Africa in the Iron Age by Roland Oliver
Africa in the Iron Age is a comprehensive and authoritative introduction to African history between about 500 B.C. and A.D. 1400. The authors are not so much concerned with a particular technological revolution as the enormous changes - political, social and economic - that took place during the period 500 B.C.-A.D. 1400 all over the African continent. The book falls into three parts. Early chapters describe conditions about 500 B.C. when North Africa is already in the Bronze Age, Middle Africa is engaged in Stone Age farming and south of the Sahara most men live by hunting and gathering food. Between 500 B.C. and A.D. 1000 life in settled communities becomes normal throughout the continent. Finally, the Iron Age sees the rise of state systems, the development of long-distance trade and the spread of Islam and Monophysite Christianity. Any study of this period has to combine historical and archaeological methods in the search for evidence and in the subsequent interpretation of data. While literary evidence does exist for the period, Iron Age archaeology necessarily supplies most of the evidence examined. Roland Oliver is a leading African historian and the author of several standard books on the subject. Brian Fagan is an acknowledged expert on African Iron Age archaeology.
Roland Oliver is Emeritus Professor of African history at the University of London and has made an outstanding contribution to the study of African history. In 1948 he was appointed to the School of Oriental and African Studies, the first post ever created in African history at any university. Professor Oliver has been Visiting Professor at the University of Brussels, Northwestern University, and Harvard University. From 1979 to 1993 he was president of the British Institute in Eastern Africa. In 1989 Professor Oliver was awarded the Distinguished Africanist Award of the American African Studies Association and in 1993 he was elected a Fellow of the British Academy.
| SKU | Unavailable |
| ISBN 13 | 9780521099004 |
| ISBN 10 | 0521099005 |
| Title | Africa in the Iron Age |
| Author | Roland Oliver |
| Condition | Unavailable |
| Binding Type | Paperback |
| Publisher | Cambridge University Press |
| Year published | 1975-10-29 |
| Number of pages | 244 |
| Cover note | Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary. |
| Note | Unavailable |