Editing History of Tanzania (section)

== Prehistory ==

=== Early Stone Age ===
[[File:OlduvaiGorge TZ MWegmann2012.jpg|thumb|right|Olduvai Gorge site also known as "The Cradle of Mankind"]]
[[File:Mary Douglas Nicol Leakey (1913-1996) and her husband Louis Seymour Bazett Leakey (1903-1972).jpg|thumb|right|Louis and Mary Leakey]]
Tanzania is home to some of the oldest [[hominid]] settlements unearthed by [[archaeology|archaeologists]]. Prehistoric stone tools and fossils have been found in and around [[Olduvai Gorge]] in northern Tanzania, an area often referred to as "The Cradle of Mankind". [[Acheulian]] stone tools were discovered there in 1931 by [[Louis Leakey]], after he had correctly identified the rocks brought back by [[Hans Reck]] to Germany from his 1913 Olduvai expedition as stone tools. The same year, Louis Leakey found older, more primitive stone tools in Olduvai Gorge. These were the first examples of the oldest human technology ever discovered in Africa, and were subsequently known throughout the world as [[Oldowan]] after Olduvai Gorge.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.efossils.org/site/olduvai|title=Olduvai - eFossils Resources|first=The University of Texas at Austin, Department of|last=Anthropology|website=www.efossils.org|access-date=5 April 2018}}</ref>

The first hominid skull in Olduvai Gorge was discovered by [[Mary Leakey]] in 1959, and named [[OH 5|Zinj or Nutcracker Man]], the first example of ''[[Paranthropus boisei]]'', and is thought to be more than 1.8 million years old. Other finds including ''[[Homo habilis]]'' fossils were subsequently made. At nearby [[Laetoli]] the oldest known hominid footprints, the [[Laetoli footprints]], were discovered by [[Mary Leakey]] in 1978, and estimated to be approximately 3.6 million years old and probably made by ''[[Australopithecus afarensis]]''.<ref>{{Citation  | last = Wong  | first = Kate  | title = Flat feet and doubts about makers of the Laetoli tracks  | newspaper = [[Scientific American]]  | publisher = [[Nature Publishing Group]]  | date = 1 August 2005  | url = http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?articleID=0005C9B3-03AE-12D8-BDFD83414B7F0000  | access-date =22 March 2010}}</ref> The oldest hominid fossils ever discovered in Tanzania also come from Laetoli and are the 3.6 to 3.8 million year old remains of ''[[Australopithecus afarensis]]''—[[Louis Leakey]] had found what he thought was a baboon tooth at Laetoli in 1935 (which was not identified as afarensis until 1979), a fragment of hominid jaw with three teeth was found there by [[Kohl-Larsen]] in 1938–39, and in 1974–75 [[Mary Leakey]] recovered 42 teeth and several jawbones from the site.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.ntz.info/gen/n00467.html|title=Oldupai|website=www.ntz.info|access-date=5 April 2018}}</ref>

=== Middle Stone Age ===
[[Mumba Cave]] in northern Tanzania includes a [[Middle Stone Age]] (MSA) to [[Later Stone Age]] (LSA) archaeological sequence. The MSA represents the time period in Africa during which many archaeologists see the origins of [[Behavioral modernity|modern human behavior]].<ref>{{Cite journal|date=2000-11-01|title=The revolution that wasn't: a new interpretation of the origin of modern human behavior|journal=Journal of Human Evolution|language=en|volume=39|issue=5|pages=453–563|doi=10.1006/jhev.2000.0435|pmid=11102266|issn=0047-2484|last1=McBrearty|first1=Sally|last2=Brooks|first2=Alison S.|s2cid=42968840}}</ref>

=== Later Stone Age and Pastoral Neolithic ===
Reaching back approximately 10,000 years in the [[Later Stone Age]], Tanzania is believed to have been populated by [[hunter-gatherer]] communities, probably [[Khoisan languages|Khoisan]]-speaking people. Between approximately 4,000 to 3,000 years ago, during a time period known as the [[Pastoral Neolithic]], pastoralists who relied on cattle, sheep, goats, and donkeys came into Tanzania from the north.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Lane|first=Paul J.|editor1-first=Peter|editor1-last=Mitchell|editor2-first=Paul J|editor2-last=Lane|date=2013-07-04|title=The Archaeology of Pastoralism and Stock-Keeping in East Africa|publisher=The Oxford Handbook of African Archaeology |url=http://www.oxfordhandbooks.com/view/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199569885.001.0001/oxfordhb-9780199569885-e-40 |language=en|doi=10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199569885.001.0001|isbn=9780199569885}}</ref> Two archaeological cultures are known from this time period, the [[Savanna Pastoral Neolithic]] (whose peoples may have spoken a Southern Cushitic language) and the [[Elmenteitan]] (whose peoples may have spoken a Southern Nilotic language). [[Luxmanda]] is the largest and southernmost-known Pastoral Neolithic site in Tanzania.<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Grillo|first1=Katherine|last2=Prendergast|first2=Mary|display-authors=etal|date=2018|title=Pastoral Neolithic settlement at Luxmanda, Tanzania|journal=Journal of Field Archaeology|volume=43|issue=2|pages=102–120|doi=10.1080/00934690.2018.1431476|s2cid=135287460|url=https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01783062/file/Grillo%20et%20al%20Journal%20of%20Field%20Archaeology%202018.pdf}}</ref>

=== Iron Age ===
Approximately 2000 years ago, [[Bantu languages|Bantu-speaking people]] began to arrive from western Africa in a series of migrations collectively referred to as the [[Bantu expansion]]. These groups brought and developed ironworking skills, agriculture, and new ideas of social and political organization. They absorbed many of the [[Cushitic]] peoples who had preceded them, as well as most of the remaining Khoisan-speaking inhabitants. Later, [[Nilotic]] pastoralists arrived, and continued to immigrate into the area through to the eighteenth century.<ref name="Absolute">{{Citation|title=History|url=http://absolutetanzania.com/history|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091228021654/http://absolutetanzania.com/history|url-status=dead|newspaper=Absolute Tanzania|access-date=22 March 2010|archive-date=28 December 2009}}</ref><ref name="O'Meara">{{Cite book  | last1 = Martin  | first1 = Phyllis  | last2 = O'Meara  | first2 = Patrick  | author-link2 = Patrick O'Meara  | title = Africa  | publisher = [[Indiana University Press]]  | year = 1995  | isbn = 978-0-253-20984-9  | url-access = registration  | url = https://archive.org/details/africa00mart  }}</ref>

One of Tanzania's most important Iron Age archeological sites is [[Engaruka]] in the [[Great Rift Valley]], which includes an irrigation and cultivation system.