The Glass Making Crucibles from Ile-Ife, SW Nigeria

Abstract

Crucibles to melt glass are very rare in archaeological contexts in sub-Saharan Africa. Recent archaeological excavations at Igbo Olokun, Ile-Ife (Southwest Nigeria) revealed abundant fragments of glass crucibles from 11th-15th century AD deposits, matching the complete and near complete examples earlier reported from Ile-Ife. This paper provides an in-depth examination of these crucible fragments in order to understand the material quality of the crucibles, their typology, and their functions in glass- working/making. Optical microscopic and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) with energy dispersive spectrometry (EDS) analyses were carried out on ten crucible samples. The composition of ceramic fabrics and the adhering glass are presented and discussed in view of their function. The crucibles were produced from specifically selected highly refractory clay and used for melting glass from its raw materials; colorants were added to the melt in the crucible. The useable capacity of the crucibles varied from 1 to 7 liters, equivalent to about 2.5 to 17.5 kg of finished glass for each crucible. Compositional analysis of a sample of the thousands of glass beads from the excavations indicates that the crucibles were used to melt the glass used in the beads. Archaeological evidence of glass bead making at this scale has not previously been reported from West Africa. The crucibles are unique evidence of indigenous glass-working/making in Sub-Saharan Africa from early through mid-second millennium AD.

Glass Beads, Markers of Ancient Trade in Sub-Saharan Africa: Methodology, State of the Art and Perspectives

“…The skills and tools required for this are easier and hence, beads made of sintered glass are potentially local productions. However, a local production is usually only verified if moulds were found such as at K2 (10th-12th century, South Africa) [120] and Igbo Olokun (11th-15th century, Nigeria) (Table 4) [148]. Comparison of compositions or Raman signatures recorded in many spots on the same bead or preferably compositional mapping and microstructural imaging offer new tools to identify a bead made of sintered glass grains.…”

Igbo-Ukwu at 50: A Symposium on Recent Archaeological Research and Analysis

“…Some of the beads matched the morphology and chemistry of southern African Zhizo-type beads, indicating their far-flung distribution (Dussubieux 2017). High aluminum glasses (HLHA and LLHA) comprise another group (n = 25); these have a distinctive chemistry linked to a source area in and around Ile-Ife, Nigeria (Babalola et al, 2017(Babalola et al, , 2018a(Babalola et al, , 2018bLankton et al, 2006;Ogundiran & Ige, 2015). These beads became widely distributed along the eastern Niger route between the tenth and fifteenth centuries.…”

Some Thoughts on Glass in African Archaeology: An Introduction

“…The article does a fantastic job of presenting some information from this program to enrich the analytical data from both historical and recent experimental materials. On the one hand, comparing the process of glass making in Bida with what unfolded further south in eleventh-century Ile-Ife (Babalola, 2021 ; Babalola et al, 2018 ; Lankton et al, 2006 ) demonstrates the effectiveness of ethnohistory for archaeological interpretation. On the other hand, it reveals how little we know about glass making and working in Africa.…”