The Apapa Hoard is an important collection of medieval bronze jewellery found at
Apapa near
Lagos
Lagos (Nigerian English: ; ) is the largest city in Nigeria and the List of cities in Africa by population, second most populous city in Africa, with a population of 15.4 million as of 2015 within the city proper. Lagos was the national ca ...
, 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 bells, two ring-shaped armlets, a group of bells, a ring with cascabels and a
breast plate
A breastplate or chestplate is a device worn over the torso to protect it from injury, as an item of religious significance, or as an item of status. A breastplate is sometimes worn by mythological beings as a distinctive item of clothing. It is ...
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
The Yoruba people (, , ) are a West African ethnic group that mainly inhabit parts of Nigeria, Benin, and Togo. The areas of these countries primarily inhabited by Yoruba are often collectively referred to as Yorubaland. The Yoruba constitute ...
Kingdom of Owo
Owo is a local government area in Ondo state, Nigeria. Between 1400 and 1600 CE, it was the capital of a Yoruba city-state. The local government area has a population of 222,262 based on 2006 population census.
History
In their oral traditi ...
, which was for a long time under the control of the Benin Empire
The Kingdom of Benin, also known as the Edo Kingdom, or the Benin Empire ( Bini: ') was a kingdom within what is now southern Nigeria. It has no historical relation to the modern republic of Benin, which was known as Dahomey from the 17th c ...
. 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 mad ...
*Bronze Head of Queen Idia
The Bronze Head of Queen Idia is a commemorative bronze head from the medieval Kingdom of Benin in West Africa that probably represents Idia, mother of Oba Esigie, made during the early sixteenth century at the Benin court. Many Benin works of a ...
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