Bolaji Josephine Owoseni

This project investigates the early settlement history and regional socio-political interactions of Ilorin City and Shao Town, situated in the borderlands of the renowned Oyo Empire, Yorùbáland, in pre-colonial West Africa. It aims to elucidate the complexities of social, political, and economic developments within these communities and compare them with those across wider Yorùbáland and West Africa. Employing a multidisciplinary approach integrating archaeological surveys, excavations, material culture analysis, particularly ceramics, and ethnohistorical accounts, this research seeks to reconstruct the chronology of occupation and settlement development at the Gbagba site in Ilorin and Shao. Ilorin, a significant northern Yorùbáland borderland of the Oyo empire, is renowned for interregional trade and craft specialization. Shao, located southeast of Ilorin, emerged as a major town from the Old Oyo areas. This post-PhD builds upon and extends previous PhD excavations conducted in Ilorin at the site of the Kwara State College of Education Ilorin. Excavations revealed substantial material culture, especially ceramics, and yielded five radiocarbon dates spanning the 1st millennium and early 2nd millennium AD. These dates represent the earliest recorded borderland settlement in Yorùbáland, contemporaneous with large centers such as Ile-Ife and Old Oyo.