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AFAIK Africans, that is, the Bantu and related West African peoples, went directly from Neolithic to Iron Age, skipping Bronze.

For Mediterranean, it's mainly because the whole region, Iraq, and Northwest India/Pakistan were already integrated together as a trading unit, with factors coming hp from Sumer and Assyria to trade with Dilmun, Indus Valley, and Anatolia. Then the Phoenicians traded tin from Iberia and all the way from Britain as well.

Funnily enough, Egypt only adopted bronze (and chariot) at least for their armies after the whole Hyksos invasion stuffs. That might be the basis for Exodus.



Did the Africans discover iron on their own, or was the knowledge imported?


Did They or Didn't They Invent It? Iron in Sub-Saharan Africa

- Stanley B. Alpern

Wikipedia summarizes: We don't know for sure.




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