Early Nigerian history pt 1

Recent archaeological research has shown that people were already living in southwestern Nigeria (specifically Iwo-Eleru) as early as 9000 BC and perhaps earlier at Ugwuelle-Uturu (Okigwe) in southeastern Nigeria. Smelting furnaces at Taruga dating from the 4th century BC provide the oldest evidence of metalworking in Archaeology. Microlithic and ceramic industries were developed by savanna pastoralists from at least the 4th millennium BC and were continued by subsequent agricultural communities. In the south, hunting and gathering gave way to subsistence farming in the first millennium BC and the cultivation of staple foods.

Kainji Dam excavations revealed ironworking by the 2nd century BC. The transition from Neolithic times to the Iron Age apparently was achieved without intermediate bronze production. Some scholars speculate that the smelting process was transmitted from the Mediterranean by Berbers. Others suggest the technology moved west from the Nile Valley, although the Iron Age in the Niger River valley and the forest region appears to predate the introduction of metallurgy in the upper savanna by more than 800 years. The earliest identified Nigerian culture is that of the Nok people who thrived between 500 BC and 200 AD on the Jos Plateau in northeastern Nigeria. Information is lacking from the first millennium AD following the Nok ascendancy, but by the 2nd millennium AD there was active trade from North Africa through the Sahara to the forest, with the people of the savanna acting as intermediaries in exchanges of various goods.

History of Nigeria before 1500

Long before 1500, much of modern Nigeria was divided into states identified with contemporary ethnic groups. These early states included the Yoruba kingdoms, the Igbo kingdom of Nri, the Edo kingdom of Benin, the Efik kingdom, the Ibibio kingdom, the Annang kingdom, the Hausa cities, and Nupe. Numerous small states to the west and south of Lake Chad were absorbed or displaced in the course of the expansion of Kanem, which was centered to the northeast of Lake Chad. Borno, initially the western province of Kanem, became independent in the late 14th century. Other states probably existed but the absence of archaeological data do not permit accurate dating.

In the southeast, the earliest Igbo state and the oldest kingdom in Nigeria was the Kingdom of Nri, which emerged in 900 AD and lasted for over a thousand years. Despite its relatively small size geographically it is considered the cradle of Igbo culture.