There is account of the iron discovery in sub Saharan Africa about 2,000 BC[0][1][2]
If we grant, purely as a thought experiment, that a community in sub-Saharan Africa had developed reliable iron metallurgy around 2000 BC, it would be a reminder of how technology advancements shouldn't be taken for granted.
What social, ecological and economic circumstances allowed an invention to arise but prevented it from becoming a continuously expanding technological tradition.
Why didn't that discovery become part of a self-sustaining technological system? It could have led to a very different Africa and world today.
If we grant, purely as a thought experiment, that a community in sub-Saharan Africa had developed reliable iron metallurgy around 2000 BC, it would be a reminder of how technology advancements shouldn't be taken for granted.
What social, ecological and economic circumstances allowed an invention to arise but prevented it from becoming a continuously expanding technological tradition.
Why didn't that discovery become part of a self-sustaining technological system? It could have led to a very different Africa and world today.
- [0] https://journals.udsm.ac.tz/index.php/sap/article/view/2710?...
- [1] https://www.nature.com/articles/s40494-024-01383-2?utm_sourc...
- [2] https://doi.org/10.1007/s10437-023-09545-6?utm_source=chatgp...