Pre Semitic metallurgy in the Horn?

[tariq moses]

Some interesting stuff regarding metals in pre-Semitic Horn of Africa:

"Some solutions can be decisively discounted. The first Ethiosemitic speakers did not come as technologically advantaged conquerors. It may perhaps be possible that the South Arabian settlers introduced iron to the Horn. But what little as has yet been investigated of northeastern African iron-working terminology suggests that metallurgy in some form was already known and that the root * bir-t- used for “iron” throughout the Horn today was borrowed into early Ethiosemitic from a Cushitic source."

- History and Testimony of Language Christopher Ehret


"Quite possibly the migration of the Sahara pastoralists reached the Horn and East Africa. Settlements of village farmers, basically neolithic but also using some copper, are known from the plateau of north-western Ethiopia; their material culture shows affinities with that of the C-Group peoples who moved into Nubia from the western desert about 2500 BC......

- Jean Hiernaux

So it seems metallurgy was at least known in the Horn before the Semites came seeing as they had a Cushitic word for Iron but the lack of Iron thats been excavated must mean these Cushites either had an aversion/taboo towards metallurgy as is common in the Horn today and among Tuaregs who've absorbed Egyptian/Nubian ancestry indicating our metallurgy taboos may have a common ancient origin in Sudan/Egypt, or they were just incapable of producing metal(68iq)

 

[Hamzza]

The oromo when they were conquering most of aetopia appeared to have no knowledge of metals whatsoever.
Semites defenitely introduced iron to the horn. Not the agazians(ga'ez speakers) though, but himyarites and sabaeans who colonised the northern coast of somalia long before the ancestors of the habesha moved to the horn.

 

[Xareen]

The oromo when they were conquering most of aetopia appeared to have no knowledge of metals whatsoever.
Semites defenitely introduced iron to the horn. Not the agazians(ga'ez speakers) though, but himyarites and sabaeans who colonised the northern coast of somalia long before the ancestors of the habesha moved to the horn.

When did this colonisation happen? Is it documented? From what I understand, it was through contact and not colonisation that the Sabaean influence extended into the peninsula.

 

[Som]

The oromo when they were conquering most of aetopia appeared to have no knowledge of metals whatsoever.
Semites defenitely introduced iron to the horn. Not the agazians(ga'ez speakers) though, but himyarites and sabaeans who colonised the northern coast of somalia long before the ancestors of the habesha moved to the horn.

Sabeans and Himyarites had trade relations with northern Somalia but say they colonized the coast is a stretch. Name one northern Somali city founded by the sabeans or Himyarites.

 

[Som]

When did this colonisation happen? Is it documented? From what I understand, it was through contact and not colonisation that the Sabaean influence extended into the peninsula.

It never happened. The sabeans traded with the horn of Africa but never fully incorporated it in ti their realm, not even Ethiopia was incorporated let alone northern Somalia.
The sabeans - horner relationship was certainly strong especially in Ethiopia but not a colonization. Many historians believe the sabeans influence is exaggerated and that pre Axum civilizations like d'mt were mostly indigenous with a bit of south Arabian influence. A few others say it was mixed sabean and native. Any way nobody says sabeans or Himyarites colonized the horn

Wikipedia page on d'mt

Some modern historians including Stuart Munro-Hay, Rodolfo Fattovich, Ayele Bekerie, Cain Felder, and Ephraim Isaac consider this civilization to be indigenous, although Sabaean-influenced due to the latter's dominance of the Red Sea, while others like Joseph Michels, Henri de Contenson, Tekle-Tsadik Mekouria, and Stanley Burstein have viewed Dʿmt as the result of a mixture of Sabaeans and indigenous peoples.[6][7] Some sources consider the Sabaean influence to be minor, limited to a few localities, and disappeared after a few decades or a century, perhaps representing a trading or military colony in some sort of symbiosis or military alliance with the civilization of Dʿmt or some other proto-Aksumite state.[8][9] However other sources hold that Dʿmt, though having indigenous roots, was under strong South Arabian economic and cultural influence.[10]

 

[Al-Ma'mun]

Somalis are paternally descended from a Bronze Age Egyptian/Northern Sudanese group who might have already had some knowledge of Bronze but it's more plausible that iron-working arrived in the Horn from the East (Arabia) and not from the North similar to Camel herding culture which also spread from Arabia to the Horn.

 

[tariq moses]

"In terms of silver jewelry, there are some unexpected similarities between the output of
Tuareg metalworkers in Saharan and Sahelian West Africa (predominantly in Mali and
Niger) and the artisans of Ethiopia, a sub-Sahelian country in East Africa."

The Magic Symbol Repertoire of Talismanic Rings from East and West Africa

In West Africa, Berber groups such as the Tuareg of Mali and Niger use inscribed silver jewelry – rings, pendants and plaques – as talismans. A ring with a curved or flat frontal area may be inscribed with a linear cipher or, if large, carry a “magic

www.academia.edu

 

[Shimbiris]

The oromo when they were conquering most of aetopia appeared to have no knowledge of metals whatsoever.

I saw you posting that based on some cadaan's claim. It's bullshit. Metallurgy is at least 2,000-3,000 years old in the Horn of Africa. There are even literal blacksmith castes among every ethnic group right down to the Omotic speakers like the Ari hence why there are "Ari-Blacksmith" genetic samples alongside the normal "Ari-Cultivator" samples. And the Somali word for metal ("Bir") is clearly shared with Ethiosemitic languages like Amharic ("ብረት/Bireti") since it likely spread from Ethiopia to Somali territories.

Cognate groups with the Tumaal:

Semites defenitely introduced iron to the horn. Not the agazians(ga'ez speakers) though, but himyarites and sabaeans who colonised the northern coast of somalia long before the ancestors of the habesha moved to the horn.

Another bullshit claim. There is literally no proof of this anywhere outside of garbage like the Kitab al-Zanuj which even scholars like Neville Chittick who used to go on about it now debunk as bullshit. The only sources we have on the classical period of the Somali coast, particularly for the north, imply pretty clearly that the coastal towns there are completely independent and ruled by their own individual chieftains sort of like the medieval and early modern towns were usually ruled by individual Sultans:

The voyage to all these far-side market-towns
is made from Egypt about the month of July, that is
Epiphi. And ships are also customarily fitted out from
the places across this sea, from Ariaca and Barygaza,
bringing to these far-side market-towns the products of
their own places; wheat, rice, clarified butter, sesame
oil, cotton cloth, (the monache and the sagmatogene) ,
and girdles, and honey from the reed called sacchari.
Some make the voyage especially to these market-towns,
and others exchange their cargoes while sailing along
the coast. This country is not subject to a King, but
each market-town is ruled by its separate chief.

The Periplus of the Erythraean Sea; travel and trade in the Indian Ocean : Schoff, Wilfred Harvey, 1874- tr : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

4 p.l., [3]-323 p. 24 cm

archive.org

These towns and the coast they were on is described as being inhabited by eastern "Barbaroi" of a sort of continuity with those in what are now Sudan, Eritrea and Djibouti. Obviously coastal Cushites. And Aksumite sources like Ezana's descriptions of them make it fairly clear that most the "Barbaroi" of the Horn are basically pastoral people.

Also, fun fact, those towns used to import metals. Not just trinkets or blades or something like that but simply raw metals like iron, tin and copper:

Here there is a small market-
town called Avalites, which must be reached by boats
and rafts. There are imported into this place, flint glass,
assorted; juice of sour grapes from Diospolis; dressed
cloth, assorted, made for the Berbers; wheat, wine, and
a little tin. There are exported from the same place,
and sometimes by the Berbers themselves crossing on
rafts to Ocelis and Muza on the opposite shore, spices, a
little ivory, tortoise-shell, and a very little myrrh, but
better than the rest. And the Berbers who live in the
place are very unruly.

After Avalites there is another market-town,
better than this, called Malao, distant a sail of about
eight hundred stadia. The anchorage is an open road-
stead, sheltered by a spit running out from the east.
Here the natives are more peaceable. There are im-
ported into this place the things already mentioned, and
many tunics, cloaks from Arsinoe, dressed and dyed;
drinking-cups, sheets of soft copper in small quantity,
iron, and gold and silver coin, not much. There are
exported from these places myrrh, a little frankincense,
(that known as far-side), the harder cinnamon, duaca,
Indian copal and macir , which are imported into Arabia;
and slaves, but rarely.

Beyond Mundus, sailing toward the east, after
another two days’ sail, or three, you reach Mosyllum,
on a beach, with a bad anchorage. There are imported
here the same things already mentioned, also silver
plate, a very little iron, and glass. There are shipped
from the place a great quantity of cinnamon, (so that
this market-town requires ships of larger size), and
fragrant gums, spices, a little tortoise shell, and mocrotu ,
(poorer than that of Mundus), frankincense, (the
far-side), ivory and myrrh in small quantities.

Why import metals just as they are if you don't know metal-working? It's pretty obvious the metal-working castes existed by this point and were importing copper & tin (components of bronze) as well as iron to probably supplement local mining. Not to mention that Sada Mire's recent book and how she shows that iron even has a deep religious significance for Cushitic groups from Somalis to Oromos and clearly has for a very long time. The Horn has been in the Iron-Age for over 2,000 years, saaxiib, and it was clearly spread by the ancestors of Habeshas to the rest of the Horn and originally came from ancient Yemenis who admixed into the Horn's gene pool.

Another fun fact, the Greeks and Romans were very well familiar with Arabia and Arabia Felix (Yemen) as well as groups like the Himyarites and do not ever mention them being present on the Somali coast and make a clear distinction between the "Barbaroi" of the Horn coast and Arabs. Read the Periplus for yourself. There was obvious trade and influence from Yemen on the Somali coast which continued into the Islamic Period and brought Islam and Arabic as a liturgical and trade language to Somalis but no evidence of any rule or notable colonization, especially during the time of the Himyarites and Sabaeans.