World History up to 1500: Africa in Ancient Times Q&A

Question: What do you think was the most important climatic feature in the evolution of African societies?
Answer: The most important climatic feature in the evolution of different African societies is the difference in rainfall across various regions. Regions that lack sufficient rainfall and do not have access to other sources of fresh water are ill-suited to farming. Because only farming can support large populations, the lack of rainfall explains why groups in some areas, like the Kalahari Desert, continued to practice a hunter-gatherer strategy even when other parts of Africa shifted to agriculture.

Question: What distinguished hunter-gatherer societies in Africa from settled societies?
Answer: Hunter-gatherer societies were nomadic or seminomadic. Their ability to forage plants and hunt depended on the seasons and the migration patterns of wildlife. Unlike hunter-gatherers, settled farmers established permanent shelters and domesticated plants and animals, cultivating crops and raising animals for meat and milk for food, hides and fur for clothing, and bones for toolmaking.

Question: Why did earlier scholars believe that ironworking technologies were disseminated to sub-Saharan Africa, and what evidence leads most scholars today to accept that these societies independently developed ironworking?
Answer: The earliest evidence of ironworking comes from the eastern Mediterranean region, and this technology grew in sophistication after the Late Bronze Age Collapse. It was then introduced into Egypt in the 600s and spread across North Africa. It was assumed that it also spread south into sub-Saharan Africa. However, modern scholars have found evidence of ironworking in sub-Saharan Africa dating to centuries before the technology reached Egypt. This has convinced them that ironworking emerged independently in sub-Saharan Africa.

Question: How did the decline of Egypt after the Middle Kingdom affect the Kingdom of Kush?
Answer: When the Egyptian Middle Kingdom declined and the Second Intermediate Period began, the Kingdom of Kush was able to extend its influence north. It took over the Egyptian fortress towns and absorbed the Egyptian culture of the people living there. Kush also made connections with the Hyksos in Lower Egypt. Together, these two groups worked to keep the native Egyptian rulers in Thebes weak, so as to not threaten Kush or the Hyksos.

Question: What were some of the advantages for Kush of relocating to Meroe?

Answer: By relocating farther south in Meroe, the Kingdom of Kush benefited from abundant resources like iron. Also, being farther south, they received sub-Saharan rains that made agriculture away from the Nile possible.

Question: Why did the Ptolemies, who were Macedonian Greeks, style themselves as Egyptian pharaohs?
Answer: The Ptolemies styled themselves as Egyptians for a couple of reasons. First, they were impressed by Egypt and its long history. Second, they sought to legitimize their rule by demonstrating continuity from pharaonic times.