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Four Millennia of Cultural History in Nigeria (ca. 2000 B.C.–A.D. 1900): Archaeological Perspectives

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Journal of World Prehistory Aims and scope

Abstract

This essay is an analysis of archaeological contributions to the understanding of Nigeria's cultural history between ca. 2000 B.C. and A.D. 1900 focusing on the following themes: the origins of food production; development and transformations in metallurgical traditions; the beginnings of social complexity; and the character of state formation and urbanism. The transformations in everyday material life as a result of the entanglement with the Atlantic commerce and ethnoarchaeological approaches to understanding material culture and archaeological contexts also receive attention. The essay provides pathways to some of the turning points in Nigeria's cultural history, shows the convergence and divergence of cultural historical developments in different parts of the country, and identifies the critical gaps in archaeological research agenda.

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Acknowledgements

This article has benefited from my most recent collaboration with Babatunde Agbaje-Williams, Raphael Alabi, David Aremu, Peter Breunig, C. A. Folorunso, James Lankton, Sonja Magnavita, and Aribidesi Usman. I thank several colleagues who have helped me with references over the years. My gratitude to Susan K. McIntosh and Angela E. Close for facilitating this essay, especially to Angela for her immense patience given the long delays in delivering this essay to her. Aspects of my own research discussed here have benefited from grants from The Humanities Foundation of Boston University and The Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research. A 2005 Summer Faculty Research Fund from the office of the Dean of College of Arts and Sciences, Florida International University, assisted with the completion of the essay. I thank Dean ad interim Mark Szuchman and Dr. Victor Uribe (Chair, Dept. of History) for their assistance. Also, my profound gratitude to the following individuals: Sam Saverance graciously produced the illustrations; Ann Stahl, in the planning stage, offered insightful suggestions on the possible directions for the essay; Raphael Alabi, Babatunde Agbaje-Williams, and two anonymous reviewers read earlier versions and offered extensive and helpful suggestions. Their comments have improved the quality of the essay but I alone bear responsibility for any error or omission that may remain.

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    Akinwumi Ogundiran

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Ogundiran, A. Four Millennia of Cultural History in Nigeria (ca. 2000 B.C.–A.D. 1900): Archaeological Perspectives. J World Prehist 19, 133–168 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10963-006-9003-y

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