Filling a Gap in the Ife-Benin Interaction Field (Thirteenth-Sixteenth Centuries AD): Excavations in Iloyi Settlement, Ijesaland

Abstract

Previous archaeological studies have indicated that the Yoruba polity of Ile–Ife and the Edo polity of Benin, both in southwest Nigeria, belonged to the same sphere of sociocultural interactions before the nineteenth century AD. The spatial and temporal dimensions of this interaction sphere have not, however, been understood, because the archaeological sequences of the areas between the two polities are largely unknown. One of these intervening areas is Ijesaland. The excavations conducted in Iloyi settlement, northern Ijesaland, provide a new set of data that not only fills a gap in the Ife–Benin interaction sphere but also offers new perspectives on the process of material culture homogenization in the Yoruba–Edo region during the first half of the second millennium. Calibrated radiocarbon dates show that Iloyi was occupied during the thirteenth–sixteenth centuries AD. Using the stylistic and iconographic characteristics of ceramics and the patterns of burial and sacrificial rituals as evidence, it is demonstrated that Iloyi was a sociopolitical and cultural frontier of Ile–Ife, and that Ijesaland was part of the Ife–Benin cultural corridor. The paper strengthens the earlier suggestions that the development of a kingship institution at Ile–Ife helped to widen the interaction networks in the region, an historical process that culminated in the trend toward regional cultural homogenization between the thirteenth and sixteenth centuries. Des etudes archeologiques anterieures ont indique que l'etat Yoruba de Ile-Ife et l'etat Edo du Benin, les deux dans le sud ouest du Nigeria, appartenaient a la meme sphere socio-culturelle avant le dix-neuvieme siecle apres J.-C. Pourtant, les dimensions spacio-temporelles de cette interaction n'ont pas encore ete entierement comprises, car les sequences archeologiques des regions entre les deux etats restent a decouvrir. L'une de ces regions est Ijesaland. Les fouilles entreprises a Iloyi, situe au nord de Ijesaland, ont divulgue l'information nouvelle sur la sphere d'interaction entre Ife et Benin ainsi que revele des nouvelles interpretations du developpement de l'homogeneisation de la culture materielle dans la region de Yoruba-Edo durant la premiere partie du deuxieme millenaire. Sur la base de tests de carbone, on sait que Iloyi fut occupe de treizieme au seizieme siecle AD. Les caracteristiques stylistiques et iconographiques de la ceramique ainsi que les procedes d'enterrement et les rites de sacrifices laissent a penser que Iloyi etait situe a la frontiere socio-politique et culturelle de Ile-Ife et que Ijesaland faisait partie de la zone culturelle de Ife-Benin. Ceci renforce l'hypothese que le developpement d'une institution royaliste a Ile-Ife a etendu les reseaux d'interaction de cette region—un processus historique qui culmina avec la tendance a l'homogeneisation regionale culturelle du treizieme au seizieme siecles.