Was Ancient Africa a place with or without history?
A bit of both. Generally, North Africa has a long historical record stretching back to ancient times, but south of the Sahara it’s relatively recent. There was a lot going on before history, and archaeology has provided much information. In North Africa, it was the drying out of the Sahara that led to high populations along the Nile and the coastal regions. Egypt had the first large-scale urbanisation, and also the first forms of writing which were later do develop into hieroglyphic and demotic forms. A bit later, settlers from Phoenicia (roughly present day Lebanon) colonised parts of the Mediterranean coast, most famously Carthage. They had developed their own Punic script, related to Syriac. In both cases, the writings had accounts of events, rulers, conquests and various stately matters. There were also the more mundane records of merchants, craftsmen, lawyers, etc which have given many clues about ordinary life. South of the Sahara the archaeological record shows a long presence b
