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Archaeology in Benin

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 January 2009

Graham Connah
Graham Connah
Affiliation:
University of New England, New South Wales
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Extract

Excavations and fieldwork in and around Benin City in the years 1961–4 have established the outlines of an archaeological sequence. This sequence is based on radiocarbon dates for stratified deposits, on a statistical examination of pottery form and decoration, and on datable European imports. The sequence suggested by the evidence extends from about the thirteenth century A.D. to the present time, although the survival of locally found ground stone axes in Benin ritual indicates that the area may well have been inhabited since Late Stone Age times. There is evidence for the artistic use of copper and its alloys from at least the thirteenth century onwards, but it is not known how long it had already been in use. Smithed and chased tin bronzes were found in a thirteenth-century context, whereas cast leaded brass was found in use in a nineteenth-century context. There is little evidence for lost-wax casting in Benin in early times. The writer suggests that future archaeological work should make the origins and early development of the city a priority.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of African History , Volume 13 , Issue 1 , January 1972 , pp. 25 - 38
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1972

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References

1 Egharevba, J., A Short History of Benin, 3rd ed. (Ibadan, 1960).Google ScholarBradbury, R. E., ‘Chronological problems in the study of Benin history’, J. Hist. Soc. Nigeria, i 263–87.Google Scholar

2 Ryder, A. F. C., Benin and the Europeans 1485–1897 (London, 1969).Google Scholar

3 Fagg, W., Nigerian Images (London, 1963).Google Scholar

4 Goodwin, A. J. H., in History and Archaeology in Africa (School of Oriental and African Studies, London, 1957), 29–31.Google ScholarGoodwin, A. J. H., ‘Archaeology and Benin architecture’, J. Hist. Soc. Nigeria, i (1957), 65–85.Google ScholarGoodwin, A. J. H., ‘Walls, paving, water-paths and landmarks’, Odu, vi (1958), 45–53.Google ScholarGoodwin, A. J. H. (published posthumously by W. Fagg), ‘A bronze snake head and other recent finds in the old palace at Benin’, Man, lxiii (1963), 142–5.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

5 Nigerian Federal Department of Antiquities files, unpublished. Also the Department of Archaeology of the University of Cape Town has an excavation notebook formerly belonging to Goodwin that was used for the Benin excavations.

6 Willett, Frank, in Rouse, I., ed., COWA Surveys and Bibliographies, Area II, ii (1961), 2–3Google Scholar refers briefly to this. See also Graham Connah, The Archaeology of Benin, forthcoming, where by generom permission of Professor Willett the author has made use of previously unpublished material relating to this work.

7 Connah, Graham, ‘Archaeological research in Benin City 1961–1964’, J. Hist. Soc. Nigeria, ii (1963), 465–77.Google ScholarConnah, Graham, Polished stone axes in Brain (Lagos, 1964).Google ScholarConnah, Graham, in Calvocoressi, D., ed., COWA Surveys and Bibliographies, Area II, ii (1965), 8–9.Google ScholarConnah, Graham, ‘New light on the Benin City walls’, J. Hist. Soc. Nigeria, ii (1967), 593–609Google Scholar with separate map. Connah, Graham, ‘Radiocarbon dates for Benin City and further dates for Daima, N.E. Nigeria’, J. Hist. Soc. Nigeria, iv (1968), 313–20.Google ScholarConnah, Graham, in Shaw, Thurstan, ed., Lectures on Nigerian Prehi story and Archaeology (Ibadan, 1969).Google Scholar

8 Connah, The Archaeology of Brain, forthcoming.

9 Department of History, University of Ibadan.

10 Personal communication, cited with permission.

11 Department of Archaeology, University of Ibadan.

12 I am indebted to Lady Olwen Brogan for this information.

13 Examined by S. J. Freeth, Department of Geology, University of Ibadan.

14 Examined by S. O. Arigbede, Department of Anatomy, University of Ibadan.

15 Examined by S. P. Bohrer, Department of Radiology, University of Ibadan.

16 Bohrer, S. P. and Connah, Graham, ‘Pathology in 700-year-old Nigerian bones. Query: sickle cell infarcts’, Radiology, xcviii (3), (1971), 581.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

17 Throughout this paper the term ‘bronze’, set in inverted commas, has been used to describe any object of copper or copper-base alloy of which no analysis has been made, and also as a generic term for all such objects.

18 Examined by J. F. Redhead, Department of Forestry, University of Ibadan.

19 Examined by M. Greeves, Shirley Institute, Manchester.

20 Analysis by A. Millett, University of Oxford Laboratory for Art and Archaeology.

21 Hodgkin, T., Nigerian Perspectives (Oxford, 1960), 123 and Plate 5Google Scholar, is probably the most accessible place for Dapper's description and illustration.

22 Willett, Frank, Ife in the history of West African sculpture (London, 1967),Google Scholar and more recently, Ozanne, Paul, ‘A new archaeological survey of Ife’, Odu (3rd series), i (1969), 28–45.Google Scholar

23 Egharevba, Short History of Benin.

24 In Connah, The Archaeology of Benin, forthcoming.

25 Egharevba, Short History of Benin, 10, states that this was in about 1255.

26 Descriptions of modern pottery making in the Benin district will be found in Thomas, N. W., ‘Pottery making of the Edo-speaking peoples, southern Nigeria’, Man, x (1910), 97–8CrossRefGoogle Scholar, and in Villett, Frank and Connah, Graham, ‘Pottery making in the village of Use near Benin City, Nigeria’, Baessler-Archiv (N.F.), xvii (1969), 133–49, but there seems to have been no previous study of ancient Benin pottery.Google Scholar

27 Connah, Polished stone axes in Benin.

28 Shaw, Thurstan, ‘The Late Stone Age in the Nigerian Forest’, Actes du Premier Colloque international d'Archéologie africaine (Fort-Lamy, 1969), 364–73.Google ScholarShaw, Thurstan, ‘Finds at the Iwo Eleru rock shelter, Western Nigeria’, Actes du VIe Congrès Panafricain de Préhistoire et de l'Etude du Quaternaire (in press).Google Scholar