Reopening the archives of archaeology at Ile-Ife, Nigeria

In 1953, the archaeologists Bernard Fagg and A.J.H. Goodwin excavated sacred grove sites in Ile-Ife, south-western Nigeria, where they hoped to uncover artefactual and stratigraphic evidence of the town’s early history. They were especially interested in developing artefact typologies and chronologies, as part of the systematisation of archaeology in Africa during this period. But far from primordial places conserving undisturbed records of past human practices, such sacred groves were dynamic spaces with complex histories where successive communities repeatedly remodified and reinterpreted earlier cultural features and their larger landscape. This article revisits the excavations of the grove of Osangangan Obamakin, drawing upon the largely unpublished records to address new questions about the grove’s early and recent past, and the significance of its archaeology to understanding the wider history of Ife’s cultural landscapes

Archaeological evidence · Archaeological record · Assemblage (archaeology · Excavation · Historical archaeology · Material culture · Archaeology and Rock Art Studies · Colonialism, slavery, and trade · Indigenous Knowledge Systems and Agriculture