The Apapa Hoard is an important collection of medieval bronze jewellery found at
Apapa
Apapa is a Local Government Area in Lagos, located to the west of Lagos Island. Apapa contains a number of ports and terminals operated by the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), including the major port of Lagos State and Lagos Port Complex (LPC ...
near
Lagos
Lagos (Nigerian English: ; ) is the largest city in Nigeria and the second most populous city in Africa, with a population of 15.4 million as of 2015 within the city proper. Lagos was the national capital of Nigeria until December 1991 fo ...
, Nigeria. Dating to the early 16th Century, the hoard has been part of the
British Museum
The British Museum is a public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is among the largest and most comprehensive in existence. It docum ...
's collection since 1930.
Description
Items from the treasure consist entirely of bronze
jewellery
Jewellery ( UK) or jewelry (U.S.) consists of decorative items worn for personal adornment, such as brooches, rings, necklaces, earrings, pendants, bracelets, and cufflinks. Jewellery may be attached to the body or the clothes. From a wester ...
. They include a pair of wire bracelets, two bracelets designed in the form of interlocking animals, two
staff-mounts with
pendant
A pendant is a loose-hanging piece of jewellery, generally attached by a small loop to a necklace, which may be known as a "pendant necklace". A pendant earring is an earring with a piece hanging down. Its name stems from the Latin word ' ...
bells, two ring-shaped armlets, a group of bells, a ring with cascabels and a
breast plate in the shape of a ram's head with pendant bells. The latter object is the most prestigious item from the hoard and is one of the finest cast bronzes ever found in southern
Nigeria
Nigeria ( ), , ig, Naìjíríyà, yo, Nàìjíríà, pcm, Naijá , ff, Naajeeriya, kcg, Naijeriya officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a country in West Africa. It is situated between the Sahel to the north and the Gulf o ...
.
British Museum Collection
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Discovery
The hoard was discovered by accident in 1907 when a well
A well is an excavation or structure created in the ground by digging, driving, or drilling to access liquid resources, usually water. The oldest and most common kind of well is a water well, to access groundwater in underground aquifers. The ...
was being dug to a depth of 3 metres. The jewellery would have been worn by an elite member of a local tribe living in 15th-16th centuries and has been attributed by scholars to the Yoruba Kingdom of Owo, which was for a long time under the control of the Benin Empire. Soon after its discovery, the hoard was acquired by a private collector who later sold it to the British Museum in 1930.
See also
*Bronze Head from Ife
The Bronze Head from Ife, or Ife Head, is one of eighteen copper alloy sculptures that were unearthed in 1938 at Ife in Nigeria, the religious and former royal centre of the Yoruba people. It is believed to represent a king. It was probably ma ...
* Bronze Head of Queen Idia
References
{{reflist
Further reading
*Mack J (ed), Africa, Arts and Cultures, London 2005
*Fagg WB, 'A bronze breastplate from Lagos, British Museum Quarterly, Vol V, 1930
*Fagg WB, Nigerian Images, London Lund Humphries, 1963
Benin art
Ethnographic objects in the British Museum
African objects in the British Museum
Nigerian art
Bronze sculptures in the United Kingdom
Yoruba art
Nigeria–United Kingdom relations