Aguata Local Government Area of Anambra State, southeastern Nigeria.
The site was part of the Nri Kingdom, and it was used in the 10th
century AD. The site has several parts, including a main burial, and
associated caches and shrines.
Igbo Ukwu was a burial place for elite personages, and the burials
identified there were interred with a large quantity of costly grave
goods. The principal burial is of a person buried sitting on a stool,
in fine clothing and rich grave effects such as over 150,000 glass
beads, and accompanied by the remains of at least five attendants.
Elaborate cast bronze vases, bowls and ornaments were discovered at
Igbo Ukwe, made with the lost wax technique.
The bronzes are among the earliest cast bronzes in sub-Saharan Africa.
The bronzes were manufactured locally; but the glass beads are an
indication that the Nri Kingdom was also involved in considerable
long-distance trade. One significant thing about Igbo-Ukwu bronze
culture undoubtedly is that it is found in all the migration routes of
the Igbos in all parts of Nigeria. This is coupled with the fact that
Igbo-Ukwu has the largest deposits of bronze so far discovered in
Africa.
The site portray a lot of tourist attractions which gives any tourist
that visit the area an insight of what the Igbo Ukwu people and Igbo
in general where known for.
The Archaeological finds were first discovered at the site in 1939
when an Igbo farmer named Isaiah Anozie chanced upon several bronze
objects as he was digging a cistern to hold water in the dry season.
It was not until 1959 that the archaeologist Thurstan Shaw excavated
the site and discovered that it must have been part of a storehouse
for ritual objects.
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