The city of Benin in southern Nigeria (not to be confused with the modern Benin) formed the capital of the Kingdom of Benin (or Edo) between about 1200 AD and 1897, when it was sacked and burned by a 'Punitive Expedition' led by Admiral Sir Harry Rawson. Following this event, loot taken from the city was sold by the officers involved to museums across Europe and North America, a group of artefacts known collectively as 'Benin Bronzes' due to the large amount of exquisite bronze-ware among the collections, although the term is used to refer to all looted items from this period, regardless of the material from which they were manufactured.
Gaining the return of these artefacts has been a long term goal for many people in Benin, and indeed Nigeria and the Nigerian diaspora, and many (though not all) western museums have agreed to return objects from their collections. To this end, in 2020 architect Sir David Adjaye was commissioned to design a museum in Benin to house those artefacts, a museum due to open on 11 November 2025, as the Museum of West African Art.
The museum has been built on a site previously occupied by a hospital built in the 1970s, and before that a police barracks from the early twentieth century. Before this, the area had been a part of the historic Palace Complex of Benin, with the clearing and excavation of this site for foundations creating the opportunity for the first major archaeological excavation in Benin for over 50 years.
To this end, the Museum of West African Art Archaeological Project was set up as a collaborative project between the Museum of West African Art, the British Museum, the National Commission for Museums and Monuments, the Cambridge Archaeological Unit, and Wessex Archaeology. This project involved the training and employment of ten early-career Nigerian archaeologists, who were given the opportunity to undertake placements in London, Cambridge and Cyprus, as well as 58 additional fieldwork roles.
In a paper published in the journal Antiquity on 23 October 2025, Caleb Folorunso of the Museum of West African Art and the University of Ibadan, Sam Nixon of the Department of Africa, Oceania and Americas at the British Museum, Segun Opadeji, also of the Museum of West African Art, Abidemi Babalola, also of the Department of Africa, Oceania and Americas at the British Museum, Charles Le Quesne, again of the Museum of West African Art, Anna Adamu of the National Commission for Museums and Monuments, Marcus Brittain and Matthew Brudenell, of the Cambridge Archaeological Unit at the University of Cambridge, and Chris Breeden of Wessex Archaeology, present the initial results of the archaeological work at the Museum of West African Art site.
A series of pits at the site reached a maximum depth of 3.0 m, with straitified cultural layers reaching to depths of between 1.45 and 1.60 m. The oldest radiocarbon dates obtained came from the first millennium AD, although these were below any cultural layer. The main settlement layers begin in the mid fourteenth century, progress through a peak cultural stage in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, recording the palace through to its destruction in 1897, and above this layers associated with the colonial police barracks and post-colonial hospital.
The area excavated covered a large portion of the former complex, including the 'wives quarter' or erie, a zone formerly occupied by a number of shrines, as well as a number of other buildings recorded on nineteenth century maps. A number of walls and floors from the earliest phases of occupation were excavated and examined, with final phase, eighteenth and nineteenth century buildings following the same axis as earlier buildings, implying a continuity in urban planning. The wives quarter was surrounded by a substantial earthen wall and a large wooden gate, close to which was a 5 m pit, which may have served as a source of building material.
The large excavated building contained substantial evidence of ritual activities at the site, including upturned pots, caches of Cowrie shells (also in pots), and moulded chalk arrangements, and is interpreted to have been a shrine. This building also contained over 100 glass bottles, most of which appear to have contained gin, with trade marks such as Africana, Van Hoytema, and Van Marken. These were found alongside Giant Snail shells and quantities of iron, making it likely that they were offerings at a shrine.
The excavations also uncovered evidence of artisanal activity, including pits containing charcoal and traces of metal slag, thought to date from the nineteenth century. Also found were pieces of crucibles and fragments of copper alloys, although these are still under investigation. Over 120 000 pieces of pottery and ceramics were unearthed, including imported glazed wares, although most were of local origin. Other finds included smoking pipes, beads, glass bottles and metal objects. The ceramic fragments appear to represent a sequence, which has the potential to be developed and applied to other sites, although this is also still being worked on. Plant remains include crops such as Oil Palm, Pearl Millet, Cotton, and Foxtail Millet. Many pollen samples have also been collected, which in combination have the potential to shed light on changing agricultural practices and diet over the history of the site.
Post 1897 finds at the site include a European cemetery, believed to have been founded shortly after the fall of the city and now mapped for the first time. A building complex made from mud bricks with mortar, interpreted as a potential early governor's residence, and a cache of colonial era police regalia.
While the window of opportunity for excavations was short, and studies of the excavated material are still ongoing, the Museum of West African Art Archaeology Project is already the most comprehensive archaeological study of the City of Benin, providing new information on all eras including the Kingdom of Benin in the immediate pre-conquest phase and the early colonial period. The project has the potential to greatly improve our understanding of urbanism, architecture, artisanal practice, ritual, trade, diet and the environment of pre-colonial Nigeria. The work has the potential to help establish the Museum of West African Art as a new, world class, research centre.
The Museum of West African Art was due to open on 11 November 2025, however, that opening has now been delayed, following a series of protests at the site on Sunday 9 November. These protests centre around the ownership of artefacts within the museum, many of which were looted by the British military in 1897. Many local people believe that these artefacts should be returned to the Kingdom of Benin, and therefore be placed in the custody of the current traditional ruler of the city, His Royal Majesty, Omo N’Oba N’Edo, Uku Akpolokpolo, Oba Ewuare II (CFR), the Oba of Benin.
The Museum of West African Art is a Federal Nigerian institution, and the protesters felt that, in containing objects they associate with the traditional office of the Oba, the museum was falsely presenting itself as a royal institution. The museum itself insists that it does not own any of the objects within it, but merely acts as a repository, exhibition centre, and place of study. This enables it to hold artefacts which European institutions have only returned on 'permanent loan', as well as exhibitions of art from other countries, or modern artists.
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