As others have shared, I was ready to say that the wheel is the oldest form of technology.  Understanding that before the wheel was the story, the narrative, has stretched me a bit.  To imagine what conversations happened before the wheel solidifies that understanding  that the story came first.  I think it is important to recognize the early discovery and production of iron happened in multiple places around the world, centra Africa being one of them.  To make it real for students I think I would first simulate a problem solving scenario for my students, providing an experience first before connecting them to the history of iron in central Africa.  It might be a simple as presenting them with three objects (a paperclip, a popsicle stick and a Post It note and asking them to create a container that can hold water).  This simulates a need prompting an invention.  If they worked in groups of three for example, the communication they would have in their problem solving represents the story that comes first.  What they come up with represents their solution using what they had on hand.  You could build the experience by giving each group of 3 different objects that they could trade with each other; and each group could have a different problem to solve.  I would ultimately want to link this to how our Funds of Knowledge, what is passed on to us and learned in lived experiences, is a human characteristic.  We touch on Funds of Knowledge throughout the year so this would compliment that thread in our learning.