CURRENT RESEARCH

I am currently directing two research projects in Nigeria: (1) The Upper Osun Archaeological and Historical Research and (2) the Oyo Empire Archaeology and Heritage.

The first focuses on the impacts of global/regional social, political, and economic processes on community formations; and how social actors created knowledge, communities, and identities with objects and the landscape, 1000-1800 AD. This has resulted in the mapping and excavation of several sites in central Yoruba region, especially the Osun-Osogbo Sacred Grove in Osogbo; Ede-Ile, a colony of Oyo Empire; and Oduduwa Grove in Ile-Ife. The study combines archaeological field research with oral traditions and historical ethnography of rituals, festivals, and landscape.

In the second project, I am using regional survey and extensive excavations to study the deep-time landscape and settlement history, political economy, settlement ecology, urban complexes, household organization, and long-distance trading networks in Oyo Empire’s metropolitan area (especially Oyo-Ile, Bara, and Koso).

Both projects intersect in many ways. The goal is to understand the archaeology of emergent communities, social complexity, power and resource distribution, social inequality, human responses to environmental instability, and cultural history of Atlantic modernity in the Yoruba world.

Collaboration with local communities, government institutions, and colleges and universities is vital to these research endeavors. For example, since a large segment of our study area falls within the Old Oyo National Park (OONP), our research there is being conducted in partnership with the Nigerian National Park Service. We are collaborating to develop management plans for the archaeological, cultural, and natural resources of  OONP with emphasis on protection, conservation, indigenous knowledge potentialities, and public education. We are also providing the postgraduate students of the University of Ibadan and the staff of the Nigerian National Park Service with training on archaeological, anthropological and historical methods; cultural resource management; and the use of digital and remote sensing technologies for data acquisition, analysis, planning, and public dissemination. The pubic exhibition of our research findings has also been carried out in Osogbo and Oyo, and more exhibitions are planned for other communities in the future especially in Ile-Ife, Igbeti, and Ede.

Several aspects of the two projects have been published in academic outlets.