Using an erudite mix of linguistic analysis, genetics, and archaeological evidence, Ehret crafts a fascinating assessment of the technological and religious innovations of early African societies. Countering the view that Africans have always depended on the rest of the world for progress, he masterfully synthesizes a large literature to argue that Africans independently made key early advances in the development of ceramics, iron smelting, crop and livestock breeding, and weaving. For instance, he points to two sites in present-day Cameroon and the Central African Republic, where people smelted iron as early as 2200 BC, some 400 years before such technology was developed in the Middle East. Similarly, he argues that Africans probably devised the first religious doctrine of monotheism as early as 900 BC. In addition to telling a fascinating story of early African invention, Ehret’s book deserves to be read because of its nimble approach to history, using deduction and an accumulation of evidence from very different sources to build a convincing account of early technological advancement.