Glass was being produced in Nigeria long before early European trade

omotolani

January 31, 2018 1:21 PM

A recent archaeological discovery of glass in Igbo Olokun, Ile-Ife in southwestern Nigeria, proves this.

Archeological findings in southwest Nigeria has found that glass was being produced in Sub-Saharan Africa as early as 1000 years ago.

This is long before trading with Europe began in the 15th century. Glass beads have long been thought to be made from glass imported from Europe. But a recent archaeological discovery of glass in Igbo Olokun, Ile-Ife in southwestern Nigeria, proves otherwise.

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“We have strong evidence that they were making glass beads,” says Abidemi Babatunde Babalola, referring to the use of glass which was locally made in the region. Babalola led the research which was published in Elsevier’s Journal of Archaeological Science. “From the…excavation we recovered almost …13,000 black beads and most of them are not in their finished stage which shows that they were still being made at the time of abandonment of the site.”

Babalola and his team were encouraged to look into it after determining that glass composition found in this region did not match with glass composition found in other parts of the world. “The percentage of the elements of the glass determines where it came from,” he says.

While many other kinds of beads have been determined to be produced in Sub-Saharan Africa, glass beads are generally presumed to have been imported. Babalola’s research involves both archaeological and scientific research that determines the origins of the glass particles—a combination he says is lacking in previous research.

Using a method called mass spectrometry, which measures the concentration of all elements in the glass, they were able to determine the origins of the glass by looking at the “signature” elements and matching them with geological elements of the region where it came up. “Each of these ingredients leaves a signature in the glass,” says Babalola. “Not only the signature of the material but also the signature of the location where the material was actually collected from.”

Babalola hopes that the study will shed new light on the way trade and interregional relations are viewed in Sub-Saharan Africa.

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