| Abstract | The article focuses on the archaeology and ethnohistory of the Iron Age in Africa. The Iron Age in eastern and southem Africa extends over the last 2000 years, and, as a cultural term, designates groups of people who use metals in their agricultural production. Human understanding of the nature of Iron Age societies has broadened through an upsurge in research and improved methods of ordering ceramic and settlement data. In this article, the results of these methods were employed in a review of three long-standing problems, including the Early Iron Age and the spread of Bantu speakers, the postulated transition from an Early to a Late Iron Age, and the origins of the Zimbabwe Culture.
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