Early Settlements of the Benin Region

Timeline

1. c. 500–800Northern edge of the Niger Delta · Edo StateArchaeology and oral traditions indicate that during the first millennium CE the Edo region had village clusters based on iron smelting, agriculture, and fishing and hunting along tributaries of the Ube and Orimi rivers, forming a dispersed forest-edge settlement network.
2. 801–850Igodomigodo · Edo StateEdo oral history records that around the 9th century several village alliances, ruled by hereditary chiefs called Ogiso, merged into the Igodomigodo polity, began building earthen defensive and ritual centers, and settlements transitioned from villages toward towns.
3. 851–900Inland routes of the Bight of Benin · NigeriaIn the late 9th century settlements traded palm oil, ivory, ironware, and salt with Yoruba and Igbo regions via the Bight of Benin coast; bronze casting and ivory carving crafts specialized, and wealth accumulation drove the concentration of chiefly power and the expansion of ritual architecture.
4. c. 901–1180Site of Benin City · Edo StateAfter the 10th century the Oba dynasty replaced Ogiso rule, and the core of the early settlement expanded into the planned city of Benin City, with walls, palaces, and a street system built; the early settlement thus evolved into an important political and cultural center of medieval West Africa.