Editing History of Cameroon (section)

===Prehistory===
[[File:Terracotta-head 0.jpg|thumb|Terracotta Sao statuette]]
[[File:Africa de l'Oèst en 1875-es.svg|thumb|right|Map showing the approximate extent of the Sokoto Caliphate in 1875 as well as the remnants of the Kanem-Bornu empire]]
[[File:Map of Cameroons river and Victoria p.207.jpg|thumb|right|Map of pre-colonial Cameroon coastline published in 1884]]

Archaeological research has been relatively scarce in Cameroon due to a lack of resources and transportation infrastructure. Historically the warm, wet climate in many parts of the country was thought of as inhospitable to the preservation of remains, but recent finds and the introduction of new techniques have challenged that assumption. Evidence from digs at [[Shum Laka]] in the [[Northwest Region (Cameroon)|Northwest Region]] shows human occupation dating back 30,000 years<ref name=Lavachery2001>Lavachery, Philippe (2001) The Holocene Archaeological Sequence of Shum Laka Rock Shelter (Grasslands, Western Cameroon). ''African Archaeological Review'' 18(4):213-247.</ref><ref name=Cornelissen2003>Cornelissen, Els (2003) On Microlithic Quartz Industries at the End of the Pleistocene in Central Africa: The Evidence from Shum Laka (NW Cameroon). ''African Archaeological Review'' 20(1):1-24.</ref> while in the dense forests of the south, the oldest evidence of occupation is around 7000 years old.<ref name="Kome-Kribi">{{cite book |last1=Lavachery |first1=Philippe |last2=MacEachern |first2=Scott |last3=Bouimon |first3=Tchago |last4=Mbida Minzie |first4=Cristophe |title=Komé - Kribi: Rescue Archaeology Along the Chad-Cameroon Oil Pipeline, 1999-2004 |date=2010 |publisher=Africa Magna Verlag |location=Frankfurt am Main |isbn=978-3937248141}}</ref> Recent research in southern Cameroon indicates that the [[Iron Age]] may have started there as early as 1000 BCE and was certainly well established by 100 BCE at the latest.<ref name="Kome-Kribi" />

Linguistic analysis, supported by archaeological and genetic research, has shown that the [[Bantu expansion]], a series of migrations that spread [[Bantu peoples|Bantu]] culture across much of Sub-Saharan Africa, most likely originated in the highlands on the Nigeria-Cameroon border around 1000 BCE. [[Bantu languages]] spread with these people along with agricultural methods and possibly iron tools, first east and then south, forming one of the largest language families in Africa. In Cameroon, Bantu people largely displaced [[Central African Pygmies]] such as the Baka, who were [[hunter-gatherers]] and who now survive in much smaller numbers in the heavily forested southeast. Despite Cameroon being the original homeland of the Bantu people, the great medieval Bantu-speaking kingdoms arose elsewhere, such as what is now Kenya, Congo, Angola, and South Africa.