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Archaeology & Anthropology 2018
Global Journal of Research and Review
ISSN: 2393-8854
Page 41
October 01-02, 2018
London, UK
1
st
Edition of international Conference on
Archaeology and
Anthropology
T
he paper examines the contributions of ironworking in Yankari
Game Reserve to the socio-economic life of the people of
northeasternNigeria.Thestudywasconductedwhen theparkwas
under the Federal Government, as a National Park, but it is now
under the control of Bauchi State Government and, it had reversed
toaGameReserve.Themethodsofourstudyincludeethnographic
and reconnaissance survey, key informant interview, excavations
and literature review. The significant role that iron working played
within the life of the people of northeastern Nigeria is discussed
in the text. In this part of northern Nigeria lies one of the world’s
most extensive concentrations of very early iron smelting sites.
Intriguingly, the area lies at one end of an ancient trans-Saharan
trade route which might account for a major marketing center
located at Dukkey well where one hundred and thirty wells were
discovered within the Game Reserve. Fuel and ore were the
major locating factors for these sites. Interviews with the last
generation of people with some good memories of iron smelting
revealed a much wider range of smelting techniques comparable
to those observable in other accounts of iron working in other
archaeological record in Nigeria. The text highlights the group
of people who might have carried out iron working in this area.
The smelting sites in the game reserve include Ampara, Delemiri,
Shau Shau and Panguru. More than one hundred standing and
based furnaces were discovered in the game reserve. The text
illustrates some of the shaft furnaces still existing on the sites.
The report of a written record gave an account of another eleven
iron smelting sites in Bauchi, which had not been studied before.
In the Yankari Game reserve are numerous iron-smelting sites,
indicative of a large scale iron smelting industry during the early
iron age. The text considers some contributions of iron working
in Yankari to the socio-economic life of the people of northeast
Nigeria. The conservation of this area in a game reserve for
ecotourism, where a lot of wildlife and other natural resources are
located, has prevented human destruction of the archaeological
sites in the reserve .
davidaremu@yahoo.co.ukContributions of iron working in Yankari Game Reserve, Bauchi
to socio-economic life of the people of northeastern Nigeria
David A Aremu
University of Ibadan, Nigeria
Glob J Res Rev 2018, Volume 5
DOI: 10.21767/2393-8854-C1-003