CHAPTER 13

ARCHAEOLOGY AND THE CHALLENGES OF RECONSTRUCTING AFRICAN HISTORY

Dan O. Chukwu, PhD

&

James C. Chukwu

Introduction

Archaeology as an ancillary to historical studies, it seems, has contributed significantly to the growth of this branch of knowledge. Other ancillaries to historical writing include social anthropology, sociology, geography and linguistics. If, for anything, archaeological finds have undeniably helped in debunking the diffusionist idea held in the European circles about the development of organised states and the domestication of animals in Africa, south of Africa, prior to the age of European conquest of the continent. The diffusionist theory has maintained that the idea about statecraft came fromplaces outside Africa, possibly Europe and Asia. In this chapter, we prove, through archaeological finds, the abundance of Nigerian, nay African indigenous history and culture. Nok, Igbo-Ukwu, Daima, Iwo Eleru, and other African areas, argues the paper, have seen excavations of human skeletons and other objects which, when radio-carbon dated, showed evidence of man’s existence thousands of years ago. What is more, such finds have aided historical writing for, as the chapter has argued, in terms of extending historical times backward.

Since the mid-twentieth century, archaeological studies have constituted a veritable instrument for the study of African heritage. Ever since then, too, archaeological finds have in no doubt helped to debunk the diffusionist idea often held by Europeans to the effect that developments, including statecraft and domestication of animals in Africa, south of the Sahara, owed their origins to places outside the continent. Apart from archaeology, there are other academic disciplines that have aided the study of African history and culture during the past decades. They include social anthropology, sociology, linguistics and the like. Generally, we refer to them as ancillaries to historical studies.

In this chapter, however, attempts are made to show how, in concrete terms, archaeology has contributed in the reconstruction of African heritage. But why do we use the word “reconstruction”? It is apt because the earlier European and Arab writers of African history had tended to distort facts about the people’s history and culture. Or, how does one reconcile the statement below with the facts on ground about Africans and their history?

Perhaps, in the future there will be some African history to teach. But at present, there is none, there is only the history of the Europeans in Africa. The rest is darkness…. And darkness is not a subject of history.

On his part, George Hegel, a German philosopher of history, has dismissed Africans as lacking in any ingenuity. In his words, “it is manifest that want of self-control distinguishes the character of the Negroes (Africans)”. It was this lack of self-control, he maintained, that made it impossible for them to develop an early history and culture.

In the above and other fora, Eurocentric views were banded to portray Africans, south of the Sahara including Nigerians, as lacking in civilizations well worth beaming any academic searchlight on. Thus, when we write the histories of these societies, we do so in the hope of recasting, re-constructing, re-writing and correcting the earlier impressions about a non-existing history. In the chapter, the words “African heritage or culture” have been used to refer to the whole gamut of African history. The study is divided into a number of sections which include an attempt at the definition and development of the science of archaeology.

Conceptual Clarifications

It has been contended that the word “archaeology” traces its origin to the Greek. In its Greek etymology, “Archaios” refers to Ancient; “Arche” means beginning; while “logos” connotes discourse. Over the years, the term has developed changing meanings and usage. At the beginning the meaning of archaeology was confined to the study of ancient terms. But progressively, the meaning has come to encompass the study of general political and cultural history; collection and administration of antiquities; cultural revival, as well as the study of the classical antiquities. In a sense, archaeological studies cannot be said to be a pastime employed to escape from the present, nor is it an exploration of the dead forgotten past. It is rather seen as a way of enlarging and expanding the understanding of ourselves.

Archaeology has also been defined as a scientific study of man’s past through the material remains of his activities. The operative words here are “material remains”. These “remains” act as a monument and link between the present and the past – and to a large extent form the basis of a discourse for the archaeologist.

As a social science, archaeology studies the corporate society rather than an individual member of it. It does this through the recovery (excavation) of artefacts, radio carbon-dating and the reconstruction of the society’s past. It has been pointed out that archaeology is an extension of historical studies or as some scholars have remarked, it is a supplementary or auxiliary arm of history, digging into the earliest parts of man’s past. Due to the fact that man’s history is reconstructed through a trace to far behind, as against far beyond, the relevance of archaeology is not found lacking. Thus, it has been established that the point at which oral tradition and written records stop in the study of history, archaeology normally takes over. The general thinking is that archaeology works in consonance with geology, botany, zoology, physics and chemistry as well as history, anthropology and sociology. According to Daniel F. McCall, before an archaeologist commences the study of an area, he is expected to have acquainted himself with the available written material or non-material evidence about the site. As a natural science of garbage, archaeology is saddled with the excavation of all manner of material remains, ranging from coins (numismatics), tools in the form of iron, stone (flint axe), metal work, pottery, ruins of building, agricultural works (canals), mine shafts to garbage heaps. Others are bricks, charcoal, broken bottles, mounds of various kinds and shapes, relics, hearth, pits, graves, domestic utensils, among others. These material remains are generally referred to as artefacts.

Development of Man and Archaeological Sites

Over the years, man’s development has been classified into a number of periods. These include the Stone Age, the Bronze Age and the Iron Age. In his book, pre-historic times, Sir John Lubbock introduces the words pre-historic and pre-history to express the idea about the Stone Age system. According to him, the Stone Age was the period when man’s weapons were made of chipped flint implements, bone and wood in the stones. This was what G. O. Onibonoje calls the early or the so-called Palaeolithic Age.

Apart from being characterized by chipped flint implements, the soil conditions appeared to have militated against the survival of bone in parts of Nigeria during this period. The kind of stone tools of this period consisted of pebbles or slumps flaked by percussion to form crude chopping and cutting tools with edges anything from 3cm to 12cm long. Originally, they were called Olduvai type of pebble tools, so named after Olduvai George, in Tanzania. Olduvai tools are known to spread to parts of Africa, including Nigeria. For example, geological surveys have suggested the prevalence of such pebble tools in a river at Beli on the river Taraba in the south of north-east Nigeria.

Next to the Olduvai culture was the Acheulian culture named after the site of St. Acheul in France, where the culture was first sited. Characteristics of this culture included “hand-axes” of bifaces. Thurstan Shaw has argued that these tools are oval in shape with a cutting edge. There is a widespread of Acheulian sites in parts of Africa. In Nigeria, it seems they are distributed in parts of northern Nigeria, especially in the upland of the Jos tin mining area. In Mai Idon Toro, for instance, cleavers predominate, while at Nok hard wares are common.

It is said that the iron smelting sites of Taruga were originally associated with terracotta figurines of the distinctive artistic style named after a Nigerian village, Nok, where they were first discovered. Nok culture was originally known as a result of the recovery of archaeological remains from the tin-bearing gravels west of the Jos plateau in the course of mining activities. The remains comprised mainly ground stone axes and smaller stone tools, iron axes and other iron tools, the baked clay draught pipe used in iron smelting, quartz lip-plugs, other ornaments, and above all, the striking terracottas.

There is also the Sangoan culture. The Sangoan culture is said to have succeeded the Acheulian culture. Sangoan culture is named after the Sangoan Bay on Lake Victoria (in East Africa). The stone tools of the Sangoan culture are generally heavier and cruder in appearance, and typical of this is the pick- a core tool rounded at one end and pointed at the other.

In Nigeria, it is believed that the sites of the Sangoan culture are distributed in gravels. Among these sites as widely distributed in Nigeria include those around Jebba, Abuja, Keffi and the Jos plateau and along the Sokoto River. Also, along the Ibadan-Abeokuta Road, a number of Sangoan tools have been found extending into the forest region. Generally, it has been stated that the makers and users of the Sangoan tools were the Homo sapiens of the Rhodesoid type. In a way, this suggests the presence of early hominids in Nigeria as was the case in East Africa, millions of years ago.

The distribution of the Acheulian culture on the plateau and the Sangoan culture in other areas of Nigeria is said to have confirmed the fact that the two cultures were contemporaneous in Nigeria in the distant past. It is speculated that the Sangoan culture occurred between 55,000 and 40,000 years ago.

Elsewhere in Nigeria, archaeological excavations have served (and are known to be serving) as a handmaid in the reconstruction of the people’s past. For example, the excavation of human skeletons, believed to be some 10,000 years old at Iwo Eleru close to Akure, suggests the antiquity of man in that region of Nigeria. Also, through the interpretation of the artefacts dug up at the Ukpa rock near Afikpo, it has been established that by 3,000 B.C., stone implements and pottery were in use in the area. Other significant areas of archaeological discoveries in Nigeria include Daima, Ife and Lejja (a village located 14 kilometres south of Nsukka).

Besides the foregoing account, there are some other archaeological finds which tend to have strengthened the argument that relatively well-organised polities must have developed in the present territory where the Igbo live. Archaeological discoveries by Shaw in Igbo-ukwu and D. Hartle in Ezira tend to lend credence to this line of thinking. Shaw’s excavation produced a preponderance of bronze, copper, and iron objects as well as pottery, beads, ivory, among others.

Through the use of the radio-carbon technique, these objects are known to date back to the ninth century A.D., and are of relatively considerable age and predate the Ife, Benin and Jebba bronzes. On his part, Hartle’s finds at Ezira were bronze materials which included bells, anklets, and bracelets, which appeared to be in the likes of Igbo-Ukwu works. However, characteristic of the Ezira finds was that when tested through the use of radio-carbon method they dated fourteenth century A.D.

In view of the elaborate nature and quality of the artefacts in the foregoing accounts, what is obvious is that there would have lived human groups with rich political, economic and religious institutions in these areas, Shaw may have underscored this thinking in the following words:

A thousand years ago, in the part of Nigeria, there was a highly developed and sophisticated level of social organization which could also command a considerable accumulation of wealth- wealth in terms of ivory and imported beads and copper and bronze objects. We do not know very much about the nature of social institution or of the political structure associated but it is interesting that on the east side of the River Niger, we appear to have evidence of centralized authority of some kind, some hundreds of years before the earliest dynasty of Benin.

Also, ethnographic studies by renowned anthropologists and sociologists tend to support the spirit and letter of the foregoing statement. For instance, M.A Onwuejeogwu, an anthropologist of repute, reckons with the fact that the archaeological objects of Igbo-Ukwu and Ezira belong to Nri culture.While Onwuejeogwu dates the rise of Nri civilization to about AD 900, Adiele Afigbo, a historian, suggests that Nri civilization might have begun about six centuries before the birth of Christ, and thus by the ninth century AD, it had attained maturity, while the Igbo-Ukwu finds with which it is associated are dated ninth century AD. Thus, given the richness and artistic sophistication of the Igbo-Ukwu bronze objects, it is possible to suggest a culture that probably attained maturity rather than one that was still evolving.

The Igbo-Ukwu archaeological finds have undeniably been given some interpretations-some of which are political, economic and religious. The chapter has already highlighted the political significance. Apart from the economic interpretation given to the finds at Igbo-Ukwu, a religious interpretation may complete the story. Accordingly, Thurstan Shaw has stated that, “the nature of the bronzes was strongly suggestive of sacred vessels used for some ceremonial or ritual purpose and ornaments and regalia for some important persons connected with this”. He explains further that the positioning of the repository, sacred vessels and regalia was probably the result of some raid or disaster in warfare. For the accidental discovery, which led to the excavation of the burial chamber, Shaw argues that it was a shrine or an altar, consisting of a pile of various kinds of pottery vessels. This must have been the burial chamber of a king.

In a book chapter entitled “Pottery making in Nigeria” some years ago, O.K Oyeoku appeared to have alluded to the nature of the pot made in Igbo-Ukwu and other Nigerian centres. According to him, “it is not yet clear whether similarities exist between the spherical Afikpo storage pot called Mgbukwu, the spherical peculiar pot of the Adamawa Hausa and the globular pot excavated in Igbo Isaiah compound in Igbo-Ukwu in 1938 are due to a common origin of pottery traditions or not”.

Shaw’s remarkable discoveries at Igbo-Ukwu have contributed significantly in exposing the rich economic and cultural heritage of Nigeria. They show that judging from the radiocarbon date of the artefacts, Nigerian culture, at the time, possessed knowledge of iron working. This also suggests the fact that this wealth may have been the result of trade contacts with the north in iron and slaves. The Igbo-Ukwu people, from all indications, represent a developed Iron Age people already established in the south and who were successfully exploiting the forest environment in which they found themselves in about the 9 centuryA.D. In fact, the Igbo smiths of Awka and Nkwerre and the 9th century Igbo-Ukwu civilization show some highly decorated and ornamental metal objects indicating a high level of technology.

Uses of Archaeology in Historical Reconstruction

The scientific study of material remains of the past has not only been accepted as an academic discipline on its own, but it has also been accepted as a handmaid to the study of other academic disciplines. In this section of the chapter, we consider some of the uses of archaeology in historical studies.

Validation of Oral Traditions: Oral tradition has been defined as consisting in an important unwritten source in historical reconstruction. According to Jan Vansina, “Oral traditions consist of all verbal testimonies which are reported statements concerning the past”. Sometimes the nature of some oral tradition makes it impossible for the historian to establish a relative chronology. On the other hand, the archaeologist normally goes for archaeological artefacts according to the claims of oral tradition. Thus, if he (the archaeologist) is able to excavate some material remains of any past civilization at the mentioned site, it would have been possible to validate the original claims of oral tradition. Where, on the other hand, the excavation exercise is not able to discover any material remains of the past settlement/civilization, the claims by oral tradition would have been invalidated.

Extension of Historical Time Backward: Evidently the system has helped in filling in any historical gaps. It is also evident that where oral tradition and documentary record stop, archaeology normally takes over to recall man’s past. Until the mid-20 century, for instance, when archaeological finds were made around the Omo River Valley and the Olduvai Gorge (in East Africa) on the existence of man, the thinking in the European circles was that Africa was of no historical significance to the human race. The finds have, however, shown that more than two million years earlier man had inhabited that part of Africa. It was from here that men migrated to other parts of the continent, while others migrated to the Asian world across the Indian Ocean. In other words, it is possible to establish that archaeology provides information for pre-history of man, that is, man’s history before the advent of written records. Here, archaeological studies have been able to establish that beyond distorted written records by Arab and European scholars, man’s beginning is traceable to Africa. “They (human beings) seem to have appeared first in Africa, then, beginning around 300, 000 years ago, in Europe and Asia”.

Stratigraphy: Here the archaeologist uses the method referred to as carbon fourteen (c-14) to establish relative age of artefacts. This method assumes that artefacts found in deeper area of the earth are older than those in the upper layer. It is a system whereby organic remains are examined to determine the extent to which a certain radioactive isotope of the element may have disintegrated since the death of the plant or animal. This is normally possible because the half-life of the radioactive isotope has been determined. For a good example, it takes 5,570 years for half the substance to disintegrate in organic remains, then another 5,570 years for the rest half of the organic remains to disintegrate. Often this provides the needed information on the age of the organic substance which in turn permits a possible assumption that other material on the same site or layer are of the same age. It has, however, been pointed out that the method was only useful for dating sites not older than 50,000 years old.

Archaeology and other Disciplines: Archaeology relates with other disciplines in an inter-disciplinary way. It employs the services of geology, botany, zoology, physics, chemistry as well as history, anthropology and sociology. It is said that before an archaeologist embarks on the study of a site, he is expected to have acquainted himself with the available written or oral material or non- material evidence which is later handed over to history for either synchronization or supplementation (or both) for the latter’s evidence.

Conclusion

We have been able to establish that archaeology is not just a science of garbage but that which gives material and non – material evidence about the society’s political, economic, and social existence in the past. Thus, through the scientific examination of artefacts, it has been able to be established that man, thousands of years ago, lived in the area now called Nigeria. Undeniably, these early men evolved their political culture, devised their own economic means of livelihood, as well as related with one another within the group and others outside. By extension, this monumental evidence has provided the historian with unassailable information to correct the false impression about the authenticity of African history.

Endnotes

1. Robin Horton, “Stateless Societies in the History of West Africa”, in J. F. A. Ajayi and Michael Crowder (eds) History of West Africa vol One (London: Longman Group Ltd, 1976), 104.

2. Trevor-Roper Hugh, “The Rise of Christian Europe” in The Listener, as cited in Michael Crowder, West Africa under Colonial Rule, London: Hutchinson, 1968.

3. W. F. Hegel, The Philosophy of History, New York: Dove Publications, Inc., 1956; the reader may also see Mokwugo Okoye, The Growth of Nations (Enugu: Fourth Dimension Publishers, 1978), 122.

4. Mary C. Ecoma, “Archaeology and Nigerian History”. A Post-graduate Seminar paper, Department of History, University of Calabar. 1990, 2.

5. Kofi Darkwah, “Archaeology and Historical Reconstruction”. A mimeograph, Department of History, University of Calabar, Calabar, 1988.

6. Daniel F. McCall, Africa in Time – Perspective, (New York: Oxford University Press) 1969 11.

7. Kofi Darkwah, “Archaeology and Historical Reconstruction….”

8. Thurstan Shaw, Igbo-Ukwu: An Account of Archaeological Discoveries in Eastern Nigeria, (London: Faber and Faber, 1970) Chapter 1

9. G. O. Onibonoje, Africa in the Ancient World, (Ibandan: Onibonoje Press Publishers1971) 8

10. Thurstan Shaw, “Prehistory” in Obaro Ikime (ed) Groundwork of Nigerian History (Ibandan: Helnemann Educational Books, 1980) 24

11. Shaw, “Prehistory” in Obaro Ikime (ed) Groundwork of Nigerian History… 26

12. Thurstan Shaw, “Archaeology in Nigeria” Antiquity, 1969 17; see also Owho Ovuakporie, Are Africans Black People? (Lagos: Vinna Books Publishers Lted, 2019), 49 – 54.

13. Shaw, “Prehistory” in Obaro Ikime (ed) Groundwork of Nigerian History… 26

14. Shaw, “Prehistory” in Obaro Ikime (ed) Groundwork of Nigerian History… 26

15. Shaw, “Prehistory” in Obaro Ikime (ed) Groundwork of Nigerian History… 18

16. Mary C. Ecoma, “Archaeology and Nigerian History…” 11

17. Shaw, “Prehistory” in Obaro Ikime (ed) Groundwork of Nigerian History… 31

18. Shaw, “Prehistory” in Obaro Ikime (ed) Groundwork of Nigerian History… 37

19. Ecoma, “Archaeology and Nigerian History…” 11

20. Shaw, “Archaeology in Nigeria…” 45 - 49

21. Ecoma, “Archaeology and Nigerian History…” 12

22. Richard Olaniyan, (ed) Nigerian History and Culture (Ibadan: Longman Publishers 1985) 15.

23. Olaniyan, (ed) Nigerian History and Culture… 15.

24. T. O. Okoye, The City in South-Eastern Nigeria (Onitsha: Varsity Industrial Ltd.), 1996 25 Okoye, The City in South-Eastern Nigeria… 25.

25. Okoye, The City in South-Eastern Nigeria …25

26. Shaw, Igbo-Ukwu: An Account of Archaeological Discoveries… 3

27. M. A. Onwuejeogwu, An Igbo Civilization: Nri Kingdom and Hegemony, Benin: Ethiope Publishing Corperation. 1981.

28. Onwuejeogwu, “An Outline Account of the Dawn of Igbo Civilization in the Igbo Culture Area”, Odinani Vol 1 No 1 1972 44-45

29. Adiele E. Afigbo, Ropes of Sand: Studies in Igbo History and Culture (Nsukka: University of Nigeria Press 1981) 47.

30. Okoye, The City in South-Eastern Nigeria… 25.

31. Afigbo, Ropes of Sand: Studies in Igbo History and Culture… 11

32. Shaw, Igbo-Ukwu: An Account of Archaeological Discoveries… 99 – 124.

33. O. K. Oyeoku, “Pottery Making in Nigeria” in A. Ikechukwu Okpoko (ed) African Indigenous Technology Ibadan: Wisdom Publishers Ltd 1999.

34. Ecoma, “Archaeology and Nigerian History…” 18

35. Jan Vansina, Oral Tradition: A Study in Historical Methodology (London: Routledge and Kegan Paul 1965) 19

36. Marc Bloch, The Historian’s Craft (New York: Vintage Books 1954) 27-28.

37. A. J. Davis, “A Review of Eike Haberland’s Treatise, Journal of the Historical Society of Nigeria Vol v No 3 December 1988, 485

38. Dan Chukwu, “Validating the Value of African History: The Role of the Pioneers Considered” in Joy Eyisi, Ike Odimegwu and Alex Asigbo (eds) in Paradise in the Arts Celebrating Prof C. C. Agbodike (Awka: Fab Educational Books, 2008) 40

39. John D. Fage, A History of Africa (London: Hutchinson 1978) Chapters 1 and 2

40. Dan O. Chukwu, “Archaeology in the Reconstruction of Nigerian History” in Dan O Chukwu and Eugene I. Nnadi (eds) Readings in the Humanities and Education (Enugu: His Glory Publications 2011) 80.

41. Chukwu, “Archaeology in the Reconstruction of Nigerian History…” 80

42. Daniel F. McCall, Africa in Time – Perspective,… 11

43. Simon E. Majuk, “The Problem of Chronology in African History”. A Postgraduate Seminar Paper at the University of Calabar, Calabar, 1990, 9.

44. R. J. Shafer, A Guide to Historical Method (Illinois: The Dorsey Press, Revised edn 1974) 138

45. Majuk, “The Problem of Chronology in African History…” 9.

46. Shafer, A Guide to Historical Method… 138.

47. Daniel F. McCall, Africa in Time – Perspective,… 11

48. Ecoma, “Archaeology and Nigerian History…” 12