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I found this gem on Twitter yesterday. Apparently, the 19th century French Egyptologist Gaston Maspero thought that Central Africans introduced ironworking technology into ancient Egypt:
I an unable to read the original French, unfortunately, but the gist behind his claim is that ironworking technology in Egypt had Central African origins and that the Egyptian god Horus had his origins as a blacksmithing deity. Given current knowledge that ironworking in West and Central Africa may go as far back as 3000-2500 BC, what are your guys' thoughts on this claim?
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^ The Shemsu-Hor (Followers of Horus) were also called Mesenitu (metal workers) and were said to be workers of copper and likely refers to the Chalcolithic period of Egypt. Iron working came much later during the end of the Bronze Age, though it was assumed that it was introduced by Asiatics.
I know that during the 25th Dynasty Kushites introduced more advanced forms of iron-working which makes one suspect influence from West Africa as was discussed before.
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The Dawn of Astronomy A Study of the Temple-worship and Mythology of the Ancient Egyptians By Sir Norman Lockyer · 1894
(from the French, Gaston Maspero quote in italics)
quote:"It was from the south of Egypt that the blacksmiths ascended to the north; their primitive seat was the south of Egypt, the part of the country which has the most connection with the central regions of Africa and their inhabitants."
'Then, after stating the present conditions of these workers in Equatorial Africa, where they enjoy a high distinction, he (Maspero) concludes:'
"I think that one can imagine the Horus of Edfu as being at the beginning, in one of his forms, the chief and the god of a tribe of workers working metal, or rather working iron. One cannot indeed hide from oneself that there is a real affinity between iron and the person of Horus in certain myths. Horus is the celestial face (horou), the sky, the firmament, and this firmament is of all antiquity, a roof of iron, so that iron took the name of ba-ni-pit, metal of the sky, metal of which the sky is formed: Horus the eldest, Horus of Edfu, is therefore in reality a god of iron. He is, moreover, equipped with the pike or the iron-pointed javelin, and the gods who are related to him, Anhouri, Shou, are pikemen like him, unlike the gods of northern Egypt, Ra, Phtab, etc., who do not have no weapons in the ordinary. Is the legend of Harhouditi conquering Egypt with the masniou the distant echo of a fact that would have happened in times prior to history? Something like the arrival of the Spaniards among the populations of the New World, the irruption in Egypt of tribes knowing and using iron, having among them a caste of blacksmiths and bringing the worship of a warlike god who would have been a Horus or would have been confused with the Horus of the first Egyptians to form Harhouditi. These tribes would necessarily have been of African origin, and would have brought new African elements to those already contained in the civilization of the Lower Nile. The blacksmiths would have gradually lost their privileges to blend in with the rest of the population: only in Edfu and in the cities where the cult of the Horus of Edfu was practiced, they would have preserved a sacred character and would have been transformed into a kind of religious servants, the mansions of the myth of Horus, companions and servants of the warrior god.
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Iron ore is actually plentiful in the Sahara desert in the form of meteorites, but I don't know of any evidence that they were worked on in an industrial level until the Late Period. Before that, these meteorites were collected as sacred objects viewed as "metal from heaven" fashioned into jewelry.
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