Of course. Here is a blog post for the first topic on your list. I will proceed to write the subsequent posts in sequence.

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1. c. 9000 BC – 2000 BC: Evidence of some of the oldest archaeological finds in West Africa, including the Iwo Eleru cave (mesolithic skeletons).

When we think of Nigerian history, our minds often leap to the great empires of the Middle Ages—Benin, Oyo, Kanem-Bornu—or the tumultuous events of the colonial and post-colonial eras. But the true beginning of Nigeria’s story is far older, rooted in a deep, ancient past that stretches back to the very dawn of human settlement in West Africa. This story begins not with written records, but with stones and bones, unearthed from the earth to tell a tale of survival and adaptation. The most significant window into this distant epoch is the Iwo Eleru cave, a site that fundamentally reshaped our understanding of early human history in the region.

Discovered in 1965 near the village of Iwo Eleru in present-day Ondo State, southwestern Nigeria, this rock shelter is not merely an archaeological site; it is a time capsule. The excavations, led by Chief (Dr.) Timothy Insoll and later re-analyzed by a team including Prof. K. Harvati, revealed something extraordinary: the skeletal remains of a human who lived approximately 11,000 to 16,000 years ago. This individual, often referred to as the “Iwo Eleru man,” represents one of the oldest sets of human remains ever found in West Africa.

The significance of this discovery cannot be overstated. For a long time, the narrative of human prehistory in sub-Saharan Africa was overly simplistic. The continent was seen as the cradle of humanity, but complex societal developments were often thought to have occurred elsewhere before being imported. Iwo Eleru challenged this by providing concrete evidence of a sustained human presence during the Mesolithic period (Middle Stone Age). This was a time when humans were transitioning from nomadic hunter-gatherer lifestyles to more settled communities, developing more sophisticated stone tools and beginning to shape their environment more directly.

The artifacts found within the cave layers tell a story of a resourceful people. They crafted microliths—small, finely worked stone tools that were often hafted onto wood or bone to create composite weapons like spears, arrows, and harpoons. This technological leap was crucial for efficient hunting and food processing. The presence of these tools at Iwo Eleru indicates that its inhabitants were not primitive brutes but skilled artisans who had adapted perfectly to their forest-savannah environment. They hunted the game that roamed the land, gathered edible plants, fruits, and nuts, and utilized the shelter the cave provided for thousands of years.

Perhaps the most groundbreaking aspect of the Iwo Eleru findings emerged from modern scientific analysis. In 2011, a detailed re-examination of the skull using 3D imaging and comparative morphology revealed a startling fact. The cranial features of the Iwo Eleru individual did not neatly match those of modern West Africans. Instead, they showed a distinct morphology, suggesting that this person belonged to a very early, and possibly relict, human population that may have been widespread in Africa before the expansion of the ancestors of modern humans. This implies a more complex, layered history of human migration and interaction within Africa itself. It suggests that the peopling of West Africa was not a single event but a long process involving different groups, some of whom may have left a trace in the deep ancestral DNA of modern Nigerians.

The world of the Iwo Eleru people was vastly different from today’s Nigeria. The climate was cooler and drier, as the planet was still emerging from the last Ice Age. The Sahara Desert was far more extensive than it is today, pushing the more habitable savannah and forest zones further south. In this landscape, sites like Iwo Eleru would have been vital oases of life, supporting communities of early humans who were laying the foundational stones for all that was to come.

The legacy of Iwo Eleru is profound. It pushes the documented history of human habitation in Nigeria back by millennia, firmly establishing the region as a continuous theatre of human life and innovation. It reminds us that long before kings and kingdoms, before bronze-casting and international trade, there were people here—resilient, intelligent, and adaptable. They were the true pioneers, the first Nigerians, whose story is silently inscribed in the layers of soil and the fragments of bone they left behind. Their existence forms the unspoken prologue to the epic of Nigeria, a testament to the deep and enduring human spirit that has characterized this land for over ten thousand years.

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