The Omi-Ọṣun ruins are the remains of an ancient settlement of the Òkè-Ìlá Òràngún kingdom, located along the Omi-Ọsun river in southwestern

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 ...

. The ruins consist of remnants of ancient walls,

potsherds This page is a glossary of archaeology, the study of the human past from material remains. A B C D E F ...

, and other

relics In religion, a relic is an object or article of religious significance from the past. It usually consists of the physical remains of a saint or the personal effects of the saint or venerated person preserved for purposes of veneration as a tangi ...

. Much of the site complex is currently overgrown with thicket, but large portions are being used as farmland. Efforts have been made since the late 1970s to persuade the paramount ruler and the local population to protect the remaining ruins from destruction by farming activity, building, and road construction. These efforts received an authoritatitive boost when the main advocate of the

conservation Conservation is the preservation or efficient use of resources, or the conservation of various quantities under physical laws. Conservation may also refer to: Environment and natural resources * Nature conservation, the protection and manageme ...

of the

ruins Ruins () are the remains of a civilization's architecture. The term refers to formerly intact structures that have fallen into a state of partial or total disrepair over time due to a variety of factors, such as lack of maintenance, deliberate ...

, a geologist/geophysicist with archaeological interests, was installed into the royal

dynastic A dynasty is a sequence of rulers from the same family,''Oxford English Dictionary'', "dynasty, ''n''." Oxford University Press (Oxford), 1897. usually in the context of a monarchical system, but sometimes also appearing in republics. A d ...

position of the Oba'lumo, which provided him with increased access to the royal councils of the

Orangun {{Yoruba people Orangun or Ọ̀ràngún is the title of the paramount ruler of one of the ancient Igbomina kingdoms, a sub group of the Yoruba people with its seat and capital located in Ila Orangun, central Yorubaland, presently in southwestern Ni ...

, the paramount king of the region. Omi-Ọṣun was a refuge used by the people of Oke-Ila during various wars and raids that necessitated the evacuation of the city of Oke-Ila. Omi-Ọṣun was finally abandoned by the

Oke-Ila Òkè-Ìlá Òràngún (often abbreviated as Òkè-Ìlá) is an ancient city in southwestern Nigeria that was capital of the middle-age Igbomina-Yoruba city-state of the same name. Òkè-Ìlá is a city in Ọṣun State, Nigeria. It is sit ...

Orangun kingdom about after the Peace Treaties at the end of the Yoruba wars of the 19th Century permitted the return to a safe Oke-Ila city. The Omi-Ọṣun ruins are currently of interest to

archeologists Archaeology or archeology is the scientific study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of artifacts, architecture, biofacts or ecofacts, sites, and cultural landscape ...

reconstructing the history of the region's

ancient Ancient history is a time period from the History of writing, beginning of writing and recorded human history to as far as late antiquity. The span of recorded history is roughly 5,000 years, beginning with the Sumerian language, Sumerian c ...

settlements and the development of the

Igbomina The Ìgbómìnà (also colloquially Igboona or Ogboona) are a subgroup of the Yoruba ethnic group, which originates from the north central and southwest Nigeria. They speak a dialect also called Ìgbómìnà or Igbonna, classified among the Cent ...

of north central

Yorubaland Yorubaland () is the homeland and cultural region of the Yoruba people in West Africa. It spans the modern-day countries of Nigeria, Togo and Benin, and covers a total land area of 142,114 km2 or about 60% of the land area of Ghana. Of this ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Omi-Osun Ruins Ila kingdom