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Dating Problems at Igobo-Ukwu

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 January 2009

Babatunde Lawal
Babatunde Lawal
Affiliation:
University of Ife
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Extract

This paper reviews the results of the recent excavations at Igbo-Ukwu, from which large quantities of copper and bronze objects, glass and stone beads as well as highly decorated pottery were recovered. Although four out of five radiocarbon dates fall in the middle of the ninth century a.d., while the fifth one falls in the middle of the fifteenth century, other dating evidence—like the presence of European-type manila and beads, and the preservation of highly perishable materials—such as textiles, thread and wood fragments—seem to suggest a much later date. Consequently, until some concrete evidence can be produced to support the ninth century date, we cannot jettison the fifteenth century date, which seems to be corroborated by the evidence of the manillas and beads.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of African History , Volume 14 , Issue 1 , January 1973 , pp. 1 - 8
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1973

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References

1 Shaw, Thurstan, Igbo-Ukwu: An Account of Archaeological Discoveries in Eastern Nigeria (London, 1970), 2 vols.Google Scholar

2 See Shaw, T., ‘Radiocarbon Dating in Nigeria’, J. Hut. Soc. Nigeria, IV, 3 (1968), 460.Google Scholar

3 Shaw, (1970), op. cit. 240.Google Scholar

4 Ibid. 290.

5 Ibid. 257–8.

6 For instance, see Field, J. O., ‘Brass Castings found at Igbo, Southern Nigeria’, Man, XI, 1 (1940), 6.Google Scholar

7 Shaw, (1970), op. cit, 240, 249.Google Scholar

8 Ibid. 61, 240–1.

9 Phillipson, D. W. and Fagan, B. M., ‘The Date of the Ingombe Ilede Burials’, J. Afr. Hist. X, 2 (1969), 199–204.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

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11 See Lawal, B., ‘Archaeological Excavations at Igbo-Ukwu—A Reassessment’, forthcoming in Odu, a Journal of West African Studies, No. 8 (1972).Google Scholar

12 Shaw, (1970), 260; quoting Dr Brill of the Corning Glass Center, U.S.A.Google Scholar

13 Ibid.

14 See Ryder, A. F. C., ‘An Early Portuguese Trading Voyage to the Forcados River’, J. Hist. Soc. Nigeria, I, 4 (1959), 302, n. I;Google ScholarMauny, R., Tableau géographique de l'Ouest Africain au Moyen Age (Dakar, 1961), 238Google Scholar and Fage, J. D., ‘Some Remarks on Beads and Trade in Lower Guinea in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries’, J. Afr. Hist., III, 2 (1962), 343–7.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

15 See Sutton, J. E. G., ‘The Iron Age in Zambia’ (Review of Fagan, Phillipson and Daniels [1969]op. cit.), Trans African J. Hist., 1, 2 (1971), 79; quoting Neville Chittick in a paper ‘East Africaand the Orient’, presented at a conference in Nairobi, 1967.Google Scholar

16 Shaw (1970), 207.

17 Ibid. 207–9.

18 Ibid. 209.

19 Shaw (1970), 209.

20 Ibid. 261.

21 Shaw (1907), 207.

22 Ibid. 356, Appendix VII.

23 Ozanne, P., ‘The Diffusion of Smoking in West Africa’, Odu, A Journal of West African Studies (N.S.), 2 (1969), 29–41Google Scholar and Shaw, T., ‘Smoking in Africa’, South African Archaeological Bulletin, XIX, 3 (1964), 75–6.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

24 Shaw 1970, 278.

25 Ibid.

26 See also, Jones, G. I., ‘Native and Trade Currencies in Southern Nigeria During the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries’, Africa, XXVIII 1958), 48;Google ScholarKirk-Green, A. H. M., ‘The Major Currencies in Nigerian History’,J. Hist. Soc. Nigeria, II, 1 (1960), 345–6.Google Scholar

27 Jones (1958), 48.

28 Shaw (1970), vol. II, plate 322.

29 For illustrations, see Nzekwu, O., ‘Iria Ceremony’, Nigeria, 63 (1959), 340–52.Google Scholar

30 Battuta, Ibn, Travels in Asia and Africa, trans. Gibb, H. A. R. (London, 1953), 336. 382–3;Google ScholarBriggs, L., Tribes of the Sahara, Cambridge (Massachusetts, 1960), 40–50CrossRefGoogle Scholar and Shaw, Thurstan, ‘The Analysis of West African Bronzes: A Summary of the evidence’, Ibadan: A Journal Published at the University of Ibadan, 28 (1970), 84–5.Google Scholar

31 Trimingham, J. S., Islam in West Africa (Oxford, 1959), 192.Google Scholar

32 For illustrations, see Williams, D., ‘An Outline History of Tropical African Art’ in Africa in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries, ed. Anene, J. C. and Brown, G. N., Ibadan (1966), p1. VII. Other examples can be seen in the metalwork section of the Nigerian Museum, Lagos.Google Scholar

33 See Lawal, (1972), op. cit.Google Scholar

34 Northrup, D., ‘The Growth of Trade Among the Igbo before 1800’, J. Afr. Hist., XIII, 2 (1972), 217–36.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

35 Northrup (1972), 221.

36 Especially when Northrup neither connects Igbo-Ukwu with the trans-Saharan trade, nor gives the direction of this hypothetical long distance trade which ‘completed the final stages of its journey on the Niger River’. But while Professor Shaw suggests that much of the beads and textiles found at Igbo-Ukwu must havc been imported through the trans-Saharan trade, Northrup is inclined to think that a good majority of them were manufactured in or around Igbo-Ukwu for export to the coast and to as far afield as Benin (Ibid. 220–5). In exchange, Igbo-Ukwu would have received salt, which Professor Shaw suggests must have come from the Sahara.

37 Northrup (1972), 218.