c. 15th century BCE – c. 1st century
The Nok culture flourished in present-day central Nigeria, known for its terracotta sculptures and as one of the earliest iron-smelting cultures in sub-Saharan Africa.
Approximate date.
Bantu-speaking peoples from west-central Africa gradually spread across eastern and southern Africa over millennia, bringing agriculture and ironworking.
The Soninke Ghana Empire (Wagadu) flourished in what is now Mauritania and Mali, growing rich from control of the trans-Saharan gold and salt trade.
King Ezana of Aksum, in present-day Ethiopia and Eritrea, adopted Christianity under the influence of Frumentius, making Aksum one of the first Christian states.
The Nubian Kingdom of Kush, whose capital Meroë was famed for ironworking and pyramids, came to an end around the mid-4th century amid campaigns by Aksum.
Great Zimbabwe, a city of mortarless stone enclosures, was the centre of a powerful state that prospered from cattle and the gold trade with the Swahili coast.
Under King Gebre Meskel Lalibela of the Zagwe dynasty, eleven monolithic churches were carved out of the rock in Ethiopia; they are now a World Heritage Site.