Adeniyi afonja biography examples

The very bright career opportunities in engineering for both men and women are also discussed. Engineering Training. Engineering and Society. Specialties in Engineering. Gender and Engineering. This is feasible considering that the metals technologies incubated in the region for several millennia without spreading and eventual diffusion may have been the result of migration from conflict areas.

Evidences of advanced civilization include excavated 7,year old jars of wine, and the earliest-known clay vessels and modeled human and animal terracotta figurines. Evidence has also emerged of cultural linkage with Anatolia and Egypt, and of extensive copper smelting dated BC. Persia became a unified nation and empire in BC and, over the next three centuries or so, expanded to the Balkans and North Africa.

Evidence of copper smelting crucibles, dross, metal objects dated BC has been found in Tal I Iblis, Tepe Giyan, and Tepe Yahya, Iran, and many low tin bronze objects dated BC have also been found in different parts of Persia. Magan, south of Iran present day Oman was apparently the main source of copper to the Mesopolitan civilizations. The River Nile valley was home to many neolithic cultures, mostly nomadic hunters and gatherers collectively known as Egyptians and evidence of small settlements and lifestyles dated 12th to 8th millennium BC have been found along the river and around oases.

Different cultures, starting with Amratian culture began to emerge from about the 4th millennium BC and settlements grew into villages which eventually coalesced into two blocks: Upper and Lower Egypt, eventually merging to become Egypt in about BC. Egypt grew to become perhaps the most powerful and influential civilization of the ancient world, in fact, it is widely acknowledged as the earliest major civilization in the world.

Its political structure, language, religious traditions, and philosophy dominated the ancient world from the third millennium BC and, in spite of many civil wars and dynasty changes, Egypt remained a powerful and influential kingdom until it became a province of the Roman Empire in 30 BC. The earliest metal objects found in Egypt dated BC were probably made by forging native copper, but evidence of metal smelting dates back to around BC when axes were being made of impure smelted copper.

By BC objects made of arsenical coppers began to appear, but the full Bronze Age arrived around four centuries later BC. Bronze was used for statutes, doors, furniture components. Egypt had an outpost in Buhen which smelted adeniyi afonja biography examples ores from Nubia, Sudan in the third millennium BC, but ores may also have been obtained from other sources, probably from other parts of Africa.

It is not clear where the Hittites came from, but it is believed they were an Indo-European group that occupied Anatolia modern Turkey about BC, conquering Hattusa the powerful city of the Hatti that had existed since BC. They formed several separate states before being united in BC. They were warriors and were in constant conflict with neighbouring communities: they occupied Babylon, and, by the middle of the second millennium BC, had conquered most of Anatolia and parts of Syria and Palestine, and established an empire.

They challenged the supremacy of Egypt which was already an established and powerful empire; they had very formidable war arsenal which included chariots, iron armor, bronze-tipped arrows; and they are believed to be the first to weaponize iron. The Hittite empire collapsed around BC and broke into powerful NeoHittite city-states that were eventually absorbed into the Assyrian empire.

Phoenicia was an ancient civilization and part of Canaan which spread along the fertile western coastline of the Mediterranean sea. The Phoenicians who were enterprising maritime traders built several cities and developed strong trade links across the Mediterranean from BC, starting with Greece and spreading to most of North Africa. They traded in a very wide range of products: timber, animals, precious stones, wine, gold, silver, copper and tin ingots, etc.

They were probably responsible for the eventual establishment of the Bronze Age in the region because they traded copper ingots from Cyprus, and iron ingots probably from Anatolia, Nubia and elsewhere, and tin ingots from Britain and possibly Nigeria. The decline of Phoenicia began with conquest by Persia in BC and, over the next two hundred years or so, most of the Phoenicians migrated to their colonies, including Carthage in North Africa.

It is widely believed that they could have been one of the major diffusion sources of metals technologies in Africa. Sumer current southern Iraq is the earliest known civilization in ancient southern Mesopotamia. The earliest known permanent settlements in the area are dated between and BC and archaeological evidence indicates that there were around a dozen city-states by the fourth millennium.

The homes were built of mud and the cities had temples and defensive walls. The largest of them, Ukuk had around ten kilometers of defensive walls and the population around BC is believed to have been between 40, and 80, Other evidences include extensive farming and irrigation practices. In spite of the language and cultural symbiosis between the city-states, they were constantly at war with each other, and this led to many military technology innovations in the region, including bronze or iron-tipped spears, copper helmets and shields, lances, battle axes, swords, daggers metal tools, military chariots.

The Sumerians are credited with the invention of bronze, wheeled vehicles, cuneiform writing, core agricultural techniques such as large-scale intensive cultivation, irrigation and mechanized agriculture, and many arithmetic and geometric principles and measurement systems that are still in use today. Trade networks were developed with Anatolia, and places as far as Afghanistan, Egypt and Ethiopia.

Since the area was devoid of minerals and fuel, it is probable that the copper and bronze objects found in the area were made from imported copper and tin ingots. Chad has been identified by archaeologists as one of several potential sites in Africa where humankind originated, in view of the discovery of a 6 to 7 million-year old hominid-like skull in the area Wood, The area is believed to have been occupied on and off over the years by different people but the most recent continuous settlement in the area is estimated to have happened in the last ten thousand years or so.

Pastoral farmers lived and farmed around the shores of lakes from about BC and by BC Chad had been connected by the first trans-Saharan trade route Kuper and Kropelin, See Figure 4. From around this time several prominent ethnic groups emerged and built fortified walled cities. Change in climate forced migrations to the fertile areas around the lakes in the northern central basin of the Sahara and around Lake Chad.

Evidence of advanced civilization has been found on both the Chadian side and Nigerian side of the lake. Daima is perhaps the most prominent on the Nigerian side and recent archaeological excavations in the area indicate that the area has been occupied since prehistoric times but concrete evidence of settlement and advanced civilization dates to the last quarter of the second millennium BC Graham Connah,Breunig and Rupp, Historical records indicate that the civilization had flourished by around BC with an advanced culture known as Kerma Culture.

By about BC, Kerma had emerged as a populous, formidable empire which began to challenge the supremacy of Egypt. The empire was eventually subdued and absorbed by Egypt around BC. It is believed that the Kerma people re-emerged from Egypt as an independent Kingdom of Kush located at the Sudanese and southern Egyptian Nile Valley, with the capital at Meroe around the eleventh century BC.

The Kush Empire became very powerful and invaded and occupied Egypt from the 8th century BC until they were expelled about a century later. The kingdom remained powerful until the fourth century AD when it was weakened by internal strife and eventually disintegrated Torok, ; Edwards, It is always difficult to determine the source of early metallurgical adeniyi afonja biographies examples and innovations because conclusions are based on findings in a particular location.

However, this does not prelude the possibility of the same event occurring independently in other places at the same time or even earlier. However, as discussed in the last chapter, the source of an invention is of little importance compared with the extent of local infusion of creativity and innovation. Global debate is extensive, intensive and sometimes acrimonious on how Africa acquired metals technologies.

In most regions of the world, the Iron Age was preceded by a pyrometallurgical tradition with copper and bronze. The fact that this was absent in most of the African region has fueled an intensive debate on the competence of the region to invent iron technology without prior experience in pyrometallurgy. Ferrous metallurgy is more complicated than copper metallurgy and prior experience in the latter would definitely be beneficial to the process of acquiring iron technology, but it is not a prerequisite.

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The most difficult part would have been the achievement of an additional fifty to a hundred degrees centigrade or so in a copper furnace to smelt iron and, by the time the African Iron Culture was emerging, copper smelting furnaces operating within Africa had already reached such a degree of sophistication that it would not have been too difficult for African iron smelters to achieve the desired temperatures, for example, by increasing fuel:ore ratio, or by adding tuyeres, or both.

Therefore it should not have been difficult for an African society to transit straight from Neolithic to Iron Age if the sociocultural setting was right and there were strong trade connections with other societies and cultures. There is significant uncertainty about when or how iron technologies emerged in Africa, in particular the sub-Saharan region.

Contemporary archaeologists believe that knowledge of ironmaking had arrived in northern Africa by the first millennium BC, subsequently disseminated to the south through migrations and trade. However, more recent research suggests much earlier dates, possibly as early as 15th to 13th century BC. A burial site found probably the grave of a dignitary in the DR Congo recently was dated 8th to 10th century BC.

Iron objects dated to a similar period have been found in Zimbabwe which included a substantial number of farming implements hoe blades, etc.

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It should be noted however that no significant evidence of local smelting from ore has been found in these locations and the objects could have been imported. There are two main theories about provenance of iron technology in Africa: diffusion and local invention, and both are feasible and credible. Both autochthonous and diffusionist models arise from speculations which have equal chances of being right or wrong.

A key factor in the growth and spread of metal culture is the existence of appropriate cultural setting. Throughout early world metals history, incubation and spread have been embedded in advanced, dynamic cultural settings that could have provided the capability and resources for the invention or acquisition, domestication and diffusion of early metal technologies.

Access to raw materials, in particular, mineral ores from local sources or through trade would also have been crucial. As discussed earlier, there is ample evidence that copper metallurgy was widely practiced in northern Africa, possibly as early as BC and Iron Culture had appeared in northern Nigeria anywhere between and BC Figure 5. One major issue with the Nok Iron Culture which makes the determination of provenance difficult is the uncertainty about the time of its appearance and disappearance.

Dating of the objects found on sites in the area has been revised several times and currently places the start of the Nok Culture at around BC. However, the results of a recent study suggest it could have been much earlier, around BC and may have lasted for a long as years Breunig The circumstances and time of disappearance are just as mysterious: published dates range from BC to AD.

Virtually all the discoveries that have been made so far were incidental. For example, Nok Iron Culture would probably be unknown today but for accidental discovery of a terracotta figurine in an opencast tin mine in the area. It is possible or even probable that many more rich sites like Nok are yet to be discovered. The peculiar socio-cultural values and practices of many African societies could also be important in locating archaeological sites.

For this reason, they were often located well away from residential areas in early times. Since there has been no systematic, comprehensive archaeological study of most identified early iron cultures on the continent, many sites are probably yet to be discovered. Furthermore, ethnographic and anthropological studies are of little use when sites are years old or more, and site occupancy has probably changed many times over time.

For example, the current people of Nok were totally unaware of any early metal culture until the discovery of the ancient terracotta figurines which led to further excavation that located the iron smelting sites. Extensive excavations in Carthage and other Phoenician settlements have identified the area as the earliest known center of ferrous metallurgy in Africa.

As a Phoenician colony, then later as an independent imperial metropolis, Carthage specialized in centrally organized ferrous technology at the fringes of the settlement in areas such as Bir Massouda and the Byrsa Hill from before to BC Niemeyer, In view of the strong Silk Route trade that had already linked North Africa at the time, it is not surprising that most archaeologists identify Carthage as the probable source of iron technology in Nok, Nigeria and Sudan through Egypt which already had strong copper culture link with Sudan.

Why would the Phoenicians have targeted Nok? This has been a very elusive and widely debated dilemma. However, in view the discussion above about the evolution of metal culture in North Africa and the strong regional trade links, the probable attraction was the extensive, rich alluvial tin deposit in the Plateau region which includes Nok, and, although there are no archaeological finds, there are strong reasons in support of this theory.

The Bronze Age had started in Asia Minor by around BC but could not properly take off because of scarcity of tin, which quickly became a traded commodity in the Silk Route trade. As discussed earlier, copper and tin ores can be very lean and would have been smelted to nearly pure metals in the vicinity of the deposits before they were traded, and tin and bronze ingots have been recovered from ships which were sunk in the Mediterranean during the early Bronze Age.

Some archaeologists have disputed the origin and date of emergence of iron technology in the world, claiming earlier arrival dates in North-Central Africa of between and BC, which in effect means that iron technology emerged in Africa before the rest of the world Pringle, ; Zangato and Holl, Another recent publication claims that iron technology arrived in Lejja, eastern Nigeria between and BC Eze-Uzomaka, There are many other claims about different early Iron Age locations in Africa, some dating back to third to second millennium BC Holl, A critical appraisal of the new dates has been published recently and raises considerable doubt on the credibility of these dates Chirikure et al.

One major problem may be with radiocarbon dating which can give very spurious results without diligent sampling and proper statistical analysis. However, as discussed earlier, adeniyi afonja biography examples who discovered what and when may be of interest in archaeology, it is inconsequential in archaeometallurgy, what is more important is what was done, how it was done, and the extent of domestication and innovations.

The quality and diversity of innovations found in early African iron smelting sites have been very impressive. The most popular diffusion theory postulates that the early iron industry penetrated into sub-Saharan Africa through North Africa to Nigeria, and through Egypt to Sudan. Iron metallurgy had been well established in Anatolian-Iranian region for more than one thousand years prior to its arrival in sub-Saharan Africa.

The Phoenicians who lived in present day Lebanon and parts of Syria had acquired iron technology by around BC and spread it across the Mediterranean through their extensive trading networks that reached Carthage in North Africa. In view of the strong Silk Route that had already linked West Africa with the north, it is highly likely that the technology spread quickly, either from Carthage or Egypt, reaching Nigeria around BC.

However, this hypothesis breaks down if in fact Nok Iron Culture had been in adeniyi afonja biography examples since around BC, which means than none of the above could have been the source. The diffusional route of iron technology to Egypt is believed to have been along the coast of Palestine. There is ample evidence that the Philistines had mastered iron technology very early, probably by the 11th century BC, likely due to contacts with the north or migration due to the breakup of the Hittite empire.

In the meantime Egypt and Galilee were still in the Bronze Age. Although various iron artifacts, tools, weapons, furnaces found in the region are dated between and BC, there is no concrete archaeological evidence that the Egyptians were smelting iron before BC, or were responsible for the spread of the technology to the adeniyi afonja biography examples of Africa.

The more probable source was Carthage which had been occupied by the Phoenicians from the beginning of the first millennium BC, and who were known to have had expertise in iron technology. Central and East Africa probably received the technology from Nigeria from around AD through the migration of the Bantu tribes who also took it eventually to Southern Africa around AD.

If in fact Early Iron metallurgy originated from Anatolia, occupation by the Hittites who were warriors from about BC would have provided the propulsion needed to proliferate the technology. In the meantime, the Phoenicians who were ardent traders had established a strong trade link over a wide area, from Greece to most of North Africa, with a major hub in Carthage.

There is no strong evidence that they came as far as Nubia, Niger or Nigeria, but they traded extensively in copper and tin ingots, and the deposits of both ores in Niger and Nubia and tin ore in Nigeria would have been major attractions. Since both countries also have iron ores, it is possible that they trained locals to upgrade the ores near mine sites before exporting the nearly pure ingots to their widely spread customers.

One potential issue with the diffusion through Carthage theory is that evidence is emerging which shows that the Nok Iron Culture may in fact predate the emergence of iron technology in Carthage. However, it is possible that the Phoenicians had already established trade links with sub-Saharan Africa while Carthage was still a trading outpost and metals technologies had not flourished.

This is erroneous: as explained earlier, the only major difference between copper and bronze technologies is the temperature difference and, considering the extensive ingenuities and innovations that have been identified in many early African furnaces: like multiple tuyeres and simultaneous operation of multiple blowers, it would not have been difficult to achieve the oC or so that is required for producing wrought iron especially if they had access to copper smelting shaft furnaces which had been well established since the Full Bronze Age.

Furthermore, Egypt, Sudan, Niger all had long copper smelting experience dating back to second millennium BC or earlier and any of them could have moved seamlessly to iron production. Furthermore, Africa has a very long history of terracotta artworks which involved baking in ovens and furnaces, any of which could have been adapted to smelt iron ores.

It is also claimed that the type of advanced culture that could have facilitated invention of iron technology was absent in Africa. Again, this is erroneous: Egypt had perhaps the most advanced and powerful empire in the early world, and Niger has been inhabited from neolithic times. Substantial evidence indicates that the Sahara was fertile pastoral grassland Green Sahara that sustained extensive large settlements, animal rearing and pottery from about BC.

There is also evidence that northeast Niger was inhabited by a succession of Holocene societies from about the middle of the tenth millennium BC until about BC, punctuated by long periods of draught. Evidence of rock paintings have been found and several archaeological sites dated to the Green Sahara period. The Sahara desert emerged from about BC and forced migration of settlements to areas around Lake Chad and oases around Air mountains in the north and Koumar north-south cliffs of north-east Niger.

Koumar was particularly famous for salt and date, and featured prominently in the trade route between Carthage and Egypt which were both terminals for West African gold, ivory, salt, metal goods, beads, cloth and slaves by at least the 5th century BC. Also, large areas of Africa remain unexplored and most of what is known today emanated from the work of foreign archaeologists and many potentially interesting archaeological sites remain undiscovered.

Unfortunately, African archaeologists appear to be too ill-equipped in terms of funding and analytical facilities to make a difference. It is interesting to note that, eight decades after the accidental discovery of Nok, most of what is known today about the site emanated from the work of foreign archaeologists, and the same applies to many archaeological sites in Africa.

As discussed earlier, the neolithic people were working native copper and meteoric iron to make tools and implements, and there is also some evidence that they were melting the metal, probably in closed crucibles, and casting into objects before they progressed to smelting copper ores. Native copper can be highly oxidized and attempts to melt could have led to accidental discovery of copper smelting.

The melting temperature of native copper and the closed crucible could have provided a sufficiently reducing atmosphere for the oxide component and the result would have been a higher yield of almost pure copper than normally expected from native copper. Also, native copper is often found as small pebbles in copper ore deposits and, if this was the source, they would have tried copper oxide ore as well.

In effect, copper technology could be a local invention in areas that were already melting and casting native copper, and there are several potential sites in Africa, Niger being perhaps the most likely because highly oxidized native copper has been found in the area. The thermodynamics and complexity of producing pure liquid iron from its ores are formidable, much more difficult than copper ores largely because of the higher melting temperature of iron.

However, all early iron technologies produced wrought iron from ores in the solid state at around oC, or cast iron at about oC because the temperature necessary to produce pure molten iron could not be achieved oC compared with oC for copperand this persisted for around three thousand years before pure molten iron could be produced. As discussed earlier, iron metallurgy could have been discovered accidentally in the process of smelting copper ore because the ores nearly always contain iron oxide and silica.

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It is possible that the charcoal:ore ratio of a particular run was unusually high or blowing was powerful, which could have resulted in the extra oC or so needed to reduce iron ore in the solid state. The result would have been small pebbles of iron mixed with molten adeniyi afonja biography examples at the bottom of the crucible which they would probably have picked out and tried to work.

They would have found the very low-carbon wrought iron much more malleable and easier to work than copper. Most copper oxide ores also contain iron oxide and silica which would inter-react to form ferrosilicate slag and the early smelters also deliberately mixed iron ores with copper ores as fluxes. In effect, both copper and iron technologies could have been accidental discoveries and could have happened independently in many locations of the early world where either or both of the ores were available.

Niger is the most probable because of the very long experience in working and melting native copper, some of which is found in copper ore deposits which Niger also had and were smelting from around the third millennium BC. Accidental discovery of iron technology could also have occurred in the area and the early local culture of the people was sufficiently advanced to have hosted the accidental or deliberate invention of both metal technologies.

The same could also have happened in Nubia. Most communities that had deposits would have experimented with the ore especially red iron ore - haematite in many ways, just like copper ores which were being processed and used as cosmetics from Neolithic times. Many communities in Africa have outcrops within reach and had used products for cosmetic and ritualistic purposes.

Furthermore, production of oven-baked terracotta flourished in many areas from around the third millennium BC, which means they were familiar with oven technologies. It is quite possible that any of them could have tried heating iron oxides in such ovens and may have succeeded after many failures. This could have happened in Niger, Buhen or Nubia all of which were advanced cultures and already had a long experience in copper metallurgy.

Debate on whether Africa invented iron technology or acquired it by difusion has been intensive, controversial, futile and counter-productive. As discussed above, who invented what is nearly always inconsequential: it is the degree of domestication and infusion of innovations that should matter, and Africa performed excellently well. It is incontrovertible that the region introduced extensive innovations, based on the very wide varieties and unique features of furnaces, tuyeres, blowing systems, slag residues that have been found in different locations.

Even furnaces found in locations a few hundred kilometers apart had very different and unique features, from small bowl furnaces of Kordofan in the Sudan and Central Africa to the large induced-draught furnace of Togoland see Figure 6. Some of the induced-draught furnaces had more than a hundred tuyeres and similar technologies have not been found anywhere else in the early world.

One type of furnace found in the Mandara Hills in the Nigerian Plateau had a unique feature that had not been seen anywhere else: it had a single, long tuyere which was positioned down the center of the shaft, terminating just above the hearth. Most furnaces found in Africa were non slagtapping, rather, they had slag pits beneath the hearth.

Experienced archaeologists who had worked in Africa agree that many furnaces found had unique and advanced features, and some products were of relatively high quality. Some objects found in Taruga, North-Central Nigeria showed an extraordinary degree of purity and freedom from slag. Apparently, the iron had not been produced in the usual manner by hammering iron and residual slag together at high temperature to produce wrought iron.

Adeniyi afonja biography examples: Born on July 30, ,

Marital Status Married. Name of Spouse Adeniyi, State of Origin: Ekiti. Father's Name. Mother's Name. Number of Male Children 1. He has published over a hundred articles and seven books on materials, energy, and the environment; a guide to choosing a career in engineering; early history of metallurgy; and history of engineering. He has also co-authored a book on cybersecurity.

Professor Afonja is still fully involved in research, consulting and publishing. Eligible info. The Engineer is the chair of a technology trio who create innovations that complement or replace human effort, and enhance human development.