Igbo Ukwu is notable for three archaeological sites, where bronze artifacts dating to as early as 9th century AD were found. These artifacts were considered important, particularly in showing that the people who once settled in the area had established a complex religious system and an economy based on agriculture and trade with other African peoples as far as the Nile valley.
The first archaeological site was uncovered in 1938, when an Igbo farmer chanced on several bronze objects as he was digging a cistern to hold water in the dry season. It was not until 1959 that the archaeologist Thurstan Shaw excavated this site and discovered that it must have been part of a storehouse for ritual objects.
Dated to the 9th or 10th century A.D., Igbo Ukwu represents one of the earliest examples of bronze casting in sub-Saharan Africa.
The Igbo Ukwu site contained an elite burial and shrine complex. It held the earliest known examples of copper alloy or bronze casting in Sub Saharan Africa. The site also increased historians’ understanding of both art and culture of West African civilizations.
