wertime, Theodore A. and Muhly, James D., The Coming of the Age of Iron (New Haven, 1980), 465Google Scholar; Kense, , Traditional, 152–53Google Scholar; Valloggia, Michel, “La maîtrise du fer en Egypte: Entre traditions indigènes et importations,” Meditarch, 195, 197, 204Google Scholar; Wuttmann, Michel, “La métallurgie du fer dans l'Egypte ancienne: les données de l'archéologie,” Meditarch, 207Google Scholar.

¹⁹ Mauny, Raymond, “Essai sur l'histoire des métaux en Afrique occidentale,” BIFAN 14B(1952), 577–8Google Scholar. Mauny drew his information about Carthage mainly from Gsell, Stéphane, Histoire ancienne de l'Afrique du Nord (8 vols.: Paris, 1913–1930), 4:74–75; 5:80; 6:77-79Google Scholar.

²⁰ Barzel is still the word for iron in Hebrew.

²¹ Mauny, , “Essai,” 581–82Google Scholar.

²² Lhote, Henri, “La connaissance du fer en Afrique occidentale,” Encyclopédic Mensuelle d'Outre-Mer, I, fascicule 25 (September 1952), 272Google Scholar. Diop, L.-M. later (“Metallurgie traditionnelle,” 22)Google Scholar made the interesting point in support of Lhote that usually nomads are educated by their sedentary neighbors and not vice versa.

²³ Mauny, Raymond, “Autour de l'historique de l'introduction du fer en Afrique occidentale,” Encyclopédie Mensuelle d'Outre-Mer, III, fascicule 32 (April 1953), 109–10Google Scholar.

²⁴ Mauny died in 1994 but appears to have stopped writing by 1978.

²⁵ Mauny, Raymond, Les siècles obscurs de l'Afrique noire (Paris, 1970), 69, 73Google Scholar; idem, “The Western Sudan” in P.L. Shinnie, ed., The African Iron Age (Oxford, 1971), 66-70, 83-84; idem, “Trans-Saharan Contacts and the Iron Age in West Africa,” Cambridge History of Africa, Volume 2, from c. 500 BC to AD 1050 (Cambridge, 1978), 278-80, 319, 322, 333-35. The quote is from 334-35.

²⁶ See, for example, Alimen, H., Préhistoire de l'Afrique (Paris, 1955), 279Google Scholar; Huard, , “Introduction,” 378–82Google Scholar; Shaw, Thurstan, “On Radiocarbon Chronology of the Iron Age in Sub-Saharan Africa,” Current Anthropology 10(1969), 229CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Oliver, Roland and Fagan, Brian M., Africa in the Iron Age c. 500 B.C. to A.D. 1400 (Cambridge, 1975), 9, 48–49, 60–63Google Scholar (as we have seen, Oliver later changed his mind); Tylecote, R.F., “The Origin of Iron Smelting in Africa,” West African Journal of Archaeology 5(1975), 4–7Google Scholar; Van der Merwe, , “Advent,” 476–78Google Scholar; McIntosh, Susan Keech and McIntosh, Roderick J., “West African Prehistory,” American Scientist 69(November-December 1981), 609Google Scholar; Kense, François J., “The Initial Diffusion of Iron to Africa” in Haaland, Randi and Shinnie, Peter, eds., African Iron Working: Ancient and Traditional (Oslo, 1985), 22–24Google Scholar; Shillington, Kevin, History of Africa (New York, 1989), 45–47Google Scholar; Newman, James L., The Peopling of Africa: a Geographic Interpretation (New Haven, 1995), 108Google Scholar; Fage, J.D., with Tordoff, William, A History of Africa (4th ed.: London, 2002), 18–19Google Scholar.

²⁷ A useful handbook is Bowman's, SheridanRadiocarbon Dating (Berkeley, 1990)Google Scholar.

²⁸ Sutton, J.E.G., “West African Metals and the Ancient Mediterranean,” Oxford Journal of Archaeology 2(1983), 181CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

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³⁰ Lancel, Serge, Mission archéologique française à Carthage: Byrsa II: Rapports préliminaires sur les fouilles 1977-1978: Niveaux et vestiges puniques (Rome, 1982), 217–40, 246Google Scholar; idem, Introduction à la connaissance de Carthage: La colline de Byrsa à l'époque punique (Paris, 1983), 16-19.

³¹ Rakob, Friedrich, “La Carthage archaïque” in Carthage et son territoire dans l'Antiquité, Actes du IVe colloque international sur l'histoire et l'archéologie de l'Afrique du Nord réuni dans le cadre du 113e Congrès national des Sociétés savants (Strasbourg, 5-9 avril 1988), (Paris, 1990), 36Google Scholar; Hans Georg Niemeyer, “A la recherche de la Carthage archaïque: premiers résultats des fouilles de l'Université de Hambourg en 1986 et 1987” in ibid., 51 ; Lancel, Serge, Carthage (Paris, 1992), 57Google Scholar. Euboea is the largest island of the Aegean Sea.

³² Gras, M., Rouillard, P., and Teixidor, J., L'univers phénicien (rev. ed.: Paris, 1995), 268Google Scholar; Sebaï, Leïla Ladjimi, “Didon et Enée, la fondation de Carthage” in Carthage: L'histoire, sa trace et son écho (Paris, 1995), 54–55Google Scholar.

³³ See, for example, van der Merwe, , “Advent,” 477Google Scholar; Kense, , Traditional, 154Google Scholar; idem, “Initial Diffusion,” 24; Childs, S. Terry and Killick, David, “Indigenous African Metallurgy: Nature and Culture,” Annual Review of Anthropology 22(1993), 322CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Woodhouse, James, “Iron in Africa,” in Connah, Graham, ed., Transformations in Africa: Essays on Africa's Later Past (London, 1998), 166Google Scholar; Childs, S. Terry and Herbert, Eugenia W., “Metallurgy and Its Consequences” in Stahl, Ann Brower, ed., African Archaeology (Maiden, MA, 2005), 280Google Scholar.

³⁴ Holl, Augustin F.C., “Metals and Precolonial African Society” in Vogel, Joseph O., ed., Ancient African Metallurgy: the Sociocultural Context (Walnut Creek, CA, 2000), 8Google Scholar.

³⁵ Jemkur, Joseph Fazing, “Les débuts de la métallurgie du fer en Afrique de l'Ouest” in Bocoum, , Origines, 26Google Scholar. The article was apparently translated from English.

³⁶ Keesmann, Ingo, “Untersuchungen zur Metallurgie im archaischen und punischen Karthago,” Meditarch, 99, 102, 108Google Scholar (I am grateful to Hans Friedrich Tomaschek for translating this article). (Meditarch, 14, is dated 2001 but came out in December 2002.) Keesmann clarified certain points in a personal communication, 3 April 2003. British archeologists working in the old harbor area of Punic Carthage in the late 1970s found evidence of ironworking in what seemed to have been an industrial area. R.F. Tylecote examined the finds, said smithing was involved, and dated the objects to ca. 350-250 BCE. Niemeyer, Hans Georg, “Archaeological Evidence of Early Iron Technology at Carthage and Other Phoenician Settlements,” Meditarch, 86, 91Google Scholar. Lancel speculated that magnetite iron ore was brought to Carthage by sea from the Annaba (ex-Bône) area in present-day Algeria, a distance of about 150 nautical miles. Lancel, , Byrsa II, 233–34Google Scholar; idem, Colline de Byrsa, 18-19.

³⁷ In a personal communication of 8 February 2004, archeometallurgist David Killick questioned Keesmann's interpretation, saying he has found “no unambiguous mineralogical distinction between smelting and smithing slags” in Africa.

³⁸ Holl, , “Metals,” 9Google Scholar.

³⁹ Schiavo, Fulvia Lo, “Sardinian Metallurgy: the Archaeological Background,” in Balmuth, Miriam S., ed., Studies in Sardinian Archaeology (Ann Arbor, 1986), 2:237, 240, 242, 245–46Google Scholar; idem, “Early Metallurgy in Sardinia” in Robert Maddin, ed., The Beginning of the Use of Metals and Alloys (Cambridge, 1988), 102; Vagnetti, Lucia and Schiavo, Fulvia Lo, “Late Bronze Age Long Distance Trade in the Mediterranean and the Role of the Cypriots” in Peltenburg, E., ed., Early Society in Cyprus (Edinburgh, 1989), 227Google Scholar. Alternatively, Cypriot sailors, if willing to brave Scylla and Charybdis, could have gone to Sardinia via the Strait of Messina and missed Tunisia altogether. It is possible that those sailors from Cyprus were themselves Phoenicians. See Balmuth, Miriam S. and Rowland, Robert J. Jr., eds., Studies in Sardinian Archaeology (Ann Arbor, 1984), 1:42–43Google Scholar.

⁴⁰ Warmington, B.H., “The Carthaginian Period” in UNESCO's General History of Africa 2: Ancient Civilizations of Africa (Berkeley, 1981), 442Google Scholar. See also Warmington, , Carthage, a History (rev. ed.: New York, 1969), 23Google Scholar; Niemeyer, , “Archaeological Evidence,” 83Google Scholar.

⁴¹ Killick, David, “Science, Speculation and the Origins of Extractive Metallurgy” in Brothwell, D.R. and Pollard, A.M., eds., Handbook of Archaeological Sciences (London, 2001), 484Google Scholar. For optimum strength, bronze requires about 10% tin. Wheeler, Tamara S. and Maddin, Robert, “Metallurgy and Ancient Man” in Wertime, /Muhly, , Age of Iron, 110Google Scholar.

⁴² Grébénart, Danilo, “Les métallurgies du cuivre et du fer autour d'Agadez (Niger), des origines au début de la période médiévale” in Echard, Nicole, ed., Métallurgies africaines: Nouvelles contributions (Paris, 1983), 115–16Google Scholar; idem, “Characteristics of the Final Neolithic and Metal Ages in the Region of Agadez (Niger)” in Angela E. Close, ed., Prehistory of Arid North Africa: Essays in Honor of Fred Wendorf (Dallas, 1987), 313; idem, Les premiers métallurgistes en Afrique occidentale (Paris, 1988), 253; idem, “Les premiers métaux en Afrique de l'Ouest” in Jean-Pierre Leroy, ed., La préhistoire de l'Afrique de l'Ouest: nouvelles données sur la période récente (Saint-Maur, 1996), 82.

⁴³ Naffé, Baouba ould Mohamed, Vernet, Robert, and Khattar, Mohamed ould, “Archéologie de la Mauritanie” in Vernet, Robert, ed., Archéologie en Afrique de l'Ouest: Sahara et Sahel (Saint-Maur, 2000), 162Google Scholar.

⁴⁴ Mauny, , Siècles obscurs, 69Google Scholar; idem, “Western Sudan,” 83-84.

⁴⁵ Mauny, , “Trans-Saharan Contacts,” 280–81Google Scholar. Mauny's hesitancy over using the “routes des chars” in his iron technology-transmission theory and his continuous use of quotes when referring to them suggests he was never fully satisfied with the concept of “roads.”

⁴⁶ Lhote, Henri, Les chars rupestres sahariens des Syrtes au Niger, par le pays des Garamantes et des Atlantes (Paris, 1982), 48, 62Google Scholar. See also Lhote, , “Les chars rupestres du Sahara et leurs rapports avec le peuplement dans les temps protohistoriques” in Camps, Gabriel and Gast, Marceau, eds., Les chars préhistoriques du Sahara: Archéologie et techniques d'attelage (Aix-en-Provence, 1982), 23, 25Google Scholar.

⁴⁷ Spruytte, J., “Un essai d'attelage préhistorique,” Plaisirs Equestres 34(July 1967), 279–81Google Scholar. See also Spruytte, , Etudes expérimental sur l'attelage, contribution à l'histoire du cheval (Paris, 1977)Google Scholar.

⁴⁸ Lhote, , Chars rupestres, 72–75Google Scholar; See also idem, “Chars rupestres,” 23.

⁴⁹ Hugot, H.-J., Le Sahara avant le désert (Paris, 1974), 281Google Scholar.

⁵⁰ Camps, Gabriel, “Les chars sahariens: Images d'une société aristocratique,” Antiquités Africaines 25(1989), 20–21CrossRefGoogle Scholar. See also Striedter, Karl Heinz and Tauveron, Michel, “Un char peint de Wan Tabarakat (Tadrart, Algérie)” in Leroy, , “Préhistoire,” 64–65Google Scholar.

⁵¹ A notable exception is the French archeologist Alfred Muzzolini, who has argued that horse and chariot could equally have come by ship from the Levant or the northern shores of the Mediterranean. Muzzolini, , “La ‘période des chars’ au Sahara. L'hypothèse de l'origine égyptienne du cheval et du char,” in Camps, /Gast, , Chars préhistoriques, 49–55Google Scholar.

⁵² Ahmose, first pharaoh of the XVIII Dynasty, who took power ca. 1580-70 BCE, is given credit. Nevertheless, the ancient Egyptian word for horse, susim, indicates that the animal arrived from Semitic-speaking parts: susim is the Hebrew word for horses.

⁵³ Camps, , “Chars sahariens,” 33Google Scholar; Tauveron, Michel, “Art rupestre du Sahara central” in Leroy, , Préhistoire, 46Google Scholar; Colombel, Pierre, “Art préhistorique du Tassili n'Ajjer” in Leroy, , Préhistoire, 55Google Scholar. Earlier, Lhote, (Chars rupestres, 118)Google Scholar, put the date at 1200 BCE. Quite exceptionally, Muzzolini suggested that the chariot period did not start until shortly after the Greeks founded Cyrene in eastern Libya in the seventh century BCE. Muzzolini, Alfred, Art rupestre préhistorique des massifs centraux sahariens (Oxford, 1986), 274Google Scholar.

⁵⁴ Cornevin, Marianne, “New Data Concerning the Aïr Massif (Niger) and Its Surroundings” in UNESCO, Libya Antiqua (Paris, 1986), 109Google Scholar.

⁵⁵ Paris, François, “Le bassin de l'Azawagh: peuplements et civilisations, du néolithique à l'arrivée de l'Islam” in Marliac, Alain, ed., Milieux, sociétés et archéologues (Paris, 1995), 231Google Scholar.

⁵⁶ Roset, Jean-Pierre, “L'noccupation humaine de l'Aïr et du Ténéré, au Niger, depuis 10 000 ans” in Marliac, , Milieux, 173Google Scholar. Muzzolini, (“‘Période des chars’,” 46)Google Scholar speaks of “a last, small, humid ‘pulsation’ reported around 1000-1500 BC” in several parts of the Sahara.

⁵⁷ Cornevin, , “New Data,” 110Google Scholar; Paris, François, Person, Alain, and Saliège, Jean-François, “Peuplements et environnements holocènes du bassin de l'Azawagh oriental (Niger)” in Devisse, Jean, ed., Vallées du Niger (Paris, 1993), 390Google Scholar; Vernet, Robert, Climats anciens du nord de l'Afrique (Paris, 1995), 149Google Scholar.

⁵⁸ They are also called Libyo-Berbers, Libyan Berbers, paleo-Berbers, proto-Berbers, or simply Berbers or Libyans. “Libyco-Berbers” has been used as well for people who moved into the western Sahara.

⁵⁹ See, for example, Huard, , “Introduction,” 378, 380Google Scholar; Hugot, , Sahara, 292–93Google Scholar; Oliver, /Fagan, , Africa in Iron Age, 61–62Google Scholar; Lhote, Henri, Vers d'autres Tassilis: Nouvelles découvertes au Sahara (Paris, 1976), 179Google Scholar; Aumassip, Ginette, “Entre Adrar des Ifoghas, Tassili et Aïr: Les contacts du bassin avec le Nord-Est” in Devisse, , Vallées du Niger, 101–02Google Scholar.

⁶⁰ Lhote, , Chars rupestres, 186–88Google Scholar. In 1947 Mauny, (“Une route préhistorique à travers le Sahara occidental,” BIFAN 9B, 344)Google Scholar reported a chariot engraving near Goundam, some 20 miles from the Niger northwest of its great bend, but other specialists do not seem to have accepted his evidence. See Lhote, , Chars rupestres, 8–9Google Scholar, and Camps, , “Chars sahariens,” 29Google Scholar, for maps plotting finds of chariot drawings. In the western Sahara an oxcart is depicted near the ruins of Tegdaoust, about 250 miles from the Senegal river. Naffé, /Vernet, /Khattar, , “Archéologie de la Mauritanie,” 164–65Google Scholar.

⁶¹ Lhote, , Chars rupestres, 188Google Scholar.

⁶² Cornevin, Marianne, Archéologie africaine (Paris, 1993), 124Google Scholar.

⁶³ Iwelen means potsherds in the Tuareg language.

⁶⁴ Roset, , “Occupation humaine,” 173–74Google Scholar; Paris, François, “Les sépultures monumentales d'Iwelen (Niger),” Journal des Africanistes 60(1990), 74CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

⁶⁵ For the full story of post-Neolithic Iwelen see Roset, Jean-Pierre, “Iwelen: an Archaeological Site of the Chariot Period in Northern Aïr,” in UNESCO, Libya Antiqua, 113–46Google Scholar; idem, “Néolithisation, néolithique et post-néolithique au Niger nordoriental,” Bulletin de l'Association française pour l'étude du Quaternaire 4 (1987), 204, 208-12; idem, “Occupation humaine,” 161-95; Paris, , “Sépultures monumentales,” 47–75Google Scholar; Paris, et al., “Débuts de la métallurgie,” 57–58Google Scholar; Cornevin, , Archéologie africaine, 122–27Google Scholar; Gado, Boubé, Maga, Abdoulaye, and Ide, Oumarou Amadou, “Archéologie du Niger” in Vernet, , Archéologie, 221, 223, 224, 226, 230Google Scholar.

⁶⁶ It has been suggested that the copper came from the Agadez area, specifically the basin of a one-time stream called the Eghazer, where both copper ore and native copper are found on the surface, but that it was fashioned locally and then taken to Iwelen. Grébénart, Danilo, “Relations inter-ethniques sahara-sahéliennes dans l'Ouest africain durant la préhistoire finale et la protohistoire,” Préhistoire Anthropologie Méditerranéennes 4(1995), 129Google Scholar. See also Grébénart, , “Afrique occidentale: les débuts de la métallurgie,” Archéologia no. 198 (January 1985), 50Google Scholar.

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⁷⁸ Alioune Deme and Susan Keech McIntosh, “Excavations at Walalde: New Light on the Settlement of the Middle Senegal Valley by Iron-Using Peoples,” in preparation; McIntosh, personal communication, 12 November 2004; Thomas Fenn, personal communication, 2 February 2005. Fenn analyzed the copper objects.

⁷⁹ Grébénart, , “Métallurgies du cuivre,” 117Google Scholar; idem, “Le néolithique final et les débuts de la métallurgie,” in Bernus/Echard, Région d'In Gall-Tegidda II (Niamey, 1985), 411; idem, “Afrique occidentale,” 52; idem, “Characteristics,” 314; idem, “Premiers métallurgistes,” 252; idem, “Relations inter-ethniques,” 129.

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⁸² Killick, et al., “Reassessment,” 367–71, 379–81, 390Google Scholar. See also Bernus, Suzanne, “Découvertes, hypothèses, reconstitution et preuves: le cuivre médiéval d'Azelik-Takedda (Niger)” in Echard, , Métallurgies africaines, 162, 168–69Google Scholar.

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⁸⁷ Killick, et al., “Reassessment,” 370Google Scholar. A sixteenth dating, 640-890 CE, is dearly aberrant.

⁸⁸ Grébénart, , “Premiers métallurgistes,” 250Google Scholar.

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⁹⁸ Posnansky, Merrick and McIntosh, Roderick, “New Radiocarbon Dates for Northern and Western Africa,” JAH 17(1976), 183–84, 193CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Calvocoressi, D. and David, Nicholas, “A New Survey of Radiocarbon and Thermoluminescence Dates for West Africa,” JAH 20(1979), 10, 25CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

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¹⁰⁷ Quéchon, , “Datations” in Bocoum, , Origines, 109–10Google Scholar; idem, “Datations,” Meditarch, 251.

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¹⁰⁹ The measurements were all done in a Paris laboratory and are numbered, in order of age, Pa 810, Pa 811, Pa 510, Pa 481, Pa 669 and Pa 688 (Pa 668 in the 1992 article). A seventh dating (Pa 519) on a potsherd associated with metal, 777-391 BCE, was deemed “archeologically illogical” by Quéchon (109 in Origines, 250 in Meditarch).

¹¹⁰ Quéchon, , “Datation” in Bocoum, , Origines, 108, 110Google Scholar; idem, “Datations,” Meditarch, 250-51.

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¹³⁶ Okafor, Edwin E., “New Evidence on Early Iron-Smelting from Southeastern Nigeria” in Shaw, Thurstan, Sinclair, Paul, Andah, Bassey, and Okpoko, Alex, eds., The Archaeology of Africa: Food, Metals and Towns (London, 1993), 437–39Google Scholar. See also Okafor, and Phillips, Patricia, “New 14C Ages from Nsukka, Nigeria, and the Origins of African Metallurgy,” Antiquity 66(1992), 686, 688CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

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¹³⁸ MacEachern, Scott, “Iron Age Beginnings North of the Mandara Mountains, Cameroon and Nigeria” in Pwiti, Gilbert and Soper, Robert, Aspects of African Archaeology (Harare, 1996), 489–95Google Scholar; idem, personal communication, 21 September 2004.

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¹⁴⁰ Ibid, 138-39.

¹⁴¹ Bernard Clist, personal communication, 10 October 2004; idem, “Des premiers villages aux premiers Européens: Quatre millénaires d'interactions entre l'homme et son milieu autour de l'estuaire du Gabon” (Doctorat, Université Libre de Bruxelles, 2005),769, 771-72, 781.

¹⁴² David Killick, personal communication, 10 October 2004.

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¹⁴⁵ Woodhouse, , “Iron in Africa,” 167, 169Google Scholar; de Maret, Pierre and Thiry, G., “How Old Is the Iron Age in Central Africa?” in Schmidt, , Culture and Technology, 31Google Scholar; Oslisly, Richard, “Chronologie des ages du fer dans la moyenne vallée de l'Ogooué au Gabon,” Meditarch, 264Google Scholar; de Maret, , “Afrique centrale,” 125Google Scholar. Woodhouse claimed that the datings were “generally accepted” and cited Clist's Gabon as a source!

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¹⁵³ Ibid., 14.

¹⁵⁴ Schmidt, , Culture and Technology, 8Google Scholar; Schmidt, and Childs, S. Terry, “Innovation and Industry During the Early Iron Age in East Africa: The KM2 and KM3 Sites of Northwest Tanzania,” AAR 3(1985), 54Google Scholar.

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¹⁵⁷ Ibid., 276-77. In 1982, after 14 of the 20 furnaces had been excavated, they said smelting activity had started by at least the seventh century BCE (“Age du fer ancien,” 17, 19, 57).

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¹⁶⁶ Mauny, Raymond, “Datation au C-14 de sites ouest africains de l'âge du fer” in Hugot, Henri J., ed., Actes du VIe Congrès Panafricain de Préhistoire et d'Etudes du Quaternaire (Dakar, 1967), (Chambéry, 1972), 533Google Scholar. See also McIntosh, /McIntosh, , “West African Prehistory,” 609Google Scholar; idem, “Stone to Metal,” 103; Phillipson, , African Archaeology, 159Google Scholar.

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¹⁹² Kense, , Traditional, 169Google Scholar.

¹⁹³ Holl, , “Metals,” 9Google Scholar.

¹⁹⁴ Herbert, Eugenia W., “African Metallurgy: The Historian's Dilemma,” Meditarch, 42Google Scholar.

¹⁹⁵ Holl, , “Metals,” 9Google Scholar; Schmidt, , “Culture and Technology,” 8Google Scholar.

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¹⁹⁷ Quéchon, , “Datations,” Meditarch, 253Google Scholar; idem, “Datations” in Bocoum, Origines, 114. These quotes come from the last sentence of what were otherwise almost identical articles. It would appear the change was made to cater to a UNESCO audience.

¹⁹⁸ Bocoum, Hamady, “Introduction généralé” in Bocoum, , Origines, 11Google Scholar.

¹⁹⁹ De Maret, , “Afrique centrale,” 131Google Scholar.

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²⁰³ Marianne Cornevin is a well-known French archeologist whose opinion on independent invention shifted from “probable” in 1986 (“New Data,” 111) to “possible” in 1993 (Archéologie africaine, 122). French prehistorian Robert Vernet, a Niger specialist like Grébénart, Haour and Roset, allows for “an autonomous center of invention” there but says that “there is no doubt proto-Berbers from North Africa … introduced metal objects … and metallurgical techniques” to the region. Vernet, , Le Sud-ouest du Niger de la Préhistoire au début de l'Histoire (Niamey, 1996), 360Google Scholar.

²⁰⁴ McIntosh, , “Archaeology,” 77–78Google Scholar.

²⁰⁵ Do Dimmi is at 16°25' N, Afunfun 175 at 16°40' N, Walalde at 16°31' N.

²⁰⁶ Goucher, , “Iron Is Iron,” 181–84Google Scholar; Haaland, Randi, “Iron Production, Its Socio-Cultural Context and Ecological Implications” in Haaland, /Shinnie, , African Iron Working, 54–56, 61–64, 66–67, 69–70Google Scholar; Okafor, Edwin Eme, “Eguru Amube Amalla Orba: Blacksmith Clan Among the Orba,” Nyame Akuma no. 32 (December 1989), 26Google Scholar; Kense, François J. and Okoro, John Ako, “Changing Perspectives on Traditional Iron Production in West Africa” in Shaw, et al., Archaeology, 455, 457Google Scholar. See also Rehder, , Mastery and Uses, 149–52, 158–59Google Scholar.

²⁰⁷ Vansina, , “Historians,” 394Google Scholar.

²⁰⁸ Ibid., 395.

²⁰⁹ Kense, /Okoro, , “Changing Perspectives,” 456Google Scholar.

²¹⁰ Quéchon, , “Datations,” Meditarch, 248Google Scholar; idem, “Datations” in Bocoum, Origines, 106.

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²¹⁵ Killick, , “What Do We Know,” 110Google Scholar.

²¹⁶ Iron reached the British Isles no later than the seventh century BCE and was being smelted there by the fifth. See Haselgrove, Colinet al., Understanding the British Iron Age: an Agenda for Action (Salisbury, 2001), 25, and www.biab.co.uk/chronology.asp; www.bbc.co.uk/history/timelines/britain/o_iron_age.shtmlGoogle Scholar.

Estimates of the starting period for China range from the eighth to the fifth centuries BCE. Taylor, S.J. and Shell, C.A., “Social and Historical Implications of Early Chinese Technology” in Maddin, , Beginning, 208Google Scholar; Wagner, Donald B., “The Earliest Use of Iron in China” in Young, Suzanne M.M.et al., Metals in Antiquity (Oxford, 1999), 1–9Google Scholar; Rehder, , Mastery and Uses, 142Google Scholar.

²¹⁷ Cline, Walter, Mining and Metallurgy in Negro Africa (Menasha, 1937), 5Google Scholar.