Itaakpa, a Late Stone Age site in southwestern Nigeria

Abstract

Itaakpa rockshelter was excavated in three short field seasons, from 1985 to 1988, during which a human maxilla and mandible were found in a context characteristic of the ceramic phase of the West African Late Stone Age (LSA). An AMS date of 2210±80 b.p. was obtained from burned palm kernels from the same level. There was no apparent stratigraphic or archaeological break between this level and the layers above, and the pottery indicates continuity of occupation; the upper part of the sequence compares well with other, more recent, sites known in the area. The dimensions of the human teeth show an affinity with those found at Shum Laka, a rockshelter in southwestern Cameroun, in an archaeological context similar to that at Itaakpa. The site is only the third to be found in Nigeria (along with Iwo Eleru and Rop Rockshelter) where human remains suitable for comparative analysis have been identified in a good stratigraphic context along with LSA artifacts.

Keywords:

• Late Stone Age
• human mandible
• dentition
• northeastern Yorubaland
• Iffe-Ijumu
• archaeological sequence

In the first place, thanks must go to the late Professor Ade Obayemi, who invited us to do this work, and who took a keen interest in it. Original as a man and a scholar, his loss is deeply felt. It is unfortunate that his published work is only a fraction of what he wrote. In carrying out this study, we benefited from a paper entitled “The Present State of Archaeological Work in Northern Yorubaland,” which he presented to the first annual conference of the Archaeological Association of Nigeria at Ahmadu Bello University Zaria in 1982. We also had access to a valuable typescript which he prepared entitled “The North East Yoruba: A Cultural History.” This set out his views in full, and it was evidently intended to be the first draft of a book, but that book never saw the light of day.

Financial support for the excavations was provided by the University of Ibadan and the Nigerian National Commission for Museums and Monuments. The Association of Commonwealth Universities awarded an Academic Staff Scholarship to Philip Oyelaran in 1989–1990, which enabled him to carry out analyses at the Institute of Archaeology in London. Thanks are expressed to all who helped him while he was there, in particular, Drs. Paul Craddock, Daffyd Griffiths, and John Merkel as well as Mr. Anthony Barham. Thanks for their help with the study and analysis of material in Nigeria go to Drs. J. L. Pleysier, Michael DiBlasi, T. A. Aire, and O. O. Falomo. Silvia Bello provided the initial base map for Nigeria included in Figure 1. We received much help and kindness from the people of Iffe-Ijumu, especially Alfa Ibrahim, the owner of the site, and those who accommodated us in the Obayemi family house. In the field, we had the indispensible help of Mallam Umaru Gol, and also of Lydia Aholou, who on 1 May 1985 first recognized the basal fragment of the human mandible for what it was, as well as the ceramic bead recovered in the same horizon.

Itaakpa rockshelter was excavated by the first two authors, and much of the subsequent archaeological analysis reported here was incorporated into Philip Oyelaran’s thesis. Chris Stringer measured the teeth when the human remains were disengaged from the sediment blocks at the Natural History Museum and he provided a first description of the mandible and maxilla. The more recent detailed characterization of the teeth and their metrical comparison to other African specimens is the work of Tim Compton. The first author is solely responsible for the unwarranted delay in preparing this final report for publication.

Philip Allsworth-Jones (Ph.D. 1976, Cambridge University) was a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Archaeology and Anthropology at the University of Ibadan at the time the work described here was carried out. He subsequently held a similar post at the University of the West Indies, Mona, Kingston, and is currently a Research Fellow in the Department of Archaeology at the University of Sheffield. He recently edited a volume entitled West African Archaeology: New Developments, New Perspectives arising from a conference held in Sheffield in 2009.

Philip Oyelaran (Ph.D. 1991, University of Ibadan) is now Professor of Environmental Archaeology in the Department of Archaeology and Anthropology at the University of Ibadan. His inaugural lecture, entitled “Written in Flames: A Tale of an Environment in Peril,” was delivered in February 2011.

Chris Stringer (Ph.D. 1974, Bristol University) has worked at The Natural History Museum London since 1973, and is now Research Leader in Human Origins there and a Fellow of the Royal Society. He currently leads the third phase of the Ancient Human Occupation of Britain (AHOB) project, funded by the Leverhulme Trust. He has published over 200 scientific papers; his recent books include The Complete World of Human Evolution (2005, with Peter Andrews), Homo Britannicus (2006), and The Origin of Our Species (2011).

Tim Compton (M.A. 1987, University of London) is a dental anthropologist and a research associate in the Human Origins Group at the Natural History Museum London, as well as an associate member of the AHOB project. His present research interests are the teeth of Pleistocene hominins, in particular their morphology. He has previously worked on Middle Eastern material, and has also studied the variation of less frequently recorded dental traits in Southeast Asian populations.