gems, ancient history, Africa

In Africa south of the Equator, the period from 500 BC to AD 1000 marked a major transition from hunting and gathering to food production, with agriculture and stock-raising becoming the dominant subsistence methods by AD 1000, though hunting and gathering persisted in some areas depending on ecological conditions. This transformation coincided with the shift from the Stone Age to the Iron Age: prior to 500 BC, metal tools were absent, but by AD 1000, iron tools were widespread except in isolated parts of the Congo Basin, East Africa, and southern Africa. This 1,500-year span likely also saw significant population growth and a shift in dominant physical types, from the Bush type—suited to hunting in savannas and dry woodlands—to the Negro type, originally from wetter West and western Central Africa, who became skilled agriculturalists and herders, spreading widely except in the far southwest. Linguistically, the Bush peoples are associated with the click languages of the Khoi and San, while the Negro peoples predominantly speak Bantu languages.