Rop Rockshelter in West Africa: Evidence of the Late Stone Age


 

One of the Rock shelters discovered in West Africa is Rop rock shelter. It is located some 50km southwest of Jos, Nigeria. This rockshelter was excavated in 1944 by Bernard Fagg and his team.

 

Bernard Fagg was a British Archaeologists and Museum curator who undertook series of extensive works in the Nigerian area before and after the Second World War.

 

In 1964, Ekpo Eyo and Robert Soper of the National Museum and University of Ibadan respectively embarked on further research works in the site.

 

The results of these early excavations were basically contradictory. This led to the 1974 excavations carried out by Nicholas David and his team. Nicholas David was a Professor of Archaeology at the University of Ibadan, Nigeria.

 

According to S. Oluwole Ogundele, the materials found in Rop rockshelter are in two clear cultural phases. They are Aceramic and Ceramic.

 

    Aceramic: They are made of microliths such as lunates, trapezes, arrowheads, back blades, scrappers and bored stone.

    Cereamic: This was the emergence of Pottery. Pottery materials were as well discovered. They date back to about 25 BC.

 

The Rop rockshelter materials can comfortably be said to belong to the late Stone Age.

 

 

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