Credited to Niger. The early dates are contested. Reviewers question whether the dated material was securely associated with iron-working residues, since many Niger dates came from organic matter in surface potsherds, and point to old charcoal and weak radiocarbon precision between 800 and 400 BCE.
How it began
The Termit Massif lies in eastern Niger. From the mid-1970s researchers working in central and eastern Niger reported unexpectedly early radiocarbon dates for metalworking there. Gerard Quechon and Jean-Pierre Roset published finds in 1974, and Francois Paris, Alain Person, Quechon and Jean-Francois Saliege published on the end of the Neolithic and the beginnings of metallurgy at Termit in 1992. Tests on excavated material have been read as showing iron worked there by about 1500 BCE.
Before it existed
The prevailing view held that iron smelting reached sub-Saharan Africa by diffusion from the Mediterranean or the Near East. In sub-Saharan Africa copper metallurgy generally does not precede iron working, so the sequence of stone, bronze and iron ages used elsewhere fits poorly.
Who pushed back
Two reviews in the mid-2000s found technical flaws in the studies claiming independent invention. Many of the Niger dates were on organic matter in potsherds lying on the ground surface together with iron objects, so the link to iron working was not secure. Ancient charred tree stumps in Niger are a source of old charcoal and have sometimes been mistaken for furnaces. Radiocarbon dating is also imprecise between 800 and 400 BCE.
What lasted
The Termit dates became a main exhibit in the debate over whether Africans invented iron smelting on their own. From 1994 to 1999 UNESCO funded the Iron Routes in Africa project, and the volume it published, edited by Hamady Bocoum, included a study of the reliability and meaning of the Termit dates. The book drew criticism for including only authors sympathetic to independent invention.
Where it stands today
The question remains open. Newer radiocarbon and thermoluminescence dates from Nigeria and the Central African Republic have been put forward as even earlier, and a 2023 study cites a Niger site dated between 1895 and 1370 BCE. Scholars continue to scrutinize all of these dates.
