Ngodo(Ngodo Ancient kingdom) is an Igbo community in
Uturu
Uturu is a town located within latitudes 05.33°N and 06.03°N, in the northern part of Abia State, Nigeria. It is in the transition from rural to urban status, so it is witnessing many development activities. It is popularly known as a locatio ...
,
Isuikwuato Local Government Area,
Abia State
Abia is a state in the Southeastern region of Nigeria. The state's capital is Umuahia and its most populous city is Aba.
Abia is bordered the west by Imo, east by Cross River, south by Rivers, northwest by Anambra and northeast by Enug ...
in
Nigeria
Nigeria, officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a country in West Africa. It is situated between the Sahel to the north and the Gulf of Guinea in the Atlantic Ocean to the south. It covers an area of . With Demographics of Nigeria, ...
which houses a stone age site that provides evidence that humans inhabited the region as far back as 250,000 years ago. It was the largest handaxe factory in Nigeria, and possibly in the world.
[
The site at NGODO-Uturu, which lies on a ]dolerite
Diabase (), also called dolerite () or microgabbro,
is a mafic, holocrystalline, subvolcanic rock equivalent to volcanic basalt or plutonic gabbro. Diabase dikes and sills are typically shallow intrusive bodies and often exhibit fine-grain ...
ridge, was excavated between 1977 and 1981.[
Archaeologists were led to the site by local people who were aware of the unusual artifacts to be found.
The northern end of the site held a huge accumulation of stone-age artifacts up to 6 meters in depth.
There was no pottery and no polished stone tools, but there were triangular preforms for bifacial tools as well as many flakes and some cores.
Handaxes, mostly broken, accounted for four out of five of the tools, and there were also cleavers, picks and sidescrapers. Based on this mix, the site has been classified as ]Acheulean
Acheulean (; also Acheulian and Mode II), from the French after the type site of Saint-Acheul, is an archaeological industry of stone tool manufacture characterized by the distinctive oval and pear-shaped "hand axes" associated with ''Homo ...
.
It is possible that these tools were rough or unsuccessful attempts, and the successful tools were carried elsewhere to be refined further.[
There are three layers of occupation. The oldest and lowest holds quartz flakes, small stone tools and points. Above that is a layer with hoe-like tools, polished stone axes, red ochre, bored stone and red pottery.
The top level, with dates between 2935 BC and 15 AD, held grey pottery wares.]
History
The site at NGODO-Uturu, which lies on a dolerite
Diabase (), also called dolerite () or microgabbro,
is a mafic, holocrystalline, subvolcanic rock equivalent to volcanic basalt or plutonic gabbro. Diabase dikes and sills are typically shallow intrusive bodies and often exhibit fine-grain ...
ridge, was excavated between 1977 and 1981. Archaeologists were led to the site by local people who were aware of the unusual artifacts to be found. The northern end of the site held a huge accumulation of stone-age artifacts up to 6 meters in depth. There was no pottery and no polished stone tools, but there were triangular preforms for bifacial tools as well as many flakes and some cores. Handaxes, mostly broken, accounted for four out of five of the tools, and there were also cleavers, picks and sidescrapers. Based on this mix, the site has been classified as Acheulean
Acheulean (; also Acheulian and Mode II), from the French after the type site of Saint-Acheul, is an archaeological industry of stone tool manufacture characterized by the distinctive oval and pear-shaped "hand axes" associated with ''Homo ...
. It is possible that these tools were rough or unsuccessful attempts, and the successful tools were carried elsewhere to be refined further.
There are three layers of occupation. The oldest and lowest holds quartz flakes, small stone tools and points. Above that is a layer with hoe-like tools, polished stone axes, red ochre, bored stone and red pottery. The top level, with dates between 2935 BC and 15 AD, held grey pottery wares.
References
{{Archaeological sites in Nigeria
Archaeological sites in Nigeria
Archaeological sites of Western Africa