Timeline of Ancient Africa
BCE
Year 100,000: homo sapiens (humans) begin to migrate from Africa.
8500-6500: People of the Sahara desert begin making pottery for tools and dishes.
5000: the area along the Nile River (the Nile River Valley) was inhabited.
3100: Egypt is unified under one pharaoh who is called Narmer.
This is the start of the first Dynasty of Ancient Egypt.
3000: The Ancient Egyptian writing system, hieroglyphics, is invented.
3000-2000: Camels are domesticated by Ancient Somalis, then North Africans and Egyptians.
2950: The first Egyptian pyramid is built by Imhotep.
2575 The Great Pyramids of Giza are built.
2181-2055: A period of civil wars in Egypt between upper and lower Egypt. The Middle Kingdom emerges in Egypt.
2000-1000: Herding animals begins in Kenya and Tanzania.
1000: There is a great migration from west to central and southern Africa that is called the Bantu Migration.
1000: Nok culture in Nigeria begins they begin ironworking in at least 500 BCE.
814 The city of Carthage (North Africa) is established.
730: The start of the Nubian Empire.
509: The first treaty between Carthage and Rome is written.
525: The Persians invade Egypt.
332: Alexander the Great conquers Egypt. His general, Ptolemy, becomes King.
300: The trading town of Djenne Djenno (located in modern day Mali) is established. It is one of the earliest iron working sites in sub-Saharan Africa that we know about.
264-146: Carthage has three wars with the Roman Republic (called the Punic Wars). Carthage loses and it is named a Roman Province of Africa.
CE
100-200: Jewish settlers arrive in Roman North Africa after being expelled from Judea.
100: The Kingdom of Aksum rises to power in Ethiopia.
300: The Empire of Ghana rises to power in West Africa, ruling until around 1000 CE.
325: The height of the Aksum Empire under King Ezana.
709 The Arab Muslims take over North Africa.
711: The Moors (North Africa) conquer the Iberian Peninsula of Europe.
1100: Great Zimbabwe, the city, is established in Central Africa.
1235: The Empire of Mali is established by Sundiata Keita.
1300: The Kingdom of Kongo rises to power, ruling until 1900.
1324: Mansa Musa, the King of Kings from the Empire of Mali, makes a pilgrimage to Mecca in the Middle East.
1464: The Songhai Empire comes to power in West Africa.
1500s: The Luba Kingdom is established in Central Africa.
1600s: The Kuba Empire is established according to oral histories.
1815-1840: Shaka Zulu unifies societies under his control and creates the Zulu Empire.
1889: The Second Boer War begins in South Africa between the British colonisers and the Dutch settlers, called the Boers.
